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While the role of teams in leading transformations within academia is increasingly recognized, few studies have analyzed how teams form. Understanding the processes of interdisciplinary team formation within higher education will allow leaders to intentionally bring together individuals and form teams with higher likelihoods of success. In this study, we examine the early stages of change team formation within higher education, specifically looking at the two interconnected processes of search and selection, and we explore how a community of practice influences these processes through situated learning. Our longitudinal qualitative analysis demonstrates how teams form and transform over time, from the initial search process for team members to the factors that informed the initial and ongoing selection of team members. We find that a community of practice influenced these processes by shaping how teams understood their instrumental needs and how members understood their role within interdisciplinary teams. Finally, we examine a correlation between leadership structure and team member turnover, finding that a centralized leadership structure that lacks a vision for change shared among team members may drive turnover. The results provide insights into the dynamic nature of change team formation within academia.
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Team-based instructional change in undergraduate STEM: characterizing effective faculty collaboration
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.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1914857
- PAR ID:
- 10310200
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International Journal of STEM Education
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2196-7822
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-021-00273-4
