scholarly journals Team-based instructional change in undergraduate STEM: characterizing effective faculty collaboration

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Sachmpazidi ◽  
Alice Olmstead ◽  
Amreen Nasim Thompson ◽  
Charles Henderson ◽  
Andrea Beach

Abstract Background Team-based instructional change is a promising model for improving undergraduate STEM instruction. Teams are more likely to produce sustainable, innovative, and high-quality outcomes than individuals working alone. However, teams also tend to involve higher risks of failure and can result in inefficient allocation of valuable resources. At this point, there is limited knowledge of how teams in the context of STEM higher education should work to achieve desirable outcomes. Results In this study, we collect semi-structured interview data from 23 team members from a total of 4 teams at 3 institutions across the USA. We analyze the results using a grounded theory approach and connect them to the existing literature. This study builds upon the first part of our work that developed a model of team inputs that lead to team outcomes. In this part, we identify the mechanisms by which input characteristics influence teamwork and outcomes. Team member data expand this initial model by identifying key aspects of team processes and emergent states. In this paper, we present five team processes: strategic leadership, egalitarian power dynamics, team member commitment, effective communication, and clear decision-making processes, that shape how teams work together, and three emergent states: shared vision, psychological safety, and team cohesion, that team members perceived as important aspects of how teams feel and think when working together. Conclusions This work furthers our understanding of how instructional change teams can be successful. However, due to the highly complex nature of teams, further investigation with more teams is required to test and enrich the emerging theory.

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Loignon ◽  
David J. Woehr ◽  
Misty L. Loughry ◽  
Matthew W. Ohland

Emergent states are team-level attributes that reflect team members’ collective attitudes, values, cognitions, and motivations and influence team effectiveness. When measuring emergent states (e.g., cohesion, conflict, satisfaction), researchers frequently collect ratings from individual group members and aggregate them to the team level. After aggregating to the team level, researchers typically focus on mean differences across teams and ignore variability within teams. Rather than focusing on the mean level of emergent states, this study draws on recent advances in multilevel theory and describes an approach for examining the specific patterns of dispersion (i.e., disagreement) across five emergent states. Our findings suggest that teams reliably demonstrate different patterns of rating dispersion that are consistent with existing theoretical frameworks and typologies of dispersion, yet have not previously been empirically demonstrated. We also present evidence that the different patterns of dispersion in emergent states are significantly related to key team outcomes, even after controlling for the mean levels of those emergent states. These findings underscore the importance of exploring additional forms of team-level constructs and highlight ways of extending our understanding of group-level phenomena.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 413
Author(s):  
Marie-Josée Fleury ◽  
Guy Grenier ◽  
Jean-Marie Bamvita ◽  
Marie-Pierre Markon ◽  
François Chiocchio

Rationale, aims, and objectives: Team effectiveness is associated not only with team design, but also with team dynamics such as work role performance. This study aimed to: (1) identify variables associated with perceived work role performance in a sample of 315 mental health professionals and (2) assess the contributions of team members and team characteristics; organizational and territorial context; team emergent states and team processes.Method: Mental health professionals from 4 health service networks in Quebec, Canada, completed a self-administered questionnaire consisting of standardized scales. Based on a conceptual framework adapted from the Input-Mediator-Output-Input (IMOI) model, independent variables were organized according to: (1) characteristics of team members and their teams, (2) organizational and territorial context, (3) team emergent states and (4) team processes. Their respective contributions to perceived work role performance were tested using a hierarchical regression analysis.Results: Perceived work role performance was associated with younger age (characteristics of team members and their team), familiarity between co-workers (Team emergent states) and belief in interprofessional collaboration, knowledge-sharing, team interdependence and team support (Team processes). Most variation in work role performance was explained by Team emergent states, followed by Team processes.Conclusion: This study tested a large number of variables associated with perceived work role performance in mental healthcare based on a comprehensive and innovative, theory-driven framework. The inclusion of mental health professionals from several types of teams representing mental health networks in different geographical areas added value to the study. The results confirm the need for managers to optimize team emergent states and team processes in order to improve work role performance. Initiatives such as training in teamwork and clinical guidelines are recommended.


Management ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eean R. Crawford

Team processes refer to the actions team members take to combine their individual resources, knowledge, and skill to resolve their task demands and achieve collective goals. These are distinct from team emergent states which refer to characteristic levels of feelings or thoughts among team members. The distinguishing feature between team processes and emergent states is that team processes represent actions team members take, whereas emergent states represent team member attitudes, values, cognitions, and motivations. Both team processes and emergent states are conceptually dynamic and can vary as a function of the other. Conceptual clarity regarding the nature of team processes has developed only in the prior two decades. Prior to that time team processes were broadly and ill-defined. Team processes have occupied the mediating role in traditional input-process-outcome (IPO) models. However, these models have evolved to position team processes within a larger category of mediating mechanisms in organizing frameworks of overlapping domains capturing team structural features, team compositional features, and mediating mechanisms, all embedded within organizational structure and culture. Team processes are increasingly recognized as having taskwork and teamwork dimensions, with taskwork being represented as creative behavior, decision-making, and boundary spanning; and teamwork being represented by transition, action, and interpersonal processes. The subject of team processes has been represented in nearly all general reviews of small groups and teams, in many primary studies that examine both general and specific team processes, and in several meta-analyses. The fundamental conclusion of this body of research is that teams can learn how to have more effective processes, and teams with more effective processes exhibit higher performance.


