The effect of team feedback and guided reflexivity on team performance change

Providing teams with feedback has been forwarded as a powerful practice to improve their learning and performance. Yet, this learning potential may not be realized unless teams actively process this feedback by stepping back from their team activity, building plans, and ultimately putting them into action. In an experimental study (N = 212 undergraduate students), we compared the effects of team-level feedback with or without an intervention prompting shared reflection on the feedback (i.e., guided reflexivity) to a no feedback control group on team performance growth. The results showed that only the combination of team performance feedback and guided reflexivity lead to performance change, at the beginning of team activity. These findings suggest that prompting feedback processing at an early stage of collaborative work has the power to help teams benefit from their past experiences and improve performance.     

The relationships between emotional competence and team learning behaviours

This study provides a systematic review on the relationships between emotional competence and team learning behaviours, with 32 studies identified as addressing these relationships within teams whose team members are interdependent in the fulfilment of their work tasks and goals. By examining the selected studies' findings, positive relationships between emotional competence and its dimensions and various team learning behaviours were identified. Focussed on emotional competence, the perception of own emotions and others’ emotions supports teams and their members by recognising the emotions that surface during teamwork, while emotional management helps teams deal with these emotions. Although emotional expressiveness as a fourth dimension hardly has been investigated, it plays a key role and is essential to the perception of emotions in a team. Expressing, perceiving and dealing with emotions within a team enables teams and their members to work openly with each other, share and create knowledge, reflect upon teamwork and discuss constructively with each other instead of against each other. Considering the different levels of measurement and analysis, this systematic review provides an in-depth insight into the relationships between emotional competence and team learning behaviours and identifies research gaps such as implications for methodological and future research as well as practical implications for organisational practitioners and teams.     

Team dynamics feedback for post-secondary student learning teams

In the current research, we introduce the team CARE model for supporting team development during post-secondary education. Team CARE is part of a larger suite of assessments at itpmetrics.com. Team CARE is a free, online, survey-based assessment that allows team members to rate their team’s health and functioning in four key categories (communicate, adapt, relate and educate), as well as provide written feedback about the team’s functioning to add nuance and supplemental context to the numeric scores. Team members completing the assessment receive a report documenting their team’s scores on the variables measured. We report on data from student learning teams suggesting that the variables in the team CARE model are reliable, and that they are correlated with team performance outcomes. Students’ perceptions of the tool were also examined, and the findings suggest that team CARE is perceived to be valuable, useful and easy to use. Recommendations for practice are detailed, including sample assessment schedules for teams with differing life spans. Implications for future research and implementation are discussed.     

Collaborative learning processes in the context of a public health professional development program: a case study

The health promotion laboratory (HPL – Canada) is a public health professional development program building on a collaborative learning approach in order to support long-term practice change in local health services teams. This study aims to analyse the collaborative learning processes of two teams involved in the program during the first year of implementation. Based on a multiple case study design involving observations, interviews, and documentary sources, the study: (1) describes the learning process by which each team built a common understanding of the problem at hand and developed an intervention to address it; (2) identifies factors that facilitated or hindered these processes; and (3) proposes a cross-case explanation of the collaborative learning process in the HPL. The results demonstrate that the two teams learned by expanding their repertoire of actions, albeit experiencing different processes. Results point to the central role of shared mental models and key influencing factors, such as commitment and participation (team cohesion), team climate (psychological safety), and leadership style. Unlike previous studies on team learning that concentrated on existing teams in organisations, the current research studied purposely created teams working at transforming their practices and showed that they can successfully learn if specific conditions are achieved.     

The importance of structuring information and resources within shared workspaces during collaborative design learning

This paper investigates how the organization or structure of information and resources in shared workspaces influences team sharing and design learning. Two groupware products, BSCW and TikiWiki, were configured so that teams could structure and share resources. In BSCW the resources were structured hierarchically using folders and subfolders whereas in TikiWiki resources were structured using interlinked wiki pages (like web pages). The results showed that the groupware technology used, the collaborative task set and opportunities to reflect all influenced the way teams structured resources and that well‐structured resources facilitated team collaboration and design learning. The discussion focuses on the need to help students develop information literacy skills and on why asking students to structure resources might help develop their design expertise.     

Improving collaborative learning in online software engineering education

Team projects are commonplace in software engineering education. They address a key educational objective, provide students critical experience relevant to their future careers, allow instructors to set problems of greater scale and complexity than could be tackled individually, and are a vehicle for socially constructed learning. While all student teams experience challenges, those in fully online programmes must also deal with remote working, asynchronous coordination, and computer-mediated communications all of which contribute to greater social distance between team members. We have developed a facilitation framework to aid team collaboration and have demonstrated its efficacy, in prior research, with respect to team performance and outcomes. Those studies indicated, however, that despite experiencing improved project outcomes, students working in effective software engineering teams did not experience significantly improved individual achievement. To address this deficiency we implemented theoretically grounded refinements to the collaboration model based upon peer-tutoring research. Our results indicate a modest, but statistically significant (p?=?.08), improvement in individual achievement using this refined model.     

