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Acquisition of T
-
shaped expertise: an exploratory study
Journal:
Social Epistemology
Manuscript ID
TSEP-2015-0039
Manuscript Type:
Original Article
Keywords:
T-shaped, Expertise, Concept Mapping, Integration, Engagement
URL: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tsep
Social Epistemology
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Introduction
Complex problems facing our society today demand skills and knowledge from a
diversity of disciplines to engage in problem solving. The demand for young
professionals who possess both a wealth of knowledge in one system and the ability to
perform cross-disciplinary collaboration is currently growing in importance in today’s
workforce. Enhancing a student’s breadth of expertise, often associated with T-shaped
engineers, is being called upon to train the ‘new employees of digital age’ (Birchall
2012). The horizontal bar of the ‘T’ represents a breadth of expertise, an ability to
speak multiple ‘languages’, while the vertical part of the ‘T’ represents a depth of
expertise in a specific knowledge domain. Companies are calling for these T-shaped
professionals with ‘in-depth knowledge of one discipline and a broad knowledge base in
adjacent areas or in general business or entrepreneurial fields’ (Oskam 2009, 1).
The need to be competent in a single discipline is necessary to develop
competent professionals. Yet, the ability to work with individuals from other disciplinary
backgrounds and seamlessly exchange knowledge between fields of study is essential
for collective problem-solving among the next generation of professionals. IBM (among
many other companies) wants to hire university graduates who either already possess
or are able to acquire T-shaped expertise. In collaboration with Michigan State
University, IBM co-sponsors the annual ‘T-Summit’ conference, which brings together
business and technology leaders, with practitioners and academics, to assess the need
for T-shaped professionals and reflect on approaches to workforce education and
professional development.
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Broadly, our interest is in understanding how T-shaped expertise is acquired.
One answer has come from STS scholars who use the term ‘interactional expertise’ to
refer to learning the ‘language’ of another expertise without having to master all the
disciplinary methods and practices (Gorman 2010). Interactional expertise represents a
particular form of T-shaped expertise, one that is acquired by a lengthy immersion in an
expert community other than one’s own (Collins and Evans 2002). While the notion of
interactional expertise is useful for thinking about the development of T-shaped
expertise over long timeframes, there is however, a limited theoretical framing for the
acquisition of multiple expertise.
Thus, our research attends to the characteristics and attributes for the acquisition
of multiple expertise, which individuals may demonstrate during discrete timeframes,
specifically undergraduate science and engineering contexts. Therefore, our research
methods center on educational contexts designed to cultivate the development of
multiple expertise, rather than building a singular disciplinary expertise. This research
supports the elementary formation of a theory of acquisition of T-shaped expertise and
how that theory can be constructed and evaluated.
A brief history of the ‘T-shaped’ expert
Guest (1991) is credited with first mentioning the term ‘T-shaped’ in an article
that argues for the so-called ‘renaissance man’ as a practitioner who could effectively
integrate business expertise and information technology skills and capable of
considering both the technical and social components within the larger system. A ‘T-
shaped’ manager would therefore be more versatile, if they possess a deep knowledge
in one field and recognition of other expertise. Amber (2000) built upon this notion and
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calls for a new ‘T-shaped’ individual who possesses a depth of expertise in a certain
field, but with the ability to extend into unknown fields of study. By integrating seemingly
incommensurate disciplines, a new type of scientist will be equipped with the necessary
skills to solve ‘real world’ problems, which are not confined to a single discipline. The
term ‘T-shaped’ is not exclusive to scientists, as it is also considered as an attribute of
more adaptable communication specialists for media agencies that possesses a deep
understanding of the media sphere of knowledge, as well as a broad comprehension of
the various other disciplines (Bannerman 2003). The multidisciplinary nature of the
knowledge and skillset that these individuals must possess allows them to bring unique
new perspectives to the problems at hand. IDEO’s CEO, Tim Brown, explains that the
concept of T-shaped people has influenced their approach to talent management as the
vertical stroke of the ‘T’ is a depth of skills that aids in innovation, and the horizontal
stroke represents the ‘disposition for collaboration across disciplines’ (Brown 2010).
Conceptual frameworks that complement T-shaped expertise
Scholarship on engagement, interactional expertise, socio-technical integration,
and trading zones are introduced here to frame the theoretical developments that this
article offers (for an overview, see Fisher et al 2015). First, engagement is introduced as
one means for bringing together diverse knowledge sets. Interactional expertise is then
discussed as a particular form of expertise to learn the language of another discipline
and functionally interact with experts in that discipline. Socio-technical integration
sheds light on the ability for interactions between different epistemic communities to
stimulate reflection. Trading zones are a conceptual framing for the spaces in which
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multiple disciplines work together to achieve goals that no one disciplines could handle
alone.
Engagement refers to the intentional inclusion of individuals representing diverse
publics and epistemic communities in decision-making processes (Chilvers 2007).
Citizen participation efforts arise from efforts in planning and governing shared
resources (Arnstein 1969). Engagement activities that are inclusive expand the diversity
of knowledge and values incorporated into decisions and enhance the legitimacy,
relevance, and salience of decisions on technological pursuits (Clark et al. 2011).
Engagement can systematically brings to bear a diversity of perspectives (not usually
represented in the organizations that traditionally take decisions) on problem solving.
