Collaborative researchers for tomorrow: Research, Experimentation and Discovery
In 1964, Bob Dylan chanted the iconic words, ‘The times they are a-changin,’ heralding a prophetic message at the dawn of the North American counterculture movement. These words still ring true today — even if they were first sung in a time long before intensive globalisation, growing international conflict and the inexpressible devastation of the ecosystems that sustain us.
As the challenges of our time continue to unfold in unexpected ways, the research and expertise within our universities will play a key role in addressing them. Given the magnitude of these challenges, no single individual, discipline or generation can or will solve them entirely. The responsibility for driving change will fall upon today’s undergraduates – both individually and collectively.
Ideas are getting harder to find
A 2020 study in the American Economic Review highlighted that across almost every field of study and research, research productivity is declining despite the effective number of researchers continuing to increase. Big ideas are becoming harder to find, and collaboration has never been more important in generating new knowledge that addresses complex problems (Bloom et. al 2020).
To illustrate this point, consider Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, published in 1905 while he worked part time as a Patent Clerk in Bern, Germany. Now, let’s leap ahead to the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle in 2013. This remarkable achievement was the culmination of decades of collaborative research, involving thousands of scientists and the construction of the Large Hadron Collider at an estimated cost of approximately $13.25 billion. It’s safe to say that unless Einstein’s patent office included a Large Hadron Collider, he wouldn’t have been able to make this discovery on his own.
If we accept that no single discipline alone can address the increasingly complex challenges of our time, and that researchers of the future will therefore need to work across disciplines, then we must take up the call for more collaborative skill building in research training.
The national priorities for research as recently updated by the Australian Government (September 2023) reinforce the need for collaborative and multidisciplinary research (DISR 2023), but have been critiqued for focussing too much on commercialisation, and lacking clarity around priorities for social and cultural research (AAH 2023). As Dr David Phipps and Paul Harris put it, we are never going to patent our way to reconciliation. Addressing such social challenges are no less collaborative problems than they are systemic ones. It seems likely that future research priorities will be interdisciplinary, collaborative, and focussed on responding to the challenges defining our world and future.
What’s an educator do?
It is disingenuous, and potentially irresponsible, to assume that we can drive significant and sustained change by training researchers to be solitary practitioners. So how do we drive change? What pedagogical principles are fit for purpose in the face of these global challenges? How might we best support our research students to become the emotionally intelligent, reflective and collaborative professionals we need them to be?
We don’t profess to have all of the answers, but we grappled with these pedagogical questions with the inaugural launch of the Research, Experimentation and Discovery (RED) unit in June this year. In an experience that was led by a Designer (Troy) and a Physiotherapist (Mick), we sought to teach collaborative approaches and thinking to our students by modelling it ourselves. At every level of our unit — from the design of curriculum, through to the delivery of our classes — we sought to extend established mindsets about research and foster enhanced emotional intelligence, reflexivity and collaborative thinking.
The RED unit is deeply interdisciplinary, as evidenced by the students who completed the unit, along with the staff who brought our classrooms to life. Our teaching team included Biomedical scientists, a Chemical Engineer, Designers, Physiotherapists, Pathologists, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Practitioners and even a Historian. This disciplinary diversity was mirrored in the students who enrolled in our unit, with students from seven of the ten University Faculties represented.
RED sought to prepare researchers of tomorrow to work and collaborate in complex social systems, whether in the translation of their research into new products, policies or practice; ethical collaborations with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence platforms; or working within the structural systems and institutions that enable research. It matters little whether research graduates leave or stay in academia, because our global challenges provide a common context for their careers, and the so-called ‘soft skills’ are essential in any career path.
We are aware that teaching collaborative thinking and practice is not new, but we do advocate that we should rethink curriculum to include more of it. Personally, we are deeply inspired by the work of Monash colleagues Professor Lisa Grocott and Dr. Hannah Korsymeyer, which highlights the power of play and speculation to create learning encounters that shift perspectives in unexpected but essential ways.
In RED, we invited students to connect with each other through class games and participatory, immersive workshops. Students might’ve been forgiven for assuming these games were just fun, but it quickly became apparent that they were metaphors for discussing some big issues, whilst promoting and encouraging new ways of thinking and the generation of new ideas, born from collaboration. In doing so we challenged our students to learn from each other rather than from the ‘experts’.
If we accept that no single discipline alone can address the increasingly complex challenges of our time, and that researchers of the future will therefore need to work across disciplines, then we must take up the call for more collaborative skill building in research training. We need new research training pedagogies fit for these changing times, and, ideally, ones that are applicable to a range of careers beyond research. While it can be harder to measure than any bibliometric, collaboration is no less important to success in the face of global challenges.
The question, then, is how might we best do it? What if, rather than “teaching” collaboration, we follow a model like the one we have described above, used in RED, where we seek to find opportunities where collaboration can occur, and model it to our students through our pedagogies and classroom experiences themselves?
Bloom, N., Jones, C. I., Van Reenen, J., & Webb, M. (2020). Are ideas getting harder to find?. American Economic Review, 110(4), 1104-1144
Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR), Australian Government. (2023, September 29). “Australia’s draft National Science and Research Priorities”. https://consult.industry.gov.au/sciencepriorities2
Grocott, L. (2022). Design for transformative learning: A practical approach to memory-making and perspective-shifting. Routledge.
Troy is equal parts designer, researcher and educator. In research, Troy’s work spans the conceptual and speculative to the commercial with projects at the intersection of design and healthcare. In education, Troy is deeply committed to the development of emerging leaders and the next generation of change agents through the Monash RED study program. You can follow him at @troymcgeedesign, and learn more about RED on Instagram at #MonashRED23
Associate Professor Mick Storr
Mick is an education-focused Associate Professor based in the Physiotherapy Department within the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. He is a passionate educator and has a strong interest in student engagement. It’s lucky he doesn’t know how Instagram works.
One response to “Collaborative researchers for tomorrow: Research, Experimentation and Discovery”
Eliani Boton
Congratulations, Troy and Mick, on your innovative approach in the RED unit! Your work effectively captures the essence of collaboration in research, and the immersive workshops that promote interdisciplinary engagement are truly commendable. Fantastic job on paving the way for a pedagogical shift, preparing future researchers with the skills needed for the complexities of our global challenges.
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