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.     

Dialogue and team teaching

Although dialogue is a common word in educational theory, its full significance is diluted if it is seen as a matter of exchange or negotiation of prior intellectual positions. In fact, the dia‐ of dialogue indicates through: dialogue moves through participants and they through it. Dialogue allows participants to have thoughts they could not have had on their own, yet to recognise these thoughts as developments of their own thinking. On this understanding of dialogue, education is a transformative rather than simply accumulative process. Similarly, team teaching is often thought to involve no more than the summative logic of sharing loads and adding perspectives. In dialogic pedagogy, however, team teaching refers to the way that the supportive relationship between teachers opens opportunities for students to join the team as teachers. Although teachers and students have different responsibilities, all learn through a collective dialogue. The article draws on our practice of dialogic team teaching large first‐year classes.     

The Effects of Word‐Learning Biases on Children's Concept of Angle

Despite evidence that young children are sensitive to differences in angle measure, older students frequently struggle to grasp this important mathematical concept. When making judgments about the size of angles, children often rely on erroneous dimensions such as the length of the angles' sides. The present study tested the possibility that this misconception stems from the whole‐object word‐learning bias by providing a subset of children with a separate label to refer to the whole angle figure. Thirty preschoolers (M = 4.86 years, SD = .53) were tested with a pretest–training–posttest design. At pretest, children showed evidence of the whole‐object misconception. After training, children who were given a novel‐word label for the whole object improved significantly more than those trained on the meaning of “angle” alone.     

Perceived Level of Personal Control Over the Work Environment and Employee Satisfaction and Work Performance

The purpose of this article is to provide a review of background information regarding perceived level of personal control over the physical features of the work environment and its impact on individual satisfaction and outcomes. In today's business with the fast growth of technology, e‐market development, and innovative methods of communication, the workplace will continue to change rapidly. To control and accommodate these fast changes while sustaining or enhancing outcomes, organizations have increasingly turned to a model of work teams; therefore, employees’ skills in working within team environments has been emphasized. To guarantee that the work environment itself supports these new approaches of working, flexible workplaces are often suggested. Open‐plan offices offer more flexibility when compared to completely closed and private ones and they are considered to have more capabilities and are, therefore, highly valued in today's industry. Apart from its advantages, open‐plan office design does create some problems due to lack of personal control over the work environment, which can negatively affect employees’ satisfaction and performance. It is, therefore, important to emphasize the significance of personal control over the physical work environment and the impact of that on employees’ satisfaction and outcome.     

Straining training: the epistemology of workplace learning

Learning in, and from, the workplace has moved centre‐stage. In this paper, arguments and insights from the humanities, in particular philosophical psychology, are developed to show that generic, higher‐order human qualities are demanded and cultivated by managerial work. What was traditionally regarded as a great epistemological divide between high‐status intrinsic education, and low‐status instrumental training (with work‐based knowledge in the latter area) is now dissolving. New workforce requirements of creativity and initiative are now regarded as essential to an evolving national and international enterprise culture. Close analysis of the psychology of decision‐making reveals both a paradox and a powerful metaphor for a more appropriate model of workplace knowledge.     

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.     

A Crisis in Staffing Rehabilitation Agencies: Compensation,Training, Retention or What? A Canadian Perspective

Maintaining a team of skilled and concerned personnel will be a major challenge of rehabilitation agencies in the 1990s. During the affluent 1970s programs were established in Canada and other countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and New Zealand to prepare personnel for work in community agencies; often they replaced nurses and untrained staff who had been the primary caregivers. The new educational models successfully produced many skilled and competent personnel. However, dramatic changes in the international economic climate and budget pressures on local governments are forcing rehabilitation agencies to change the mix of employees they recruit and the ways that staff are trained. Discussed are ways that employers and post‐secondary institutions are working together in Western Canada to respond to the changing personnel training needs within this new environment.     

Wallace and Grornit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit -a study of modality, address, reading and response in contemporary children's film

This study examines the process of making meaning from a media text, exploring Curse of the Were‐Rabbit as a successful example of contemporary film‐making for children. It springs from working with a group of Year 8 students with literacy difficulties who made meaning from film with proficiency, skill and subtlety whilst struggling with the written word; it seeks to unpack the complexity of the process and hence reassess the value of media texts within the curriculum.     