Experiences from employees with team learning in a vocational learning or work setting: A systematic review of qualitative evidence

This qualitative evidence synthesis aimed to integrate findings on the experiences of employees with team learning in the context of their work or vocational learning setting. The meta-aggregative approach to qualitative evidence synthesis was used to summarize the findings from original research papers in which the experiential level of employees was investigated. The findings suggest that employees learn for different reasons and in different ways. Three major lines of actions for practice and policy were developed from the synthesis. A first advice is to stimulate communication, boundary crossing and knowledge sharing and establish an enabling learning environment that triggers positive factors for team learning. Secondly, it is important to analyse the authority structures that influence the relationships within a team, minimise the power inequalities that flow from hierarchical differences, and support and enable team leaders to influence the power differences inside their team. Finally, it is recommended to try to recognise the authenticity, the commitment and devotion of employees toward team learning, to stimulate but not to intervene in the natural process of team learning, and to consider the place of reflection and action in this process.     

高校高水平运动队运作现状的研究分析

运用文献资料法、访谈法、逻辑推理法,从招生管理、学训矛盾、经费来源等方面对高校高水平运动队现状进行分析。主要研究结果如下：高校高水平运动队组建以＂为国家培养高水平体育人才＂为目标,但实际操作中却出现了诸多与目标背离的做法;招生制度不完善、严重的学训矛盾以及基础设施的不完善制约了高校运动队的发展;高校运动队缺乏高素质、高水平的教练员团队。     

Investigating Team Learning in a Military Context

As teams have become fundamental parts of today’s organisations, the need for these teams to function and learn efficiently and effectively is widely emphasised. Also in military contexts team learning is vital. The current article examines team learning behaviour in military teams as it aims to cross-validate a team learning model that was originally developed and tested in an educational context. This team learning model includes several socio-cognitive factors that precede, constitute, and result from team learning behaviour. Findings based on path analyses indicate that psychological safety, social cohesion and group potency are positively related to team learning behaviour in military teams. In addition, team learning behaviour does not only foster the construction of mutually shared cognition and transactive memory systems, but also relates positively to the effectiveness of military teams.     

浅析如何打造高绩效的团队

目前很多中国企业具有一流的硬件设施，但中国企业的竞争力不强，最主要的问题不是战略问题，而是高绩效团队短缺的问题。高绩效的团队是企业的脊梁。是企业的核心人才库，是企业创新源泉。大量的案例和事实证明，企业的成功不是取决于某个人，整体团队的水平起到了80％的作用。一个企业团队的优秀程度，决定着企业的未来。 本文从不同绩效团队的表现切入论题，首先重点分析团队执行力的塑造。主要分析执行力不强的原因，提出要培养执行力，必须解决团队政策朝令夕改，制度本身不合理，流程过于繁琐等问题。然后分析团队如何有效的沟通。论述了建立团队共同愿景、正式沟通网络和如何发挥非正式团体的正向作用，总结了怎样技巧性的进行团队批评。接下来分析团队冲突的原因，根据托马斯一基尔曼模型，论述团队冲突采用竞争、回避、迁就、妥协和合作五种处理方式，每种处理方式的行为特征和心态描述，指出解决冲突的方法和技巧。最后提出依据团队的发展阶段。结合各阶段的特征，打造高绩效的团队应采取的管理策略。 本文力求在系统、深入的团队分析基础上，从团队建设的重点环节提出应采取的策略，希望能为打造高绩效的团队提供有益的参考。     

影响分布式团队绩效的因素探析

以往的团队研究主要集中于同地域团队而忽视分布式团队。为准确把握影响分布式团队绩效的因素,以达到团队研究的真正目的,必须拓展和加深对分布式团队特点、沟通方式、跨文化因素等的探讨,重视对层级团队和现实团队的研究。     

Enabling team learning in healthcare

This paper is based on a study of learning processes within 35 healthcare therapy teams that took action to improve their services. The published research on team learning is introduced, and the paper suggests it is an activity that has similarities with action research and with those forms of action learning where teams address collective problems to enhance organisational performance. The paper proposes factors within the teams and in the teams’ environments that enabled team learning, in particular, within the team, the behaviours of team leaders to encourage learning, communication, planning, action and review, and in the teams’ environments, the behaviour of senior managers and other stakeholders in positions of authority, access to effective information systems, and the availability of a modest amount of resource to enable team learning.     