Such inclusiveness may help decision-makers reconsider the goals of a project and
ensure that activities adhere to a democratic qua ‘good process’ and deliver on a
plurality of interests and information. However engagement efforts can face presumptive
attitudes from ‘experts’ about the role of laypersons (Corley and Scheufele 2010).
Including groups external to the focus group in a participatory process introduces
alternative ways of knowing and understanding the world, i.e. greater epistemic and
ontological diversity (Wynne 1993). Often social groups, external to traditional
technoscientific communities will respond to an absence of adequate knowledge and
create their own knowledge that suits their needs, as observed by Fischer (1993).
Alternatively, if technoscientific communities ignore experiential knowledge from key
stakeholders, the decisions taken will cause harm that may or may not be reversible
(Wynne 1993).
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Engagement activities can lead to shared inquiry and shared problem
understanding in a manner that equitably accounts for various knowledge sources and
means of understanding, but may also lead to isolation and alienate publics from
experts (Wynne 2001). While the T-shaped expert must have a comprehension of
knowledge domains (depth in at least one domain, and a working, integrated
understanding of other domains), it is also necessary to have an understanding of and
engagement with impacted stakeholder communities in order to have a sense of the
broader contexts that problems are embedded in. Awareness of the needs of
stakeholder communities, and valuing and integrating experiential stakeholder
knowledge, enables the T-shaped expert to act as an ‘engagement agent’ (Conley
2011), moving between multiple levels and domains of knowledge and practice.
Interactional expertise describes the ability to speak the language of another
discipline without being a practitioner (Collins, Evans & Gorman 2007). For example,
Collins (2004) mastered the language of gravitational wave physics; he could carry on
sophisticated conversations about the problems and opportunities at the cutting edge of
the field, knew what the best facilities were and why, and could even tell jokes that only
other gravitational wave physicists would laugh at. But he could not perform
experiments or do mathematical analysis. In a trading zone, interactional experts can
act as agents, facilitating exchanges because they understand the languages of more
than one expertise community.
Interactional expertise refers only to mastery of the language of an expertise. T-
shaped expertise includes understanding not only more than one discipline but also
more than one system and incorporates the acquisition of communication skills (see
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http://www.ceri.msu.edu/t-shaped-professionals/). Interactional expertise is gained by
immersion in a community of expertise different than one’s own. T-shaped is more of a
frontier concept that allows for the possibility of multiple paths to creating a T on top of a
vertical core expertise. Professionals and students could be trained to become more
facile at the acquisition of T-shaped skills.
Socio-technical integration involves the bringing together diverse disciplinary
persons in a process that often results in both parties questioning one’s actions, beliefs
and assumptions, often by accepting the limits of one’s knowledge (Fisher and Rip
2013; Rip and van Lente 2013; Robbins 2007). Barben (2010, 654) defines this aspect
of socio-technical integration as a means to achieve reflexive governance, ‘an actor’s
capacity to consider his or her own decision-making with respect to the dynamics,
characteristics, and institutionalized aims of a particular domain of practice, including
the action of others.’ Socio-technical integration is critical to learning and iterative
improvements in dynamic processes in which actors recognize broader human, social,
and material dimensions that connect to their research and offers an opportunity for
actors to reconsider their present actions and to alter their course (Fisher et al. 2006).
As a learning process socio-technical integration is theorized to enable alignment
among individuals and organizations involved in solving complex, societal problems.
Trading zones are a means to address the ways in which collaboration so difficult
when there is a common problem which requires multiple expertises to solve it. Kuhn
(1962) explained why experts from different research communities cannot communicate
effectively: they operate within different paradigms, which means they have unique
epistemological frameworks and methodologies that analyze data in ways that are not
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easily translated. Galison (1997) noted that physicists and engineers are able to work
together to develop complex technological systems like radar. Contrary to Kuhn’s notion
of incommensurate disciplinary knowledge, as in the case of radar, expertise from
diverse disciplinary origins was brought together in a trading zone (Gorman 2010). This
began as exchanging time and resources in a compartmentalized fashion, but gradually
a shared jargon developed, which led to eventually a creole language that allowed them
to exchange knowledge and solve problems that transcended traditional disciplinary
boundaries. As such, persons in a trading zone can share knowledge more rapidly if
one or more members have interactional expertise, introduced above, which is the
ability to talk enough of the language of another discipline to communicate effectively
(Gorman 2010). A T-shaped individual can become a ‘trade agent’, in that they facilitate
exchanges between other individuals that share an overarching goal.
The need for T-shaped professionals
In today’s highly competitive workforce, engineers and scientists need to develop an
ability to leverage their disciplinary training and collaborate with others. The need for
young professionals to possess T-shaped skills goes beyond sharpening their skills and
demands a well-rounded person capable of excelling in a competitive workforce.
Employers are placing high importance on hiring ‘T-shaped’ professionals, but the
training of students to embody the T-shaped model is a slow and difficult process. Irving
(1998, 3) describes higher education for engineers as, ‘the equivalent of bricklayers,
rather than cathedral builders’. The implications is that higher education institutions
need to reconceptualize the professionalization of engineering and science in both the
disciplinary and cross-disciplinary directions.
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The Educational Advisory Board (EAB) believes this is of utmost importance and
call for new methods to develop T-shaped professionals based on a new employer
rubric for skills and competencies (COE Forum 2014). This call for change confronts
challenges in established curriculum that are divided by disciplinary expertise. This
segregation leaves humanities and Liberal Arts students without specialized technical
skills, and conversely leaves STEM students without strong writing, communication, and
presentation skills; essential for success in the workforce.
