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.     

Towards a contextualized model of team learning processes and outcomes

Existing review studies on team learning present integrated models, suggesting general applicability to any team. However, such models neglect the influence of the team type and its developmental stages. These context-specific characteristics may create variety in team learning processes and outcomes among teams. In this theoretical contribution, we revisit the most recent generic team learning model developed by Decuyper, Dochy, and Van den Bossche (2010). Taking this model as a starting point, we present a context-specific model for ad hoc multidisciplinary emergency management teams. The developed model can fuel future research on team learning in teams with comparable characteristics. It supports the development of tools to evaluate them and offers the rationale for training programs aiming to increase the quality of their interventions.     

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.     

The Five-Factor Model personality assessment for improved student design team performance

Researchers have long noted the correlation of various personality traits and team performance. Studies relating aggregate team personality traits to team performance are scattered in the literature and may not always be relevant to engineering design teams. This paper synthesizes the results from applicable Five-Factor Model (FFM)-based personality studies related to engineering design team performance, into a form that can be readily used by non-experts—engineering faculty and students. In addition, an approach is presented where aggregate data is visually presented to recognize patterns that correspond to strength and existence of personality traits within the team as measured by the FFM model while maintaining student confidentiality. With this approach, identification of team strengths and weaknesses stemming from the personality trait distribution is simplified. An assessment of the usability of the approach—completed in two first-year engineering courses—is presented to demonstrate its potential.     

Team learning in teacher teams: team entitativity as a bridge between teams-in-theory and teams-in-practice

This study aimed to investigate team learning in the context of teacher teams in higher vocational education. As teacher teams often do not meet all criteria included in theoretical team definitions, the construct team entitativity was introduced. Defined as the degree to which a group of individuals possesses the quality of being a team, this makes it possible to extend team learning research from strict teams-in-theory to various types of teams-in-practice, including teacher teams. The team learning beliefs and behaviours model, including team entitativity, was applied to teacher teams, assessing whether it still stands in these non-strict teams. Data were collected from 105 teams and analysed using multilevel analysis. Results showed that team entitativity, psychological safety and group potency were related to the occurrence of team learning. The latter appeared to be significantly related to team effectiveness, and the formation of mutually shared cognition was found to be a mediating variable in this relationship.     

Exploring the Impact of Receiving Sender‐Based Negative and Positive Feedback on Team‐Level Process Outcomes Using a Mobile Application

Team‐based projects continue to be important for structuring work in many organizations, and employees are increasingly using mobile applications (apps) for peer evaluations as part of a performance appraisals process. Since a graduating student can expect to work in a team at some point in their career, exposure to class‐related group projects is important. This study explored using a mobile application (app) called DevelapMe (DMe), which allowed for 273 business undergraduates in 54 teams to give and receive real‐time peer‐based feedback during a 5‐week group project. Prior empirical research has shown that technology can improve the group development process, but such research has not used a mobile app. The general goal of this study was to investigate how receiving real‐time feedback through a mobile app (DMe) can affect the team development process over time. Two online surveys, Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2), were administered over a 5‐week period. Results showed that two of the three team‐level process outcomes, team trust and team commitment (but not team value‐goal fit), significantly increased from T1 to T2. Results also showed that receiving T1 sender‐based positive, but not negative, feedback scales had a significant impact on all three team‐level process outcomes.     

Leadership for team learning: the case of university teacher teams

Teacher team involvement is considered a key factor in achieving sustainable innovation in higher education. This requires engaging in team learning behaviors that should result in new knowledge and solutions. However, university teachers are not used to discussing their work practices with one another and tend to neglect any innovation in their tasks. Team leadership behavior is often considered essential for stimulating team learning behavior, but it is unclear how this transpires. Therefore, the present study explores university teacher team members’ perceptions of team learning behavior, their assigned task, and leadership behaviors in their team. Interviews were conducted with 16 members of different teacher teams at a university of applied sciences. Findings included that the vast majority of the team learning behaviors only involved sharing ideas; engaging in constructive conflicts and co-constructions was not observed. Only a few teams combined all three team learning behaviors. In these teams, members observed that existing methods and solutions were no longer adequate, with leaders appearing to combine transformational and transactional behaviors, but operating from a distance without actively interfering in the process. Furthermore, these team members shared leadership behaviors while focusing on the team as a whole, instead of solving problems at individual level. This strongly indicates that task perception and specific vertical and shared team leadership behaviors play a role in stimulating teachers in seeking controversy and co-constructing new knowledge.     

