Learning to Converge Across Disciplines

Abstract:

A critical factor in a convergent research team is co-development of an integrated conceptual framework that effectively leverages the knowledge and expertise of team members. Studies of multidisciplinary science teams tackling complex problems have indicated that too often, inadequate attention is given to this task, especially early in the life of the research project. Lack of shared vision of the research to be undertaken can lead to goal misalignment and failure to develop linkages across perspectives, a prerequisite for converging on the problem. This presentation will describe research teams as socio-environmental systems, and shared vision as an emergent property generated through purposeful design of processes that facilitate learning across disciplines. The presentation will describe a team-based learning framework that has been developed based on this perspective, the “Employing Model-Based Reasoning in Socio-Environmental Synthesis (EMBeRS) Framework. Workshop activities have been developed and implemented based on the EMBeRS Framework. Results from analysis of data collected from participants will be presented.