Science facilitation: navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaboration
Abstract Today’s societal challenges, such as climate change and global pandemics, are increasingly complex and require collaboration across scientific disciplines to address. Scientific teams bring together individuals of varying backgrounds and expertise to work collaboratively on creating new kno...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
2022-08-01
|
| Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01217-1 |
| _version_ | 1798038080947486720 |
|---|---|
| author | Amanda E. Cravens Megan S. Jones Courtney Ngai Jill Zarestky Hannah B. Love |
| author_facet | Amanda E. Cravens Megan S. Jones Courtney Ngai Jill Zarestky Hannah B. Love |
| author_sort | Amanda E. Cravens |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Today’s societal challenges, such as climate change and global pandemics, are increasingly complex and require collaboration across scientific disciplines to address. Scientific teams bring together individuals of varying backgrounds and expertise to work collaboratively on creating new knowledge to address these challenges. Within a scientific team, there is inherent diversity in disciplinary cultures and preferences for interpersonal collaboration. Such diversity contributes to the potential strength of the created knowledge but can also impede progress when teams struggle to collaborate productively. Facilitation is a professional practice-based form of interpersonal expertise that supports group members to do their best thinking. Although facilitation has been demonstrated to support group functioning in a wide range of contexts, its role in supporting scientific teams has been largely overlooked. This essay defines scientific facilitation as a form of interactional expertise and explains how facilitating scientific teams requires skills in managing interpersonal interactions as well as understanding how different types of disciplinary knowledge integrate in the creation of new knowledge. Next, it explains how this science facilitation expertise may be developed through metacognition. Finally, it provides examples of how scientific facilitation could be more widely incorporated into research by describing three pathways to expand the use of facilitation theory and techniques in collaborative scientific research: developing facilitation skills among scientists leading teams, using broadly trained facilitators, and using specialised science facilitators. The strengths and risks of each path are discussed, and criteria are suggested for selecting the right approach for a given team science project. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T21:35:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f2eca6208c5f4b659084741f2c16d7ce |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2662-9992 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T21:35:20Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-f2eca6208c5f4b659084741f2c16d7ce2022-12-22T04:01:46ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922022-08-019111310.1057/s41599-022-01217-1Science facilitation: navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaborationAmanda E. Cravens0Megan S. Jones1Courtney Ngai2Jill Zarestky3Hannah B. Love4U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science CenterHuman Dimensions of Natural Resources Department, Colorado State UniversityEmpowered Consulting LLCSchool of Education, Colorado State UniversityDivergent Science LLCAbstract Today’s societal challenges, such as climate change and global pandemics, are increasingly complex and require collaboration across scientific disciplines to address. Scientific teams bring together individuals of varying backgrounds and expertise to work collaboratively on creating new knowledge to address these challenges. Within a scientific team, there is inherent diversity in disciplinary cultures and preferences for interpersonal collaboration. Such diversity contributes to the potential strength of the created knowledge but can also impede progress when teams struggle to collaborate productively. Facilitation is a professional practice-based form of interpersonal expertise that supports group members to do their best thinking. Although facilitation has been demonstrated to support group functioning in a wide range of contexts, its role in supporting scientific teams has been largely overlooked. This essay defines scientific facilitation as a form of interactional expertise and explains how facilitating scientific teams requires skills in managing interpersonal interactions as well as understanding how different types of disciplinary knowledge integrate in the creation of new knowledge. Next, it explains how this science facilitation expertise may be developed through metacognition. Finally, it provides examples of how scientific facilitation could be more widely incorporated into research by describing three pathways to expand the use of facilitation theory and techniques in collaborative scientific research: developing facilitation skills among scientists leading teams, using broadly trained facilitators, and using specialised science facilitators. The strengths and risks of each path are discussed, and criteria are suggested for selecting the right approach for a given team science project.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01217-1 |
| spellingShingle | Amanda E. Cravens Megan S. Jones Courtney Ngai Jill Zarestky Hannah B. Love Science facilitation: navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaboration Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| title | Science facilitation: navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaboration |
| title_full | Science facilitation: navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaboration |
| title_fullStr | Science facilitation: navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaboration |
| title_full_unstemmed | Science facilitation: navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaboration |
| title_short | Science facilitation: navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaboration |
| title_sort | science facilitation navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaboration |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01217-1 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT amandaecravens sciencefacilitationnavigatingtheintersectionofintellectualandinterpersonalexpertiseinscientificcollaboration AT megansjones sciencefacilitationnavigatingtheintersectionofintellectualandinterpersonalexpertiseinscientificcollaboration AT courtneyngai sciencefacilitationnavigatingtheintersectionofintellectualandinterpersonalexpertiseinscientificcollaboration AT jillzarestky sciencefacilitationnavigatingtheintersectionofintellectualandinterpersonalexpertiseinscientificcollaboration AT hannahblove sciencefacilitationnavigatingtheintersectionofintellectualandinterpersonalexpertiseinscientificcollaboration |