Inter- and transdisciplinary teaching in Real-World Laboratories

Real-World Laboratories are places of learning that facilitate educational processes among the stakeholders involved, Providing "a supportive, protected setting for information, discussion, collaboration, intervention, evaluation, and reflection" (Beecroft et al. 2018:83; for a discussion of educational goals in Real-World Laboratories, see Schneidewind, Singer-Brodowski 2015; Singer-Brodowski et al. 2018).
System, orientation (or goal) and transformation knowledge, which are characteristic of transformative research, are complemented by process knowledge. It is the knowledge about how projects are to be implemented so that the initiated transformative processes succeed and can be reproduced in other contexts (Nanz, Renn, Lawrence 2017; Lawrence et al. 2022).

But Real-World Laboratories also open up new possibilities for university and college teaching and create spaces for experimentation (Beecroft 2018; Albiez et al. 2016; West 2018; Beecroft 2020). Students get involved in the research process through a variety of teaching formats. Research-based learning in the Real-World Laboratory is interdisciplinary, practice-oriented, collaborative, and participatory. This enables students to be adequately prepared to meet the major challenges of the 21^st century.

The University used the Real-World Laboratory platform to host a series of course-related teaching events and project work organized by the participating disciplines. For example, seminars were presented

at the Real-World Laboratory for Sustainable Mobility Culture

• • on Mapping Movement and Provisional Architecture (info, in collaboration with the Stuttgart Technology University of Applied Sciences) at the University of Stuttgart’s Institute of Urban Planning and Design
  • Student project work on the development of on-campus mobility experiments at the University of Stuttgart’s Institute of Human Factors and Technology Management (IAT),
  • the LOKAL Schützenplatz project at the Institute of Landscape Planning and Ecology;

at the City:quarters 4.0 Real-World Laboratory

• • SUE –total digital with Exhibition,
  • Lehrforschung Stadt selbst gedacht;

at the City - Space - Education Real-Word Laboratory

• • The OLD School – new learning.

The Real-World Laboratories also offered and continue to offer subjects and material for numerous qualifications (bachelor's and master's theses).

A new teaching format initiated by the IZKT, which is based on a close collaboration between researchers and students from various disciplines as well as on discussions with practitioners, offered as an interdisciplinary key competencies (FÜSQ) was piloted at the Real-World Laboratory for Sustainable Mobility Culture (Uhl 2018:125; Pfau, Uhl 2020). The new format focuses on a research assignment in an urban space, which students complete in interdisciplinary teams after being introduced to the applicable theoretical and methodological approaches. Working closely within the Real-World Laboratory process, the seminars picked up on certain impulses and their results had a direct impact on its course. A summary of experiences gained in the design and implementation of inter- and transdisciplinary seminars and knowledge transfer projects has been published in a "Guide for Transdisciplinary Projects” (Uhl 2018, pdf).

Experiences gained in the Real-World Laboratory can be used to support "the systematic implementation of inter- and transdisciplinary, research-oriented teaching in support of sustainability education", because "[it] makes an innovative contribution towards a specific teaching culture", which has been called for in, for example, the National Action Plan on Education for Sustainable Development (BMBF 2017: 54). However, in the longer term, these would also require appropriate structures, incentive schemes, exam regulations, and career opportunities at universities and colleges" (Uhl 2018:129; see also Beecroft 2018: Albiez et al. 2018).

Some of the important steps we see happening at the University in this direction are the Stuttgart Change Labs cross-faculty project as well as the activities of the newly founded Green Office. Both support interdisciplinary, project- and problem-based teaching and learning initiatives as well as the concrete implementation of student projects relating to sustainability.