Team Machine: A Decision Support System for Team Formation

This paper reports on the cross‐disciplinary research that resulted in a decision‐support tool, Team Machine (TM), which was designed to create maximally diverse student teams. TM was used at a large United States university between 2004 and 2012, and resulted in significant improvement in the performance of student teams, superior overall balance of the teams as well as overwhelmingly favorable reactions from stakeholders. An empirical study is conducted comparing the performance of teams created by TM compared to teams manually allocated by a subject matter expert. The findings show that optimally balanced teams perform better than those created manually. TM serves as a broad‐based example of how to integrate business analytics into interactive search by conflating human judgment with algorithmic efficiency in the context of team formation. The contribution of this research to the academic community is a model and solution method which can be easily implemented to solve a very important and recurring issue faced by many MBA programs and empirical evidence of its value. The outcomes of this study include empirical evidence of increased team performance, significant administrative time savings, improvement to team diversity, and increased satisfaction from students and administrators with the team formation process.     

Team learning: building shared mental models

To gain insight in the social processes that underlie knowledge sharing in teams, this article questions which team learning behaviors lead to the construction of a shared mental model. Additionally, it explores how the development of shared mental models mediates the relation between team learning behaviors and team effectiveness. Analyses were performed on student-teams engaged in a business simulation game. The measurement of shared mental models was based on cognitive mapping techniques. The results indicate that a team learning perspective provides insight in how people share knowledge. Particularly the team learning behaviors identified as co-construction and constructive conflict are related to the development of shared mental models. In addition, a shared mental model of the task environment in a team leads to improved performance. This underscores the importance of developing shared cognition in teamwork.     

从个体学习到团队学习--当代学习理论与实践发展的新趋势

随着学习研究的深入和学习观念的更新，学习的主体意识在学生、教师和家长中不断强化，但大多数人对学习主体的理解，都停留在个体学习的层次和水平。本文阐述了学习主体从个体向团队的拓展和提升这一当代学习理论与实践发展的新趋势，较深入地探讨了个体学习、协作学习和团队学习的区别与内在联系，并从时代高度论证了在我国学校教育中倡导团队学习的价值和意义。     

Professional Development in the Use of Data: From Data to Knowledge in Data Teams

Schools need support in the use of data. To provide this support, a data team intervention was developed. A prior study conducted in the Netherlands showed that several factors can enable or hinder the work of data teams. The current replication study focuses on the factors influencing data use in data teams and the perceived effects of the data teams’ work, but looking at data teams in Sweden. The results of this qualitative study show that the data teams’ work is influenced by the same factors as in the Netherlands: Data characteristics (e.g., relevance of the data), team characteristics (e.g., heterogeneity of the team), and school organizational characteristics (e.g., school leader support).     

网络团队及网络团队学习心理浅谈

网络团队学习是学习者利用计算机、网络以及各种现代通信等技术,为了共同的学习目标或学习任务,在友好合作的氛围中有组织、有纪律、分工明确而又相互合作的开展学习活动。其特点是有约束性、准入制度、信任标准、组织者和明确目标;有用性、责任心、学习兴趣、心理安全、宜人性则是网络团队学习的心理特点。     

Implementing New Pedagogical Models: Using Undergraduate Teaching Assistants in a Violence and Gender Learning Community

This article describes the use of undergraduate teaching assistants in a Violence and Gender learning community. After an introduction to the learning community structure and content, we describe the rationale for exploring this innovative pedagogical model. We present our strategies for recruiting, selecting, and preparing the undergraduate teaching assistants for this experience and illustrate how we collaborated as a teaching team. Finally, we present an evaluation of this model, using the teaching assistants' reflections on this experience, a survey of and interviews with students enrolled in the learning community, and our own assessment of this experience.     

Talk,planning and decision‐making in interdisciplinary teacher teams: a case study

A diverse range of social structures, for instance teacher teams, professional communities and teacher learning communities, are established to advance collaboration among teachers. In Norway, Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams (ITTs) have become a common way of organising teachers in schools, recommended in a national curriculum reform in 1997. This study explores the internal structure, social meaning and potential resources for learning and development inherent in the planning and coordination of work in ITT meetings. Most studies of teacher teams as well as teacher learning communities are based on teachers’ experiences, expressed in interviews or surveys. The focus of this study is not on what teachers say about teams, but on what teachers say in teams. While most studies have addressed within‐department, subject‐specific teams, this study focuses on interdisciplinary teams. Team‐talk in two ITTs in two different lower secondary schools in Norway has been videotaped and analysed. Four patterns of interaction have been identified – preserving individualism: renegotiating individual autonomy and personal responsibility; coordination: assuring the social organisation of work; cooperation: creating a shared object or enterprise; and sharing: clarifying pedagogical motives. The study illustrates patterns in team‐talk, conceptualises the processes of decision‐making that take place in these ITTs and identifies resources for learning and development inherent in certain forms of interaction. The study contributes to the research literature by both focusing on the details of the interaction in team meetings and analysing the dynamics of the group interaction in the perspective of the situatedness and the object‐orientation of team‐talk.     

信任对教师团队学习的影响机制及其培养策略

教师团队学习对学校的发展尤为重要,而信任是团队学习得以顺利进行的必要保障。本文从团队成员、团队领导、学校三个层面分析了信任对教师团队学习的影响机制以及教师团队信任的培养策略,提出了研究信任如何影响教师团队学习的新视角。