Oskam (2009) discusses interdisciplinary innovation as a problem of decreased
capacity in the workforce, which he claims, belies a lack of technical and research skills
in management personnel, as well as low managerial skills among those who possess
scientific or technical capabilities. Heinemann (2009) asserts a need for a ‘T-shaped
enterprise engineer’ as the new generation of interdisciplinary professionals equipped
with the proper educational skills to break down barriers that exist between disciplines
and succeed in a global economy. According to Heinemann (2009, 4), ‘we are born into
this world as quasi ‘interdisciplinary creatures,’ and the older we get and the more we
identify knowledge packages resulting from knowledge acquisition and personal
reflection, the more we tend to become disciplinary creatures.’ Karjalainen, Koria, and
Salimäk (2009) propose a new program to educate T-shaped professionals who can
effectively combine design, business and technology knowledge. They argue that well-
functioning teams not only get along in daily activities, but also create a shared body of
knowledge that is more than the sum of individual members’ own knowledge and skills
(Karjalainen et al. 2009). The program focuses around the concept of interdisciplinary
study, which is understood as different disciplines addressing common challenges as
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equal stakeholders, creating new knowledge and aiming at increasing integration
(Karjalainen et al. 2009). Donofrio and colleagues (2010) make a compelling case for
STEM education to include more integrated curricula in order to remove the barriers that
are in place between disciplines among medical practitioners, which are exacerbated by
the rate at which knowledge and technology are produced (Donofrio, Spohrer, and
Zadeh 2010).
Research questions and case studies
Our research questions are: Can university students demonstrate acquisition of
multiple expertise while sharpening their own understanding of their core expertise?
How can the emergent attributes of T-shaped expertise be assessed? We developed a
series of pilot programs that gathered empirical research around these research
questions, while exploring the methodological strengths and weaknesses. This research
aims towards a theory of acquisition that can support individuals with a more rigorous
framework and set of tools for facilitating collaborations focused on complex socio-
technical systems that require the integration of multiple expertise. Research questions
are used in the Science, Technology & Society (STS) community in lieu of hypothesis,
because the former designates a more open-ended, exploratory investigation than the
latter. Specifically, we looked at whether courses that focus on making connections
between different knowledge domains, e.g. ‘societal dimensions of nanotechnology’
instigates students to acquire T-shaped expertise. Here we introduce the overarching
academic programs and the specific courses before delving into the conceptual
frameworks that are central to our investigation.
Case studies
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The Bachelors of Science in Integrated Science and Technology (BS-ISAT) at
JMU seeks to develop a depth of expertise and a sufficient breadth of expertise to
ensure that all matriculates can perform successfully in an interactional mode. Forty
miles away from JMU, on the other side of the Shenandoah Mountains, the School of
Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) at the University of Virginia (UVA) obliges
students to select a major in their second year. All SEAS students take four courses in
Science, Technology and Society (STS). Students in both programs are expected to
integrate STS concepts and tools into traditional science, technology, engineering and
math (STEM) curriculum. The curriculum at JMU and UVA demonstrates an attempt to
offer students multidisciplinary expertise in order to tackle complex socio-technical
problems. ISAT and SEAS are relatively unique programs in the sense that they
intentionally integrate an STS approach into a four-year STEM curriculum. Thus, the
STS faculty at these institutions are well-positioned to investigate how undergraduate
students develop a depth and breadth of interactional expertise that enables them to be
‘T-shaped’ individuals – people capable of adeptly moving and conversing between
multiple domains of scientific practice.
1. Earth Systems Technology and Management (ESEM)
The goal of this UVA course is to introduce engineering and environmental
science students to alternative ways of thinking about coupled human-technological-
natural systems (Allenby 2000). These systems are complex, ‘wicked problems’,
meaning that a small change in one part may tip the whole system into a new state.
Wiek et al (2012) demonstrate that such ‘wicked problems’ can manifest in socio-energy
systems driving climate change, urban heat island effects and elevated heating and
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cooling expenditures. Instead of gradually getting warmer across the globe, local
weather will get more unpredictable and extreme and glacial melt could cause sudden
rises in sea level and shift ocean currents (Allenby 2000).
Engineering and environmental science students, combined with occasional
students from other disciplines like English are taught about trading zones, interactional
expertise and Earth Systems Engineering and Management in a seminar style, where
students read, write and ask questions. For their project, students select a national
park from the US or another country and think about how to manage it, consulting with
experts on these systems. The class used in this study had 9 students who worked for
about 10 days, with class for 5 hours a day plus one field trip to the Shenandoah
National Park where the Chief Park Scientist showed them threats from invasive
species, damage due to water, trail maintenance for tourism and provided background
on the park system as a whole.
2. Societal Dimensions of Nanotechnology (SocNano)
This course offered students an understanding of the process by which policy
and technology mutually shape federal funding initiatives by focusing on the National
Nanotechnology Initiative. Through the course, students are better prepared to work to
shape policies that would create techno-social systems that promise substantial future
benefits. Exploring these issues connects two apparently different expertises
(engineering and policy) to contribute to the development of T-shaped expertise among
the students. The course occurred over a 15-week semester with an enrollment of 36
students. Students are introduced to the policy environment and the variety and
complexity of funding sources for science and technology research. Another aspect of
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the course is applied social psychology, which involves being able to see one’s role in
this kind of a complex system and learn how to work with people in other roles with
other agendas. The course centered around an interactive simulation game that offered
students with an opportunity to take on specific roles and make science-policy
decisions. The simulation related to processes seen among actors and how they
resembled (or differed) from negotiations among actors in real-world policy situations.
