A new way of understanding and apprehending complexity is being sought. The major problem facing science today is to cope successfully with the increasing complexity of society. Of course, reduction is possible, but it will be the complexity that will make us see whether the reduction is pernicious or not. Complexity stands as a judge not only of the applications of the method of science, but also of its very essence. The world is like a complex being, which can be broken down into many parts, interconnected in a wide variety of ways, often difficult to pin down. Our sense of inadequacy pushes us towards fragmented knowledge; each important part generates one or more different disciplines or subjects of study. We live in a world, which in turn is a system, full of systems. To act efficiently and responsibly in this world, we need appropriate techniques and tools to help us understand and manage the systems and sub-systems that make it up. This is what systems thinking is all about. Society has problems and seeks solutions, for which it invents the Scientific Method, but this is incapable of dealing with complex problems and social issues; thinking based on systemic concepts and ideas is more adequate.
The complexity of the phenomena corresponding to the Restricted Sciences, such as Physics or Chemistry, did not call into question the validity of the scientific method, but the complexity of those corresponding to the Unrestricted Sciences (such as Biology or Geology within the field of Natural Sciences; or Anthropology or Sociology or Political Sciences from the field of Social Sciences) did. At its most abstract level, systems thinking encompasses a wide and heterogeneous range of methods, tools and principles, all aimed at examining or studying the interrelationship of forces that are part of the common process. This field includes cybernetics and chaos theory, guestaltic therapy, the work of Gregory Bateson, Russel Ackoff, Eric Trist, Ludwig Von Bertallanfy and the Santa Fe Institute, among others. These different approaches share a common guiding idea: the behaviour of all systems appears to follow certain common principles, the nature of which we are discovering and analysing. It is argued that the problem of knowledge is not to try to know the totality; it is better to change the idea of knowledge and what should be done is to try to understand systems. To understand the system, it is necessary to understand the nature of interdependence: the greater the interdependence, the greater the need for communication and cooperation. General Systems Theory would be able to integrate the abstract models and generalisations that cybernetics and related disciplines have developed, and would truly represent a rational and all-encompassing alternative that would overcome the current inadequacies of mechanicism. The vision of the world as one big organisation would be raised.
The original Aristotelian ideas would be taken up again by considering every entity as a system, that is, as universes or sets of elements (matter) provided with structure (form); and, evidently, the elements of the universe of a system can themselves be systems (structured sets). The relationships between the various components of an organisational system, which produces desired and undesired results, must be understood. A system only exists when its components relate to each other in pursuit of a common end; without a common end, there would be no system, implying that there would be nothing more than a series of a disjointed, even individually competitive, elements or components. The systems thinker must see the patterns and structures of the organisation over time from the top or from the outside, with a (systemic or holistic) perspective without losing sight of the details of processes, resources and people.
The Linguistics, Discourse and Cognition Research Group, LINDICO, assumes cognitive approaches to combine at all times strictly theoretical linguistic reflection with the necessary promotion of various applied fields, from the conviction that the ultimate goal of the (necessary) grammatical and pragmatic theory is to serve as a basis for subsequent applications and actions of scientific transferability to society.
Although the research caarried out by the members of the group in the different competitive R&D projects covers many fields, the most consolidated studies refer mainly to two lines of work: the field of clinical linguistics and the analysis of political and media discourse. Throughout its trajectory, the group has been consolidating its own theoretical model, with a pragmatic-functionalist orientation, which is framed within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. Thus, the theoretical areas addressed include all the disciplines of linguistics: phonology, morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics, typology and universals, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. The applied fields include, among others:
- Analysis of discourse in the public sphere, according to different variables and context (politcal discourse, media discourse, digital discourse), with special attention to the argumentation and persuasion that pragmatically characterise the registers of the media and political issuers (parties and leaders) in the different media and communication channels (written press, social media, television, advertising and propaganda, etc.).