The Joint Influence of Intra- and Inter-Team Learning Processes on Team Performance: A Constructive or Destructive Combination?

In order for teams to build a shared conception of their task, team learning is crucial. Benefits of intra-team learning have been demonstrated in numerous studies. However, teams do not operate in a vacuum, and interact with their environment to execute their tasks. Our knowledge of the added value of inter-team learning (team learning with external parties) is limited. Do both types of team learning compete over limited resources, or do they form a synergistic combination? We aim to shed light on the interplay between intra- and inter-team learning in relation to team performance, by including adaptive and transformative sub-processes of intra-team learning. A quantitative field study was conducted among 108 university teacher teams. The joint influence of intra- and inter-team learning as well as structural (task interdependence) and cultural (team efficacy) team characteristics on self-perceived and externally rated team performance were explored in a path model. The results showed that adaptive intra-team learning positively influenced self-perceived team performance, while transformative intra-team learning positively influenced externally rated team performance. Moreover, intra-team and inter-team learning were found to be both a constructive and a destructive combination. Adaptive intra-team learning combined with inter-team learning led to increased team performance, while transformative intra-team learning combined with inter-team learning hurt team performance. The findings demonstrate the importance of distinguishing between both the scope (intra- vs. inter-team) and the level (adaptive vs. transformative) of team learning in understanding team performance.     

The effects of internal feedback and self-compassion on the perception of negative feedback and post-feedback learning behavior

Negative feedback confronts learners with errors or failure but holds great learning potential. However, learners might perceive it as self-threatening, and thus react maladaptively. Feedback theories recommend prompting internal feedback prior to external feedback. And self-compassion is found to support adaptive reactions to failure. Thus, this study examined in a 2 × 2 factorial design the effects of prompting internal feedback or self-compassion, or both, on feedback perception and post-feedback learning behavior. Participants (N = 210) completed a brief difficult reasoning test and received failure feedback. Perceived acceptance and fairness of the feedback were higher in the internal feedback and self-compassion conditions compared to the control condition with no prompts. The intervention effects were higher for participants with high perceived competence and low trait self-compassion. No significant effects on post-feedback learning behavior were observed. The results highlight the relevance of internal feedback processes for feedback perception.     

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。     

Providing external feedback and prompting the generation of internal feedback fosters achievement,strategies and motivation in concept learning

The Interactive Two Feedback Loops Model (Narciss, 2008, 2013) suggests that not only providing external feedback but also prompting students to generate internal feedback may influence learning and motivation. This study aims at investigating the effects of internal and external feedback on achievement, strategy, and motivation in concept learning. Using a 2 × 3 experimental design with 121 teacher students we investigated the effects of combining internal feedback (i.e. self-explaining why a task solution is correct or incorrect) with three types of external feedback (no feedback; knowledge of result (KR); KR + knowledge about mistakes (KM)). Combining internal and external types of feedback was more beneficial for concept learning achievement, strategy use, as well as students’ intrinsic motivation, and perceived competence, than providing either internal or external feedback. Most notably, if students are asked to generate internal feedback in terms of self-explaining their responses, simple external KR feedback is as beneficial as elaborated KM-feedback.     

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.     

Reengineering Academic Teams Toward a Network Organizational Structure*

This article examines student teamwork in the academic field from a structural perspective. Student teams are often prearranged and then left to organize themselves and get on with their work, without any further structural support; this, however, can become a negative experience on teamwork. A varied contribution among team members often occurs and unavoidably leads to friction and reduced performance. The aim of this project is to explore the main problems in academic teamwork and investigate tools that provide relevant solutions. We present the concept of network organizational structure and discuss how this can improve collaboration and communication. The main tools to achieve a structural transformation from the more traditional form of team organization to the fairer network form, and their implications are discussed.     