3. Technology, Science, and Society
The Technology, Science, and Society (TSS) course at JMU introduces students
to the social aspects of technology and science and to the social science methods and
related philosophical and ethical analyses. Students are challenged to critically think
about what it means to engage in responsible scientific practice. The course met three
times a week for a fifteen-week semester during Spring 2015 with two sections
comprised of 16 students and 17 students, respectively. The course followed a blended
seminar format, with class periods consisting of a combination of lecture, small group
discussion, and large group discussion.
Students were divided into teams using the True Colors learning assessment tool
for constructing small groups that were a balanced combinations of the four learning
styles––i.e. ‘pragmatic thinkers,’ ‘action oriented,’ ‘independent thinkers,’ and ‘people
oriented’ (Crews et al 2010). The course culminated in a case study on genetically
modified organisms (GMOs), where students explored what makes knowledge credible.
Students were divided into expertise, or ‘knowledge domain’ groups focusing on policy,
science, social, and economic/legal issues. Each group played the role of ‘advisor’ to a
fictional state representative and grappled with the question of whether to propose GMO
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labeling legislation. The case study culminated in a ‘town hall’ activity where students
gave presentations with a final recommendation and submitted a paper that integrated
the multiple knowledge domains in providing an individual recommendation.
Research design and methods
To address the research questions, posed above, the team created a set of pre-
post tests to start to examine the acquisition of T-shaped expertise. The researchers
relied upon a well-established methodology to capture pre-post data––i.e. concept-
mapping exercises that have been employed in over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles
on learning outcomes (Nesbit and Adesope 2006). Despite the prevalence of concept
mapping in the literature, we interrogate this method in terms of its use as a tool for
evaluating the development of T-shaped expertise over discrete periods of time, e.g.
during an undergraduate course. Three different case study interventions were
developed in order to test the effect that the case content had on the methodology each
tailored to the individual course’s learning objectives. The seven-day ESEM course in
January 2015 at UVa served as a pilot study. Lessons from this pilot informed the
approach to T-shaped expertise in the SocNano course at UVA and the TSS course at
JMU followed. We will analyze pre and post-test data from this phase of the research.
The paper closes with a discuss of a theory of acquisition and initial reflections on the
utility (and limitations) of our methodology in evaluating expertise as it evolves over
time.
Participants
University of Virginia students taking Gorman’s ESEM course entailed eight
participants from three different colleges and equally divided between males and
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females. 30 participants in the SocNano course volunteered for this study and
completed all the requisite materials including, 23 males and seven females from across
five majors. At JMU, Conley taught two sections of the TSS course, and students from
both sections volunteered. One section drew 16 participants with 11 males and 5
females, while the other attracted 14 students with 13 males and 1 female. The study
includes 38 UVa and 30 JMU students with 51 males and 17 females for a total of 68
participants that completed the pre-post tests and 13 students consented to interviews.
Method: concept mapping
Concept mapping is a technique in which an overarching notion is represented
on paper in a manner that shows the relationships between different ideas and
combining them together to create a holistic picture of an idea. They are a two-
dimensional images created by a person using keywords (nodes) and linking phrases
(connections) to express a complex, encompassing concept (Patton 2008). People that
complete concept maps are not constrained by grammatical limitations and they are a
preferred evaluation tool for when there is no ‘perfect’ answer (Novak 1990). Murdy et
al. (2011) assert concepts maps can interrogate the meta-cognitive processes that
structure student knowledge acquired during a course of study.
Applying concept map methodology to T-shaped expertise
Grades are often used to assess student performance, however students can
enroll in a course with the capability to attain a top grade and therefore grades are a
poor measure of learning outcomes (Tucker and Courts 2010). Furthermore,
achievement levels reflected in course grades do not align, directly, with the acquisition
of T-shaped expertise. Therefore, this study used techniques to compare a student’s
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previous knowledge with the knowledge gained during the course using pre-post
concept maps to investigate the research questions. It is not clear if this assessment
method is appropriate to capture the acquisition of T-shaped expertise, as this has not
been done before. Therefore, we critically test and then reflect on this method.
Concept mapping: pre-post procedure
Students were shown a sample concept map not related to the subject matter
(e.g. apples and trees) and then given a blank piece of paper and pencil–-–an
acceptable format given pragmatic constraints (Muryanto 2006) and 20 minutes, which
is an optimal time period for concept mapping (McClure et al. 1999). Below are example
prompts from the JMU course. The pre-test prompt stated:
1. What is your core expertise? Generate a list of topics/concepts that come to
mind.
2. What other expertise would be needed to address the problem of Genetically
Modified Organism (GMO) labeling? Generate a list of possible topics/concepts
that come to mind.
3. Using the concepts that express your expertise and the expertise of others,
above, along with any additional terms or linking phrases, arrange the topics in a
cohesive concept map using the appropriate linking phrases, which may include
any from the following list.