自我决定论视角下的知识型员工的激励

知识型员工是企业的核心竞争力资源,其工作积极性的激发成为重要课题。知识型员工有"自我决定"的特点。心理学的动机理论——自我决定论在招聘安置,薪酬制度,弹性工作制,团队建设,组织文化建设几方面提出具体措施提供了新的视角。     

The predictive value of job demands and resources on the meaning of work and organisational commitment across different age groups in the higher education sector

This study examines the predictive value of job demands and resources on the meaning of work and organisational commitment across three age groups; young workers (<30 years), a middle age group of workers (30–49 years) and older workers (>50 years). Data were collected from a survey conducted among university employees (N = 3066). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationship between the antecedent variables and the meaning of work and organisational commitment in the age groups separately. Age differences in the experience of these two variables were tested by one-way ANOVA. Both job demands and resources were related to the meaning of work and organisational commitment, however, the relative importance of demands and resources varied across the groups. Overall, older workers reported higher scores on the meaning of work and organisational commitment. The results suggest that different interventions should be considered when aiming to improve the meaning of work and commitment among different age groups.     

Community‐ and hospital‐based early intervention team members' attitudes and perceptions of teamwork

Sixty early intervention team members (30 community‐based and 30 hospital‐based) were surveyed regarding their attitudes and perceptions of teamwork. Respondents were recruited using a purposive non‐probability sampling technique and completed a packet of questionnaires consisting of a detailed demographic survey, Attitudes About Teamwork Survey, Team Performance Screening Scale, and Team Process Perception Survey. Although both community‐ and hospital‐based team members had a relatively high regard for the team process and a relatively positive view of the performance of the teams on which they served, community‐based team members had an overall higher regard for teamwork than hospital‐based team members. Community‐based team members also were more likely than hospital‐based team members to provide higher ratings on a number of key variables including support for child/family involvement as team members, the development of goals within the team meetings, and ability to work within a team environment. In comparison, hospital‐based team members rated both the internal support of the team and the extent to which they value their own efforts that contribute to the team higher than community‐based team members. Respondent themes associated with benefits (discipline collaboration), limitations (time), supports (collaboration), and recommendations (time management, communication) regarding the team process are provided.     

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.     

Hearing Words,Learning Words: How Different Presentations of Novel Vocabulary Words Affect Children’s Incidental Learning

Research Findings: Children learn most of their vocabulary incidentally, by hearing words used in their environment. This study explored which kinds of presentations of words, without any direct instruction, yielded greater depth of target word knowledge. Changes in 56 kindergartners’ depth of knowledge for each of 23 novel target words (N = 1,288) based on presentation in 1 of 3 conditions (read-aloud, teacher conversation, or both read-aloud and conversation) were explored and compared to control words that were never presented. A 2-level, cross-classification analysis modeled the postintervention score for each word for each child. Children’s word meaning knowledge improved most when words were presented via combined conversations and read-alouds. Vocabulary gains for words presented via conversations differed across classrooms. Practice or Policy: Both teacher conversations and read-aloud presentations of target vocabulary should be used together. Professional development for teachers’ effective vocabulary conversations may be needed.     

Academic and Managerial Skills of Academic Deans: A self‐assessment perspective

Brazilian higher education institutions face a complex and challenging environment as the national market in education is becoming more competitive. International investment, a decrease in the population of potential students, and the proliferation of innumerable small institutions add to this complexity. Organizations are becoming flatter and the key managers within them are deans. Although deans are required to act as managerial experts, they are usually selected from the teaching body of the institution. In this paper, a group of deans from a large private institution gave their self‐assessment of their academic and managerial skills. The results revealed that they tend to have a high perception of their managerial skills, even though they have no previous managerial experience or formal training. This underlines that senior academic administrators cannot simply assume that deans, by the nature of their work environment, are proficient in managerial skills; neither that they can easily identify inadequacies nor have them self‐corrected. To accomplish the necessary institutional changes to face the complexities of the current globalized education market, a new assessment culture has to be implemented in the academic environment.     

Toddlers’ Processing of Phonological Alternations: Early Compensation for Assimilation in English and French

Using a picture pointing task, this study examines toddlers’ processing of phonological alternations that trigger sound changes in connected speech. Three experiments investigate whether 2;5‐ to 3‐year‐old children take into account assimilations—processes by which phonological features of one sound spread to adjacent sounds—for the purpose of word recognition (e.g., in English, ten pounds can be produced as te[mp]ounds). English toddlers (n = 18) show sensitivity to native place assimilations during lexical access in Experiment 1. Likewise, French toddlers (n = 27) compensate for French voicing assimilations in Experiment 2. However, French toddlers (n = 27) do not take into account a hypothetical non‐native place assimilation rule in Experiment 3, suggesting that compensation for assimilation is already language specific.     

