51-4 Harnessing Teamwork Process Skills for Effective Fieldwork and Community of Practice

Session: Geoscience Education Research: Methods, Frameworks, and Results from Emerging Scholars

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Abstract:

Fieldwork activities, whether camping in Southern Oregon to collect geological data or field trips to Eagle Creek in Indiana to obtain onsite knowledge can be important for building effective community of practice (CoP), especially for novice participants to develop community identity. This leads to the question of “how geoscience CoP and identity develops” during collaborative fieldwork. Using fieldwork and teamwork process skills as proxies, and data from a team of 15 novice and expert international geoscientists participating in a more than one year CoP program including a 10-day field deployment, we define a model for CoP development among interdisciplinary and transnational geoscientists. Findings reveal that while CoP formation depends on attractors such as team purpose, reification, formation of self, and common resources/practices, the functioning and evolvement (operationalization) of effective CoPs is highly dependent on teamwork process skills for transacting coordinative activities, social infrastructure, and the alignment of community norms and structure across the novice to expert spectrum. In addition, the availability or lack of double-edged mentoring, coordination, communication, and leadership highly influence the participation of novice members. Our model suggests that leveraging CoP activities such as fieldwork and teamwork process skills can generate positive feedback loops to reinforce mastery in geoscience knowledge and identity development among novice or peripheral participants in the field settings. We provide evidence-based examples on how to leverage subduction zone fieldwork with CoP attractors such as abstract and conference attendance, and effective teamwork process skills (CoP operators) such as open-mindedness, patience, two-way mentoring, and competition among members to promote geoscience knowledge and research, and how this knowledge and research identity can in turn help attract more legitimate peripheral participants into the CoP. 

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

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