The researchers altered the prompt in the three different courses to test the
influence of the prompt on the student’s responses. In the ESEM course the prompt
was for ‘Interactional Expertise’, while in the SocNano course the students had twice the
time to complete two concept maps with different prompts for the ‘National
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Nanotechnology Initiative’ and ‘Interactional Expertise’ instead of GMO labeling. In this
way, the research design was flexible and adapted over time. This reinforces our open
line of inquiry and unstructured investigation. The prompts asked participants to define
their own expertise (defined as minimally-directed task (Yin et al. 2005)), which more
accurately reflect participant knowledge (Ruiz-Primo et al. 2001).
Concept mapping: data analysis
Our research did not evaluate ‘validity’ or ‘relevance’ against expert-derived
concepts, as conducted by Regis et al (1996) and others studying the achievement of
‘perfect’ knowledge. Rather, our approach seeks to understand the student’s expression
of knowledge captured in the concept map. Prior to analysis, one research assistant
(with no role in coding) removed all unique identifiers and numbered them. Pre-test
concept maps were analyzed separately from post-test concept maps by one
researcher who coded the maps first, while a second researcher reviewed the coding.
Discrepancies were negotiated and consensus was reached for all codes (Miles and
Haberman 1994). First, a research assistant recorded the number of terms that the
student defined as their ‘core expertise’ on both the pre- and post- worksheets as
evidence to address the first research question. Secondarily, a research assistant
counted the nodes and connections expressed on the concept maps to bring evidence
to bear on the second research question. All the data was entered into a database for
analysis with paired t-test within individuals.
Interview methods
To address the third research question, interviews were conducted in person with
13 participants, totaling four participants from the SocNano course and nine participants
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from the TSS course. The interviews offer explanatory data to enrich the analysis of the
concept maps. The interviews generally followed the semi-structured interview
approach, which entails questions being prepared ahead of time, yet, because the
interviewee’s responses cannot be predicted ahead of time, also allows for flexibility and
improvisation (Wengraf 2001). The flexibility that the semi-structured interview
approach provides was appropriate for this project because it allowed the interviewer to
further inquire into students’ experiences, concept map comparisons, and perspectives
on the case studies via customized, improvised in-depth follow-up questions.
Results
Our pilot study suggests that students in their formative, undergraduate courses
can refine their understanding of their own core expertise and demonstrate an
openness and aptitude for making connections to how other expertise can contribute to
addressing complex problems. These results, while not definitive, offers an initial foray
into a domain of research that is underdeveloped both theoretically and
methodologically. The method selected (concept mapping) offers results that are
promising, but need to be interrogated in a more robust manner. Students acknowledge
that multiple expertise and expanding their understanding of the broader system
‘outside the lab’ (Student No. 34) is valuable for problem solving and that will translate
to future, professional success.
ESEM course: initial data acquisition and analysis
The short-course in January offered the research team a data set from eight
students that reflected their responses to a prompt for ‘interactional expertise’. The
limited number of participants and the manner in which the students responded to the
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prompt led to changes in the prompts for the following courses. The initial data did
demonstrate that students used the case study on park management in their post-tests,
while struggling to depict ‘interactional expertise’ in their pre-tests, for example see
Figure 1. This student responded to the prompt of, ‘interactional expertise’ by creating
separate concept maps for ‘expertise’ and ‘interaction’ in their pre-test. While in their
post-test they constructed a representation of park management that integrates
expertise from multiple expertise. The students’ concept maps did show an increased
number of nodes and connections (see Figure 1), while not significant (n=8), suggested
that such a rudimentary measure of additive learning would be valuable for the spring
courses. This suggests a greater understanding of the interconnections between
different knowledge domains.
Figure 1.
Table 1.
SocNano Course: Comparative Analysis of Prompts
In the SocNano course 30 participants completed two, separate pre and post
concept maps opposed to the one concept map constructed in all the other courses.
The two concept maps were preceded by different prompts: ‘express your expertise and
the expertise of others’ and the other was ‘diagram the National Nanotechnology
Initiative’. A paired t-test within individuals was performed to compare the pre-post
results between the students’ two different maps. This serves as a point of interrogation
for the influence of the prompt on the data produced. The students produced
statistically significant differences in pre-post tests for nodes and connections in the
‘diagram the National Nanotechnology Initiative’ concept maps, while there was no
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statistical difference between the numbers of nodes and connections between the
‘interactional expertise’ concept maps, see Table 2. Thus, we interpret this result in a
manner that the students gained an appreciation for multiple expertise in the domain of
nanotechnology and society, whilst not learning about interactional expertise as concept
in and of itself. This is not surprising, since the course attending to the multidisciplinary
nature of nanotechnology and society and the course material contained only one
lecture that addressed interactional expertise.
Table 2.
The quantitative data are supported by a participant’s interview reflection that
initially, they had ‘no confidence in [their] connections’, however, following the course’s
intervention they had a ‘stronger backbone in terms of the main connections and their
respective interactions.’ The student also reflected that their post-map was ‘more linear’
due to their increased knowledge of the NNI and how the organization was structured,
see Figure 2 below (Student, No. 18). Actually, the post map is more hierarchical, with
the Congress, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and funding agencies at the
top and links spreading out that eventually incorporate multiple fields of science at the
bottom. This shows how multiple stakeholders and expertises are necessary for shaping
nanotechnology policy.
Figure 2.