- Clinical linguistics: description of language (grammar and pragmatics) in different pathological situations based on ecological data. This line of research has resulted in initiatives such as
- the elaboration of specific corpora of child language and deficient language based on ecological data;
- the description of the language of pathological situations such as aphasia, Williams syndrome, ADHD, Alzheimer's type dementias, or right hemisphere lesions;
- the development of various language assessment tests and profiles, and of communication guides for interlocutors of speakers with deficits.
All these lines of research are complemented by the appropriate R&D&I dissemination and management activities, such as conferences, seminars, etc.
The group's research focuses on different aspects related to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) during school age.
One of the most intense topics for the group is the analysis of the neuropsychological profile of children diagnosed with ASD. In this regard, we conducted different evaluations of executive functioning and language in children with ASD, with the intention of analysing and describing the different variables assessed and relating them to other constructs, such as school content knowledge (mainly reading, writing and mathematics), as well as the severity of ASD symptoms.
We are also interested in analysing the impact that the diagnosis of ASD in one of the children has on the families, through the evaluation of parental stress, coping strategies and resilience indicators. We also take a broader view in which we try to identify and analyse some of the barriers to the educational and social inclusion of people with ASD. In this line, we analyse the social image of ASD projected by powerful agents such as television, cinema, the press and social networks.
Finally, the most ambitious objective of the group is to elaborate proposals for psycho-pedagogical intervention based on the knowledge generated from the evaluation of the students. These proposals will be addressed to teachers who regularly teach students with ASD in their classrooms, both specialist teachers (therapeutic pedagogy and hearing and language teachers), as well as tutors and specialists in the different curricular areas.
The group that we present arises from the sum of professors-researchers of the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Sciences of the Universitat de València who belong to the Departments of Research Methods and Diagnosis in Education (MIDE) and Comparative Education and History of Education (ECHE). This union is consolidated with the individual verification, after several years of relevant experiences in research projects, that working in collaborative projects would provide us with a more holistic and complementary vision of the educational research contexts in which we work, enriching our proposals and results.
Furthermore, due to the affinity of our lines of study, as well as the common objectives that we have as professionals in the field of education, we believe that the unification in a working group will achieve these objectives with greater success, as the infrastructures and structures will be expanded from different contact networks, proposals for actions, perspectives for in-depth work and expansion of the educational field, etc.
The researchers who make up the research team are full-time teaching and research staff with permanent employment or statutory links to the Universitat de València, as well as a part-time doctoral research staff member who has been a contracted professional at the Universitat de València since the 2004 academic year. This research activity focuses, on the one hand, on the need that we detect in different contexts of educational action (diagnosis, intervention, evaluation, history, etc.) to develop differential research processes.
And, on the other hand, in the differential response or result that we find if we take into account the existence of differences in and between people and between groups of people and the contexts in which they find themselves. These differences include physical, psychic, psychological and emotional differences, as well as social, cultural, gender and age differences.
Diversity, from an inclusive education perspective, provides our research with a systemic and interactive set of educational variables that must be investigated in an inclusive manner and from the multidimensional perspective that the individual and social development of people in any educational process requires. Thus, we start from a wide and varied range of possibilities for our research, which we focus both on issues of inequality and on issues of evaluative research as a procedure for implementing, managing and providing information to improve education and training processes.
Impact Indexes:
- X-index 7 in Google Scholar. i10-index total of 4. (Amparo Pérez Carbonell);
- X-index 6 in Google Scholar. i10-index total of 5. (Inmaculada Chiva Sanchis)
- X-index 9 in Google Scholar. i10-index total of 9. (María Jesús Martínez Usarralde)
- X-index 5 in Google Scholar. i10-index total of 5. (Genoveva Ramos Santana)
We are a multidisciplinary study and research group in the field of education at the Universitat de València. Although we carry out research on different topics, we have in common a critical and post-critical epistemological view of education. Taking these elements as a starting point, we have been moving towards a commitment to a different way of understanding research, clearly linked to social transformation. Cooperation, the exchange of scripts and proposals and the dialogic circle are the strategies that accompany us.