Simulating the multi‐disciplinary care team approach: Enhancing student understanding of anatomy through an ultrasound‐anchored interprofessional session

Quality of healthcare delivery is dependent on collaboration between professional disciplines. Integrating opportunities for interprofessional learning in health science education programs prepares future clinicians to function as effective members of a multi‐disciplinary care team. This study aimed to create a modified team‐based learning (TBL) environment utilizing ultrasound technology during an interprofessional learning activity to enhance musculoskeletal anatomy knowledge of first year medical (MD) and physical therapy (PT) students. An ultrasound demonstration of structures of the upper limb was incorporated into the gross anatomy courses for first‐year MD (n = 53) and PT (n = 28) students. Immediately before the learning experience, all students took an individual readiness assurance test (iRAT) based on clinical concepts regarding the assigned study material. Students observed while a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician demonstrated the use of ultrasound as a diagnostic and procedural tool for the shoulder and elbow. Following the demonstration, students worked within interprofessional teams (n = 14 teams, 5–6 students per team) to review the related anatomy on dissected specimens. At the end of the session, students worked within interprofessional teams to complete a collaborative clinical case‐based multiple choice post‐test. Team scores were compared to the mean individual score within each team with the Wilcoxon signed‐rank test. Students scored higher on the collaborative post‐test (95.2 ±10.2%) than on the iRAT (66.1 ± 13.9% for MD students and 76.2 ±14.2% for PT students, P < 0.0001). Results suggest that this interprofessional team activity facilitated an improved understanding and clinical application of anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 11: 94–99. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Interdisciplinary team education promotes innovations in the home care of older people

This article describes a new type of team training that involves undergraduate students of medicine, students from the Aalto University (industrial engineering and management, architecture, information networks, collaborative and industrial design and bioinformation technology) and specialized home care nurses. During the course, the students learned interdisciplinary teamwork and created innovations in the care of older people. The 18 participants formed six microteams (three persons in each team: one specialized nurse, one medical student and one from Aalto University). The course consisted of two seminars and 3 full days of home visits to older people’s homes. Participants were encouraged to make one innovation in each home visit that would improve the older person’s well-being or streamline the processes of home care. During the course, the participants promptly formed tight teams. They valued the know-how of the other team members and learned openly from each other. They also created a number of practical innovations in home care which they presented to executives of older people’s care in a final seminar. The course received very good feedback from the students.

This course is an encouraging example of how gerontological interdisciplinary team training may be successfully applied. The article describes both the learning outcomes and the innovations the students produced during their home visits. It also discusses the learning theories behind effective interdisciplinary team learning.     

团队文化和领导方式对团队创新的影响及其机制

以中国南方某省级电信运营公司及其所属18个市级分公司的90个团队、306名团队成员为样本,探讨了市场导向、学习导向这两种团队文化特质与团队创新的关系及其影响机制。回归分析结果表明:(1)市场导向与学习导向正向预测团队创新。(2)团队反思在市场导向、学习导向与团队创新关系中起着完全中介作用。(3)领导方式在团队文化与团队反思的关系中具有调节作用,总体而言,在一个有利于创新的团队文化氛围中,变革型领导相比交易型领导更能促成反思和创新,但其正向调节效应并不十分稳定。     

Prompting and visualising monitoring outcomes: Guiding self-regulatory processes with confidence judgments

Sensible self-regulated study decisions are largely based on monitoring learning and using this information to control learning processes, but research has found that such processes may not be initiated automatically. To support learners, we adopted prompting and visualisation methods by asking learners to assign confidence ratings to learning tasks and visualising them during re-study, and tested the effects on metacognitive and cognitive measures in an experimental study (N = 95). Results show that prompting monitoring increased study efforts while visualising monitoring outcomes during learning focussed these efforts on uncertain answers. Due to low monitoring accuracy, metacognitively sensible regulation did not lead to cognitive learning gains. While the results support the idea of using visualisation techniques to implicitly guide self-regulated learning, more needs to be done to increase monitoring accuracy. Further, our study suggests that researchers should be aware of the effect that assessing confidence judgments has on subsequent learning behaviour.     

Developing team skills through a collaborative writing assignment

Employers want students who are able to work effectively as members of a team, and expect universities to develop this ability in their graduates. This paper proposes a framework for a collaborative writing assignment that specifically develops students’ ability to work in teams. The framework has been tested using two iterations of an action research project, with this paper focusing on the second iteration. The paper provides detailed information on how the framework was implemented, and then reports on the students’ perceptions of their learning about teamwork.     

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.