One student noted that they had left out key details in the pre map, and that is
supported by the fact that less expertises are shown in Figure 3. and fewer references
to the NNI were made. The student reflected on their pre-test, ‘I would say my
understanding was vague. I could theorize how the NNI worked, but could not provide
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details’ (Student No. 12). In their post-test concept map the student expressed that, ‘my
thinking about the topic may be more detailed, or accurate. I also find it to be influenced
by the NNI sim. experience, and I left out ideas from my initial concept map that I should
have included’ (Student No. 12). The concept map that this particular student
generated depicted their own expertise in the pre-test, while in the post-test the map
reflected the structure of the NNI and how different stakeholders share knowledge and
resources.
TSS course: a case study on GMOs
Prior to the case study, students did not consider broader governance issues and
the expertise that is needed to address complex issues, such as GMOs. After the
course, they expressed more aspects of the systems and levels of governance, and
understand the regulatory dynamics and levels associated with the issue at hand. This
is demonstrated in an average increase in nodes by 1.9 (p<0.001) and connections by
2.1 (p<0.001), shown in Tables 3 and 4 respectively.
The case study cultivated an appreciation for and helped them learn how to
navigate ‘multiple perspectives’ and ‘conflicting data between knowledge domains’
(Student No. 50). The student reflected that they ‘are prone to look at things from a
scientific point of view, such as biotech or environment. [...] I don’t always think about
how it applies to world hunger, or society, or government regulations - seeing the
different sides of that, and keeping that in mind is a useful perspective,’ and something
they ‘had not thought about before’ (Student No. 50). The student discussed that in
their pre-test concept map, see Figure 3, where they had only focused on ‘how to get
[GMOs] labeled,’ however, they noted that their post-test concept map integrates
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multiple disciplinary domains and recognizes that an integrated perspective was
necessary: ‘There’s scientific information that needs to be considered in labeling, [in
addition to] governing [and] stakeholder information that needs to be included when
labeling’ (Student No. 50). It should be highlighted that in Student No. 50’s post-
concept map, GMOs are in the center, with multiple stakeholders influencing the
scientists who design GMOs. Another student found the ‘knowledge gained’ and a
‘better understanding’ of the multiple knowledge domains represented in the case study
to be the most valuable outcome of the experience (Student No. 51).
Figure 3.
One student reflected on the enhanced, holistic view they developed through the
case study. They stated that their initial concept map (and overall personal view) on
GMOs was that they were ‘dangerous to eat,’ noting that after the case study their
understanding shifted: ‘I don’t really believe that anymore’ (Student No. 54). Their
primary concern shifted to the impact on ‘society as a whole’ in particular in relation to
implications for crop diversity. The student also felt better prepared to speak to multiple
facets of the broader system, including technical, policy, and social issues. They felt that
this change was illustrated in their pre and post concept maps, see Figure 4. ‘I’m more
prepared to [speak about them] - I can section it up into different categories - the policy
and the scientific, how they’re made’ (Student No. 54). Again, Student No. 54’s map
puts GMOs at the center, showing that stakeholders and policy makers shape the
development process, not just the impacts after the technology is on the market.
Figure 4.
Cumulative results across the two campuses
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Students demonstrated an acquisition of ‘T-shaped’ expertise after taking each of
the three STS courses based on the three key indicators. First, students expressed a
greater awareness for the boundaries of their own expertise, i.e. this reinforces the
vertical dimension of the ‘T’. This finding is supported by evidence from statements on
‘core expertise’ that report a narrower set of expertise as part of their core knowledge by
-1.81 categories (p<0.001) in pre-post testing when the results from the separate
classes are analyzed cumulatively, see Table 5. Furthermore, students depicted an
enhanced understanding of the complexity of problems in pre-post tests by creating
more nodes on an average of 1.87 per concept map (p<0.001), while making 3.58 more
connections (p<0.001), see Tables 3 and 4. This suggests that students broadened
their understanding of the richness and complexity of the concept by making more
connections between nodes. The interview data highlights this broadened
understanding, as one participant reflected that their understanding of the broader
system being studied, as illustrated in their pre-concept map was ‘vague,’ but in the
post-concept map articulated his thinking as being more ‘detailed’ and ‘accurate’
(Student No. 12). The concept maps reflect a quantitative measure of ‘more’
knowledge, which does not necessarily mean ‘better’ knowledge, which is why the
structure of the maps and the interview data on the other hand capture data on how the
student gain a ‘better’ understanding of the broader aspects and greater confidence in
their own core expertise.
Table 3.
Table 4.
Table 5.
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Discussion and concluding points
This paper explored how university students demonstrate an acquisition of ‘T-
shaped’ expertise by both sharpening an understanding of their own core expertise,
while making more connections to other expertise. This suggests that an early
indication for T-shaped professionals can be integrated into STEM education curricula.
Current logical models assert that these individuals will be more ‘responsible’ innovators
as they possess both a deeper and broader understanding of the complex,
interconnected ‘wicked problems’ facing our society (Owen, Macnaugten & Stilgoe,
2013). The framework of responsible innovation demands that scientists and engineers
engage with diverse stakeholders and account for their knowledge in technoscientific
decision-making. Engagements between scientists, engineers and diverse
stakeholders can be orchestrated in trading zones where shared goals can support
collaborative problem-solving efforts. In this way T-shaped expertise, might be
considered as a set of capacities that allows integration of one’s own knowledge with
others’ knowledge. Educators and employers alike must engage in a continued
dialogue about ‘T-shaped’ expertise and build additional assessment tools that detect
differences between these ‘responsible’ innovators with T-shaped expertise and
persons with only traditional disciplinary knowledge sets at their disposal.