Our lines of research are directed towards the initial and ongoing training of educators in various socio-educational contexts. Narrative research, experience and the educational relationship are our tools for advancing research in the fields of education, knowledge and emancipation.
Academic production should free itself from an unhealthy individualistic tradition, therefore, we are committed to the creation of spaces in which to enable curating, reflection and collective creation. In this sense, the group reflects a diversity of situations and stages in research. Some of the members of the group have already defended their theses and others are in the process of writing them.
The coordination of the group is based, in particular, on defining the problems and difficulties in educational research.
With regard to the motivations of this group for research into music teaching and learning processes, it should be noted that the practical music teaching institutions have been distanced from research into specific music teaching and learning processes. This has not been so much due to their own decision or to the lack of research training of Spanish conservatory teachers -which is a fact-, but rather to the scant importance given to music studies in the different reforms of the Spanish educational system until the LOGSE, as well as to the traditional separation between music practice and research, the former being relegated to music conservatories and the latter to the university. What is more, after the establishment of the so-called Higher Artistic Education within the European Higher Education Area, neither the LOE -and even less the LOMCE- have established effective mechanisms for the research training of music conservatory teachers. As a result, there is a lack of research in conservatories and, as a consequence, little knowledge of what really happens in the teaching and learning processes.
We believe that this is a very important area of expertise in the training of individuals, in addition to its importance in the training of musicians and music teachers. The members of this research group have a long-established track record in different fields of music. Thus, research has been carried out on training processes in music education; on the influence of the use of score editors on the formation of mental images of sound in students; on the effect of multimodal presentations of musical information versus unimodal presentations; on the effects of different modes of information presentation on the learning of musical parameters (texture, melody, rhythm.... ); on the creation of specific software for certain musical tasks and its effects on musical learning; on the influence of music in the media on the stereotypes of primary school pupils; on the use of technology as a mediator in the development of musical skills. All this is materialised in an extensive quality scientific production (publications in impact journals indexed in JCR and Scopus) in the sub-disciplines of music technology, music education, musical creativity, musical performativity and musical cognition. They have also executed European, American (Organización Estados Americanos, CONICYT), national (Plan Nacional i+d+i, FNEA, FONDEF-TIC-EDU (Chile), Fondo Nacional de la Cultura de Chile) and regional (C.Valenciana, Gobierno de La Rioja, Gobierno Vasco, Junta de Andalucía) projects. The members of the group have directed doctoral theses and works related to the aforementioned fields, including works derived from the training capacity of the groups executing R&D projects.
The lines of the group are related to training processes for music education teachers; music education processes in non-formal contexts; dynamisation processes in socio-educational projects through music; technology in music education; software design for music education; science-art interaction; musical performativity and creation.
