How to build your research expertise: Steps for postgrads

Promotion, salary increases, a prerequisite for professional registration or broadening your knowledge base? Whatever your reasons for enrolling for a postgraduate qualification, the question is how to develop your key skills to get there. A happy by-product of completing your postgraduate qualification the right way is that you become well-versed in quick and wise decision-making, being able to diagnose problems and assess opportunities in multiple contexts. You develop critical thinking skills and critical experience-based knowledge you can transfer to your industry. Drawing on the work from Professor Dorothy Leonard, the following steps can help you to develop these skills while you complete your postgraduate qualification:

Identify mentors or examples to learn from:

Look at your field and the academics who operate within your field. Who is good at what they do, and who can communicate what they know and do effectively? Which experts are held in high regard by their supervisors or peers? Who do you want to be “when you grow up”? 

Assess the gap between you and them: 

This is not an easy step and requires that you critically evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. How much do you need to learn to meet the standards of the examples you want to follow? If the skills and knowledge gaps are small, that should give you confidence. If you still have a lot to learn, you can use this as an opportunity to plan your way to success. Make a list of things you still need to learn as well as the skills you need to develop, and jot down how you can start working on developing these skills during the course of your postgraduate research work. Study on your own: This step links with the previous one. There are many books and other resources that can help you bridge your knowledge gaps. You can start by reading some textbooks, research articles, talking to knowledgeable colleagues or peers, and consider attending seminars, workshops or online courses that will help you. 

Collaborate. 

Once you have a solid understanding of concepts and you have done your homework, you can reach out to experts and academics in your field to engage with you about your research topic. Remember that these experts will have limited time to commit to these types of discussions, so make them count. Learn how to absorb knowledge: Be open to all opportunities within and outside of your organization and higher learning institutions to learn. Keep up to date with special workshops and initiatives that will allow you to learn more and develop those key skills you need to succeed. Don’t expect your supervisor or experts in the field just to tell you what to do and present the next steps in bullet points. That is impossible as expertise is developed within context. Rather develop the art of asking questions such as why and can you give me an example to guide their suggestions. You can use their expertise to develop your skills further in other contexts- but this will depend on your ability to make the connections needed. 

Observe experts in action (if possible) and gain some experience:

If you have a strong research component to your degree, consider observing or volunteering to do fieldwork on bigger projects. This will give you a great opportunity to observe experts in action and it is a safe space to gain some experience in research. Any experience that gives you a taste of the “expert’s” decision-making process and deeper understanding of a context will help you gain insights. If nothing else, it will allow you to ask better questions when you interview your own participants. 

Remember that developing expertise and skills takes time. It is, therefore, important to start following the suggested steps early on to help you develop and use these skills while you work towards graduation.