High disciplinary awareness fosters innovative collaboration: NCKU research
Tainan, Taiwan, March 20, 2015
Each academic discipline has its own limits; to this end, integrative research is a rising trend in present-day research. National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) professor Shyh-Nan Liou working with an international research team has provided key principles in research collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.
That the addition of a new perspective can lead to frame-breaking innovations is a commonly accepted fact; however, we seldom realize that there also exist disruptive conflicts between research team members due to intellectual centrism, which can hinder progress, according to professor Liu of creative industries design.
Through international collaboration with academic groups from Europe, USA and Singapore, Liou has addressed this issue, and offers counter-measures which will facilitate better interdisciplinary cooperation.
The contents of the paper, which deals with both the underlying theory and proposed solutions to intellectual centrism has received much attention, and is part of the policy summary for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).
“Promoting an interdisciplinary learning orientation and growth beliefs could attenuate and even reverse the negative impact of intellectual centrism,” according to the policy summary.
Liou said, “Awareness of disciplinary differences, when coupled with an interdisciplinary learning orientation or growth beliefs would go a long way in enhancing creative performance and the quality of collaboration in integrative research.”
“Every nation has its own culture, which affects the people’s method of thought process. This leads to intellectual centrism, the belief that one’s academic perspective is the only valid standpoint,” he added.
To prove this point, the research team conducted an eye-tracking test on several test subjects – each coming from different disciplinary backgrounds, including design, engineering and management – while presenting them with the same compilation of information to a problematic scenario.
Interestingly, they found that the subjects mainly studied the information which was directly related to their academic fields.
To follow up, they also asked students from different backgrounds to form ‘innovation implementing teams’ and create their product, the result of which was then cross-referenced with a survey that was designed to compare their motivation levels towards interdisciplinary subjects and their major subjects.
Through analysis, it was found that those whom had greater motivation levels towards a variety of subjects were able to produce products of better quality, and that there exists a stronger sense of solidarity between the teammates.
The conclusion from the experiment was that, even during our student years, intellectual centrism is presented, a phenomenon which would only exacerbate when one is part of an integrative research team.
By studying the trends of intellectual centrism and recognizing how one’s learning motivation directly affects the collaboration levels within an interdisciplinary research team, Liou has proposed a few measures which would improve the situation.
Researchers could enhance awareness of cultural differences through critical reflections on one’s professional socialization experiences. Encouraging team members to learn from dissimilar others and subscribe to growth beliefs is also helpful.
Increasing affective bonding between team members from diverse backgrounds, building intellectual bridges and growing a culture of cross-disciplinary innovation are feasible measures for promoting integrative research.
Enditem/wanling yi
Each academic discipline has its own limits; to this end, integrative research is a rising trend in present-day research. National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) professor Shyh-Nan Liou working with an international research team has provided key principles in research collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.
That the addition of a new perspective can lead to frame-breaking innovations is a commonly accepted fact; however, we seldom realize that there also exist disruptive conflicts between research team members due to intellectual centrism, which can hinder progress, according to professor Liu of creative industries design.
Through international collaboration with academic groups from Europe, USA and Singapore, Liou has addressed this issue, and offers counter-measures which will facilitate better interdisciplinary cooperation.
The contents of the paper, which deals with both the underlying theory and proposed solutions to intellectual centrism has received much attention, and is part of the policy summary for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).
“Promoting an interdisciplinary learning orientation and growth beliefs could attenuate and even reverse the negative impact of intellectual centrism,” according to the policy summary.
Liou said, “Awareness of disciplinary differences, when coupled with an interdisciplinary learning orientation or growth beliefs would go a long way in enhancing creative performance and the quality of collaboration in integrative research.”
“Every nation has its own culture, which affects the people’s method of thought process. This leads to intellectual centrism, the belief that one’s academic perspective is the only valid standpoint,” he added.
To prove this point, the research team conducted an eye-tracking test on several test subjects – each coming from different disciplinary backgrounds, including design, engineering and management – while presenting them with the same compilation of information to a problematic scenario.
Interestingly, they found that the subjects mainly studied the information which was directly related to their academic fields.
To follow up, they also asked students from different backgrounds to form ‘innovation implementing teams’ and create their product, the result of which was then cross-referenced with a survey that was designed to compare their motivation levels towards interdisciplinary subjects and their major subjects.
Through analysis, it was found that those whom had greater motivation levels towards a variety of subjects were able to produce products of better quality, and that there exists a stronger sense of solidarity between the teammates.
The conclusion from the experiment was that, even during our student years, intellectual centrism is presented, a phenomenon which would only exacerbate when one is part of an integrative research team.
By studying the trends of intellectual centrism and recognizing how one’s learning motivation directly affects the collaboration levels within an interdisciplinary research team, Liou has proposed a few measures which would improve the situation.
Researchers could enhance awareness of cultural differences through critical reflections on one’s professional socialization experiences. Encouraging team members to learn from dissimilar others and subscribe to growth beliefs is also helpful.
Increasing affective bonding between team members from diverse backgrounds, building intellectual bridges and growing a culture of cross-disciplinary innovation are feasible measures for promoting integrative research.
Enditem/wanling yi
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