Towards a theory of acquisition of T-shaped expertise
Despite these limitations and needs for continued investigation, we offer an initial
theory of acquisition of ‘T-shaped’ competency comprised of three dimensions involved
in the mastery of facilitation across expertise: attitude, aptitude, and ability - three areas
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that are informed by our overarching conceptual framework comprised of trading zones,
interactional expertise, socio-technical integration, and engagement.
Attitude: For individuals to be open to the development of ‘T-shaped’
competency, they need to be willing to engage deeply with person(s) from another
disciplinary expertise, and with individuals who might not traditionally be viewed as
‘experts’ such as stakeholders with experiential knowledge. Individuals without such an
attitude readily identify other expertise as incommensurate with their own and decide to
remain in their comfort zone, not recognizing the value in working through seeming
incommensurabilities between expertise and stakeholder perspectives. Cultivating an
attitude of openness is an important balance to maintain, especially as persons initially
develop deep disciplinary expertise. Creating environments that cultivate a safe space
to explore the connections between knowledge domains in ‘low stakes’ settings where
failure can be managed and defensiveness confronted is important to cultivate an
openness to diverse perspectives.
Aptitude: An individual must be able to cultivate connections to other expertises.
Aptitude can be demonstrated through showing interest, listening, and asking questions.
Conley (2011) demonstrated an aptitude in the laboratory by being able to learn critical
laboratory tasks like polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. An aptitude for making
connections between disciplinary knowledge means being willing (attitude) to ask
‘dumb’ questions, which are quickly transformed into insightful, probing questions that
interrogate the intersections and overlaps between the person’s own expertise and that
of another. Here, an aptitude to learn the language of another discipline, in order to
communicate is an essential component of aptitude.
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Ability: Skills are developed that can bridge disciplinary languages and to work
towards a shared set of terms consisting of vocabulary that can be used by the group to
tackle an interdisciplinary challenge. T-shaped professionals use language to make the
connections between different expertise readily apparent to everyone working on a
shared problem. This can involve restating phrases to generate shared understanding.
An ability to share knowledge across disciplinary boundaries can manifest in visual
mapping techniques, shared problem definitions and envisioned solutions. An ability to
learn, develop and share knowledge across disciplinary boundaries is of utmost
importance.
Mastery of facilitation: The bringing together of these three dimensions results in
a person with mastery in facilitation that affords them a greater ability to collaborate with
persons that possess different expertise to address collective action problems. This
culmination of an attitude (willingness), aptitude (predisposition to learn), and ability
(skills development) contributes to a person learning diverse languages and bridging
divides between communities with disciplinary, epistemic, and/or ontological
incongruences.
This competency is akin to ‘interpersonal’ competency for sustainability science
as a means to transcend science-society divides (Wiek et al 2011; Wiek et al 2015).
Yet, what the ‘T-shaped’ model brings to the fore is the grounding in a disciplinary
knowledge domain as a core component of that individual’s competence. This stands in
contrast to skills rooted in conflict management and negotiation tactics, which entails
mastery of facilitation skills, while ‘T-shaped’ competency also demands an articulation
of a deep expertise along with an ability to make meaningful connections to other forms
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of expertise (including contributory expertise). To assess these four levels, our project
will need to be reconfigured in future iterations to independently assess attitude
(perceptions); ability (capacity to learn); skill (functional application of knowledge); and
efficacy to facilitate collaboration (efficacy in ‘real-world’ cases).
Methodological reflections
In regards to the assessment methodology, it is clear that the ‘prompt’ for the
concept is impactful on the student’s maps, as shown in the differences in the results
from the societal dimensions of nanotechnology case study. Other limitations are
centered around the restricted timeframe of the case study interventions, with one
consideration being the transferability of the ‘T-shaped’ skills and sensibilities cultivated
in a single course, rather than the evaluation of the full curriculum. Additionally,
longitudinal research is needed to assess the extent to which students carry the
learning experience and skillset with them into future endeavors, such as future classes
and their professions after graduation. Related to considerations regarding long term
outcomes, the assessment methodology could be further enhanced by integrating
specific prompts on the reflection worksheets and in the semi-structured interviews
related to student’s perspectives regarding the utility of T-shaped learning as connected
to their professional and career goals. Also, pre and post comparisons that capture a
greater number of participants might yield more robust, generalizable results, however,
there is a trade-off: these quantitative results cannot be interpreted without solid
qualitative data. The post map interviews described here are a good idea, but an even
better methodology would be protocol analysis, in which the students talk aloud and are
recorded as they are drawing their maps (Ericsson and Simon 1984).
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Pedagogical and institutional reflections
The curriculum at both JMU and UVA is designed to enrich the undergraduate
education in engineering and science with courses that address the intersections of
science, technology, and society. At face value, these courses seem to be a ‘natural’ fit
to support the horizontal bar of the ‘T’, yet our data suggests that these courses also
engage students in reflection activities about their own core expertise that comprises
the vertical bar. This is promising, but certainly neither conclusive, nor sufficient. As
instructors and scholars, we have been considering how these sensibilities are
cultivated within our students. What types of interdisciplinary experiences are most
beneficial to broaden their appreciation for other knowledge domains, while building
knowledge and skills in their own core expertise? To what extent is failure a positive
learning experience when confronted by seemingly incommensurate knowledge
systems? And how can discomfort of moving beyond one’s established knowledge
sphere become more of a learning experience? Do attributes of T-shaped professionals
translate directly to leadership and management skills or is that a bridge too far?
