INNOVARCH is an educational project not only aimed to propose new contents for the European Higher Education curriculum for archaeology, but also to propose which are the most appropriate educational methodologies for the acquisition of professional skills and competences related to Public Archaeology training. Educational materials elaborated by INNOVARCH follow the “Project Based Learning” approach as described by Stauffacher et alii (2006):
- Focus in the case or the problem that students try to define and solve, and the problem drives the learning process INNOVARCH CASE STUDIES
- Learning is cooperative, with students working in groups and with people from outside academia INNOVARCH AUDIOVISUAL MATERIAL
"Complex real-world problems necessitate that actors or stakeholders from outside the university are integrated into the problem-solving process because they have concrete system knowledge and their preferences are crucial in the implementation process. As they do not all follow the same rationality, their interests and goals influence the perception of the problem. Transdisciplinary research supplements traditional disciplinary and interdisciplinary scientific activities by integrating actors from outside academia. Researchers go beyond science. Integration of knowledge from different sources becomes important, where the border between knowledge and interests gets blurred as various types of knowledge are integrated in addition to scientific knowledge. “Reality” as such, is replaced by a constructivist view. Different views of reality need to be negotiated and integrated."
Stauffacher, M., Walter, A. I., Lang, D. J., Wiek, A., & Scholz, R. W. (2006). Learning to research environmental problems from a functional socio-cultural constructivism perspective: the transdisciplinary case study approach. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 7(3), 252-275.