Predicting word reading ability: a quantile regression study

Predictors of early word reading are well established. However, it is unclear if these predictors hold for readers across a range of word reading abilities. This study used quantile regression to investigate predictive relationships at different points in the distribution of word reading. Quantile regression analyses used preschool and kindergarten measures of letter knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automatised naming, sentence repetition, vocabulary and mother's education to predict first‐grade word reading. Predictors generally varied in significance across levels of word reading. Notably, rapid automatised naming was a significant unique predictor for average and good readers but not poor readers. Letter knowledge was generally a stronger unique predictor for poor and average readers than good readers. Well‐known word reading predictors varied in significance at different points along the word reading distribution. Results have implications for early identification and statistical analyses of reading‐related outcomes. What is already known about this topic

• Early predictors of word reading are well established, with letter knowledge, phonological awareness and rapid automatised naming identified as key predictors.
• These relationships are primarily investigated in average readers, or in groups of good and poor readers separated by an arbitrary cut‐off score.

What this paper adds

• In this study, we used quantile regression to determine significant predictors of word reading across a range of word reading abilities.
• The quantile regression approach avoids the loss of power that can arise when creating subgroups and has none of the issues associated with the use of a single, arbitrary cut-off score to separate good and poor readers.
• Letter knowledge and phonological awareness were significantly predictive of word reading across the distribution of word reading abilities, whereas rapid automatised naming was significant only for good readers, and sentence recall was significant only for poor readers.

Implications for theory, policy and practice

• Results reinforce the usefulness of measures such as letter knowledge, phonological awareness and sentence repetition in the early identification of children at risk for reading disabilities.
• Results also suggest that measures of rapid naming may add little unique information in differentiating between children who subsequently read in the below‐average range.

     

Examining the Impact of Pedagogy on Student Application of Learning: Acquiring,Sharing, and Using Knowledge for Organizational Decision Making

In this pilot research we examine the impact of two leadership development training programs on the ability of students to acquire knowledge, share knowledge, and apply knowledge for organizational decision making. One program emphasized concepts and case‐based application based on a technical learning paradigm. The other program used a game‐based computer simulation, Virtual Leader, grounded in an experiential or situated learning paradigm. After training, students from both programs engaged in a complex in‐basket exercise to examine the quality of their leadership and managerial abilities. In this exercise, participants from each training intervention worked with their trained cohort to accomplish a day of managerial work. Participants were observed and their individual and collective actions and decisions on behalf of the organization were evaluated. Using qualitative research we compared the organizational decisions associated with each group to determine which pedagogical technique resulted in the most effective application of student learning. While technical learning pedagogy was associated with greater information acquisition, the game‐based computer simulation (an experiential, social‐interaction oriented pedagogy) was associated with better decision quality and more shared cognition. Evidence suggests that students taught with the game‐based computer simulation collectively demonstrated a greater ability to apply what they learned.     

Academic and Managerial Skills of Academic Deans: A self-assessment perspective

Brazilian higher education institutions face a complex and challenging environment as the national market in education is becoming more competitive. International investment, a decrease in the population of potential students, and the proliferation of innumerable small institutions add to this complexity. Organizations are becoming flatter and the key managers within them are deans. Although deans are required to act as managerial experts, they are usually selected from the teaching body of the institution. In this paper, a group of deans from a large private institution gave their self-assessment of their academic and managerial skills. The results revealed that they tend to have a high perception of their managerial skills, even though they have no previous managerial experience or formal training. This underlines that senior academic administrators cannot simply assume that deans, by the nature of their work environment, are proficient in managerial skills; neither that they can easily identify inadequacies nor have them self-corrected. To accomplish the necessary institutional changes to face the complexities of the current globalized education market, a new assessment culture has to be implemented in the academic environment.

     

‘Teamwork’ or ‘Working as a Team’? The Theory and Practice of Top Team Working in UK Higher Education

This article focuses on the theory and practice of teamwork in ‘top management teams’ in UK higher education institutions. It is informed by some of the key findings from a recent two‐year research project sponsored by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education that investigated the different ways in which UK higher education institutions organise their ‘top management’ and ‘senior management’ structures ( Kennie and Woodfield, 2008 ). The authors discuss literature from the corporate and higher education sectors on the meaning of ‘teamwork’ in top teams (e.g. Bensimon and Neumann, 1993 ; Katzenbach, 1998 ; Wageman et al., 2008 ) and relate the findings to the challenges of top level team working in higher education settings. Particular issues discussed include: the terminology related to higher education top teams, areas of decision‐making and time‐management, team orientation and agenda setting, team behaviours and team roles, team performance and evaluation, location, logistical support and resources, and team development. The authors conclude that the challenges of top team working in higher education settings are similar to those found in the corporate sector, albeit nuanced by different organisational cultures, and suggest some key principles to help top teams in higher education institutions improve their ability to work effectively together.