The curriculum structures recurrent interactions between the STS faculty and
engineering and science students at both institutions. This offers us opportunities for
experimentation across time and during different phases of the undergraduate
experience from first year students to their culminating undergraduate experiences and
beyond into their graduate work. The acquisition of T-shaped expertise and an ability to
interact with persons from other expertise need not be the exclusive concern of STS
scholars, but might yet become the practice of engineers and scientists working on
complex ‘wicked problems’.
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Suggestions for future research
In addition to further refining the assessment methodology and our pedagogical
approach, we seek to continue interrogating the relationship between the nascent
concept of T-shaped expertise and the rich body of scholarship on interactional
expertise. In what sense is interactional expertise essential to T-shaped expertise?
Interactional expertise demands mastery of the language of another discipline by deep
immersion in a community, and the current way of assessing interactional expertise is
via a Turing test in which an expert directs questions at an expert and an interactional
expert in order to tell which is which. Complete knowledge of the language of an
expertise may not be a prerequisite for T-shapes. Experts in a familiar context know
immediately what to do to solve a problem and often have trouble explaining the
process they used because their problem representation--often a mental model of the
situation (Gorman 1992)--cued the right approach almost instantly. When an expert
does explain this kind of immediate recognition of a problem and solution, it often relies
on the fact that episodic memory is reconstructive (Neisser 1982). Experts can produce
plausible stories about how they solved problems that fit the paradigmatic view.
Concept maps reveal the concepts and associations that form an expert’s view of
her or his expertise. These maps are constructions, made ‘on the fly’ in response to a
prompt. To improve our methodology, we plan to use protocol analysis (Ericsson and
Simon 1984) in our next study of the development of T-shaped expertise in the
classroom. Protocol analysis requires that the student talk aloud as she or he is
building her/his concept map, so the researcher can hear the rationale for decisions
about what to put on the map and how the student links and builds upon concepts. This
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methodology requires a researcher to work with a participant one-on-one, prompting
them to continue to say whatever comes into their mind as they build their maps. The
session is recorded and transcribed in a way that preserves the linkage between
utterances and actions on the map. Ideally, we would do this exercise at the beginning
of the semester, somewhere about halfway through, and at the end. The results should
help us see the development of interactional and T-shaped expertise, and whether there
is any meaningful difference between them.
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References
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Tables with Captions
Nodes
Connections
Student No.
Pre-test
Post-test
Pre-test
Post-test
1
10
12
12
37
2
9
9
9
11
3
13
17
17
29
4
7
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5
12
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16
6
18
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10
7
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25
8
13
11
11
23
Total (n=8)
11.6
12.2
12.3
21.0
Table 1. Data table from ESEM course with results from all students shown and totals,
means for nodes and connections. Four students had more nodes on the post than the
pre, 3 had fewer and one did not change. On connections, seven of the eight had more
nodes, and the differences were greater. A t-test revealed no significant differences,
but the point of this small pilot was to look closely at the data (see Discussion, below).
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Prompts
Nodes
Connections
IE
(n=30)
Pre-test mean: 13.5
Pre-test mean: 16.5
Post-test mean: 13.1
Post-test mean: 16.3
Difference: Not significant
Difference: Not significant
NNI
(n=30)
Pre-test mean: 9.7
Pre-test mean: 12.3
Post-test mean: 11.8
Post-test mean: 15.9
Difference: Significant, p<0.05
Difference: Significant, p<0.01
Table 2. Paired t-tests for differences in means for nodes and connections between the
two different prompts. Note: IE = Interactional expertise; NNI = National
Nanotechnology Initiative.
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N
Mean nodes
pre-test
Mean nodes:
post-test
Significance
ESEM (UVA)
8
11.6
12.2
No difference
SocNano (UVA)
30
9.7
11.8
p<0.05
TSS (JMU)
30
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16.2
p<0.05
Cumulative
68
11.9
13.8
p<0.001
Table 3. The mean nodes for each course are reported, along with the level of
significance in difference of means between pre-post tests.
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N
Mean
connections:
pre-test
Mean
connections:
post-test
Significance
ESEM (UVA)
8
12.3
21.0
No difference
SocNano (UVA)
30
12.3
15.9
p<0.01
TSS (JMU)
30
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18.0
p<0.05
Cumulative
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13.8
17.4
p<0.001
Table 4. The mean connections for each course are reported, along with the level of
significance in difference of means between pre-post tests.
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N
Mean core
expertise: pre-
test
Mean core
expertise: post-
test
Significance
ESEM (UVA)
8
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5.6
No difference
SocNano (UVA)
30
7.5
6.4
p<0.05
TSS (JMU)
30
8.1
5.4
p<0.001
Cumulative
68
7.5
5.8
p<0.001
Table 5. The mean number of core expertise expressed by students in each course are
reported, along with the significance in means between pre-post tests.
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Figure Captions
Figure 1. Concept map from Student 2 in ESEM course.
Figure 2. Concept map from SocNano course from Student No. 18. Pre-test on left and
post-test on right-side.
Figure 3. Concept maps generated by Student No. 50 in the TSS course. Pre-test (top)
and post-test (below).
Figure 4. Concept maps generated by Student No. 54 in the TSS course. Pre-test (left)
and post-test (right).
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