FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIETY | Lecture
Benefits of exaptive learning

Title

The Epistemology of Exaptation: interdisciplinary and pedagogical benefits of exaptive learning

Lecturer

Marianna Papastephanou (University of Cyprus)

About the lecture 

"In this lecture, I present how the biological notion of exaptation has so far been epistemicized (namely, made relevant to epistemological issues) and what prospects this gives us for theorizing learning beyond adaptation. Being a concept inherently about context-transcendence and border crossing, exaptation falls squarely within the province of theories that investigate the epistemological boundaries of educational research. Furthermore, I introduce exaptive learning as a term that designates the learning processes that help us transfer material (e.g., ideas, knowledge, sensibilities, etc.) from one setting (culture, intellectual milieu, field, etc.) to another; and repurpose the learned material for different and unexpected uses. I argue that exaptive learning is distinct enough to merit its own conceptual space as an important analytical tool for theorizing some cognitive transformation. I discuss it then as a new and promising epistemic notion of cross-disciplinary and pedagogical benefit. Exaptive learning enlarges our perspectives, reveals interconnectivities of seemingly unrelated things and enables usages of diverse material across space and time."