Author(s):  
Lissa V. Young

Teams are a critical aspect of organizational life and understanding the taxonomy and processes extant in team life is a critical first step in learning how to optimize team and individual performance. This chapter examines key components of both team structure and team processes that form the fundamental underpinnings of team performance. Once leaders understand these constructs and the role they play in team performance, leaders can devise interventions to build better teams. The best teams produce the best team performances and contribute to enhancing the skill development of each individual team member. The relationship between the team and its members is symbiotic. Given this, a leader has the potential to impact the development of teams and individual team members simultaneously.


Bringing a safe and effective pharmaceutical product or medical device to market requires an astonishing amount of time and money. This research features interviews with the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Scientific Officers (CSOs) and Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) of many of the most successful life science firms in the USA with the goal of to capturing their thoughts on the recruitment of new hires. The executives screened candidates for emotional commitment as an essential quality to complete the long process of bench science, regulatory clearance and product positioning in the market. They sought to hire experienced team members who thought of set-backs as problems to be solved on the way to providing life-altering options for patients. These C-suite leaders needed to create a productive workplace culture, enhanced by a diverse group of professionals with a variety of experiences and temperaments. Participants noted that shared vision and resilience played a greater role in predicting performance than any particular skill-set discernible from a resume.


1986 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lou Tomes ◽  
Dixie D. Sanger

A survey study examined the attitudes of interdisciplinary team members toward public school speech-language programs. Perceptions of clinicians' communication skills and of the clarity of team member roles were also explored. Relationships between educators' attitudes toward our services and various variables relating to professional interactions were investigated. A 64-item questionnaire was completed by 346 randomly selected respondents from a two-state area. Classroom teachers of grades kindergarten through 3, teachers of grades 4 through 6, elementary school principals, school psychologists, and learning disabilities teachers comprised five professional categories which were sampled randomly. Analysis of the results revealed that educators generally had positive attitudes toward our services; however, there was some confusion regarding team member roles and clinicians' ability to provide management suggestions. Implications for school clinicians were discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erboon Ekasingh ◽  
Roger Simnett ◽  
Wendy J. Green

ABSTRACT Greenhouse gas (GHG) assurance is increasingly used by companies as a means to increase stakeholder confidence in the quality of externally reported carbon emissions. The multidisciplinary nature of these engagements means that assurance is performed primarily by multidisciplinary teams. Prior research suggests the effectiveness of such teams could be affected by team composition and team processes. We employ a retrospective field study to examine the impact of educational diversity and team member elaboration on multidisciplinary GHG assurance team effectiveness. Results show that team processes such as sufficiency of elaboration on different team member perspectives significantly increases the perceived effectiveness of the teams. While educational diversity is not found to directly improve perceived team effectiveness, it is found to have a positive effect through increasing perceived sufficiency of elaboration. These findings have important implications for standard setters and audit firms undertaking GHG assurance engagements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Bank ◽  
M. Jippes ◽  
T. R. van Rossum ◽  
C. den Rooyen ◽  
A. J. J. A. Scherpbier ◽  
...  

Abstract Background In postgraduate medical education, program directors are in the lead of educational change within clinical teaching teams. As change is part of a social process, it is important to not only focus on the program director but take their other team members into account. The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth insight into how clinical teaching teams manage and organize curriculum change processes, and implement curriculum change in daily practice. Methods An explorative qualitative semi-structured interview study was conducted between October 2016 and March 2017. A total of six clinical teaching teams (n = 6) participated in this study, i.e. one program director, one clinical staff member, and one trainee from each clinical teaching team (n = 18). Data were analysed and structured by means of thematic analysis. Results The analysis yielded to five factors that positively impact change: shared commitment, reinvention, ownership, supportive structure and open culture. Factors that negatively impact change were: resistance, behaviour change, balance between different tasks, lack of involvement, lack of consensus, and unsafe culture and hierarchy. Overall, no clear change strategy could be recognized. Conclusions Insight was gathered in factors facilitating and hindering the implementation of change. It seems particularly important for clinical teaching teams to be able to create a sense of ownership among all team members by making a proposed change valuable for their local context as well as to be capable of working together as a team. Cultural factors seem to be particularly relevant in a team’s ability to accomplish this.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audra I. Mockaitis ◽  
Elizabeth L. Rose ◽  
Peter Zettinig

This paper investigates the perceptions of members of 43 culturally diverse global virtual teams, with respect to team processes and outcomes. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the challenges presented by cultural differences in the context of global teams, little is known about the effect of these differences on team dynamics in the absence of face-to-face interaction. Using a student-based sample, we study the relationship between global virtual team members’ individualistic and collectivistic orientations and their evaluations of trust, interdependence, communication and information sharing, and conflict during the team task. Our results suggest that a collectivist orientation is associated with more favorable impressions regarding global virtual team processes and that cultural differences are not concealed by virtual means of communication.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Ferreira da Silva ◽  
Helena Becker Issi ◽  
Maria da Graça Corso da Motta ◽  
Daisy Zanchi de Abreu Botene

OBJECTIVE: To reveal the perceptions, expertise and practices of multi-professional teams providing palliative care to children in a paediatric oncology unit. The research questions were based on everyday care, facilitations and difficulties, essential aspects of professional approaches, and the inter-disciplinary focus of care for children in palliative care and their families. METHOD: Qualitative, exploratory and descriptive research. Data were collected from June to October 2013 from nine professional multidisciplinary team members by means of a semi-structured interview submitted to thematic analysis. RESULTS: The following four themes emerged from analysis: palliative care: conceptions of the multi-professional team; the construction of singular care; the facilitations and difficulties experienced by the team and significant lessons learned. CONCLUSIONS: The subjects revealed that the team also suffers with the death of a child and, like the family, moves toward the construction of coping mechanisms for the elaboration of mourning. Paradoxically, the team shares knowledge to determine the foundations of a singular therapeutic project and inserts the family in this process so that it can be the protagonist of the child's care.


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