The master's degrees and postgraduate and doctoral programmes in which members of this group have participated are: Postgraduate course of musical specialisation: ENSENYAMENT MUSICAL MIJANÇANT L'ORDINADOR (UPV-GVA); Postgraduate course of musical specialisation: INFORMÁTICA MUSICAL (Xunta Galicia-U. de A Coruña); Postgraduate course of musical specialisation: LENGUAJE MUSICAL Y EDUCACIÓN AUDITIVA (Gobierno de La Rioja-U. de La Rioja); university postgraduate course of musical specialisation: TEACHING MUSICAL EXPRESSION (Diputación Gral. de Aragón); doctorate course: RESOURCES FOR TRAINING AND CHANGE. TEACHING AND INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES within the Doctorate Programme of the Department of Human Sciences of the University of La Rioja; I University Expert in DESIGN AND CREATION OF VIRTUAL TRAINING ENVIRONMENTS (2004-05. U. of Malaga); II University Expert in Design and Creation of Virtual Training Environments (2005-06. U. of Malaga); II University Expert in Design and Creation of Virtual Training Environments (2005-06. U. of Malaga); III University Expert Course in Design and Creation of Virtual Training Environments (2005-06. U. of Malaga); III University Expert Course in Design and Creation of Virtual Training Environments (2005-06. de Málaga); III University Expert Course on Methods and Resources in Music Education (2005. u. de La Laguna); Doctorate Programme on Methods of Educational Research and Innovation (2005. u. de Málaga); I Master's Degree in New Technologies Applied to Education (U. de Málaga); IV University Expert Course on Methods and Resources in Music Education (2006. u. de La Laguna); II Master's Degree in New Technologies Applied to Education (U. de Málaga); IV Expert Course in Virtual E-learning Environments (U. de Málaga); Master's Degree in Musical Pedagogy (2009. U. de Valencia); Master's Degree in Research in Specific Didactics (University of Valencia. 2010 editions to date); Doctorate in Specific Didactics (U. de Valencia. From 2010 to the present); Master of Research in Musical Skills Development (2010. U. Pública de Navarra); Doctorate Course in Technology and Musical Learning Processes (U. Nacional Autónoma de México. 2011); Master of Research in Musical Skills Development (2011. U. Pública de Navarra); Master and Doctorate Programme in Music. Course on Technology and Musical Learning Processes. (U. Nacional Autónoma de México. 2012); Master of Research in Musical Skills Development (2012. U. Pública de Navarra); Master in Secondary Education Teaching (U. de Valencia. Several editions to date).
TRANSICIONS is made up of teaching staff from different areas of knowledge and departments of the University of Valencia: Didactics and School Organisation, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Social Psychology and Sociology and Social Anthropology. It is formally attached to the Department of Didactics and School Organisation. All its members are staff of the Universitat de València or have obtained their doctorate there, although they all maintain contacts with teaching and research staff from other Spanish and foreign universities. It is a multidisciplinary group that has participated since 1996 in several works and researches, in which several members of the group have taken part.
TRANSICIONS has maintained and continues to maintain collaboration, through research contracts or collaboration agreements, with the Federation of Business Associations of Insertion Companies (FAEDEI), and the Spanish Association of Second Chance Schools, and has carried out commissioned work for Forem-PV, the UAFSE, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, BankiaDualiza or Cedefop. The group has also participated in the organisation of regional and national meetings and conferences with professionals in the field of socio-labour insertion, and has organised two editions of international congresses and seminars on vocational training at the UV.
TRANSICIONS aims to understand the educational, organisational, evolutionary and psychosocial processes that affect and optimise transitions between the educational and productive system for young people and young adults, as well as people in vulnerable situations, with difficulties of socio-occupational integration and a history of school failure. The group is aware of the centrality of work in adult life, as well as the need to approach its study from multidisciplinary approaches in order to holistically address the understanding of the reality that interests and concerns us, and for this reason several members of the group collaborate in IUDESCOOP activities.
Its mission is to contribute, from the University, to identify the mechanisms that guarantee the rights to education and work, from the conviction of the relevant role they play in the promotion of social justice.
TRANSICIONS seeks to carry out empirical research in which the participants are also subjects of the research processes, hence a methodological approach in which qualitative methods are an important part and which allows, as far as possible, to interact with reality and also contribute to facilitate its transformation through the link it has and seeks between its research and the return of the results to professionals and entities that work in practice, as well as in making the results available to interlocutors with political responsibilities. Thanks to this dialogue, it evaluates its research to try to adjust it to the needs that arise and to the search for social change that it jointly pursues.
To this end, the TRANSICIONS group believes that it is advisable to seek funding for research work in public calls for proposals. The academic pillars on which its work is based can be traced in its publications: Emilia Serra, Francesca Salvà, Claudia Jacinto, María Teresa González, Juan Manuel Escudero, Michael W. Apple, Michael Eraut, Quim Casal, Philipp Gonon, Basil Bernstein, Robert Castel, Serge Paugam, Luc Boltanski and José Gimeno are some examples.
