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.     

《现代汉语词典》第5版轻声处理评析

本文以《现代汉语词典》第5版为主要对象,同时对照第3版①,通过穷尽式的统计,对该词典轻声词的增加与删减、轻声词的动态变异处理、相关条目释义的修订等进行了评析,指出第5版的轻声处理贯彻了尊重语言事实和有意识地注意一些轻声词语处理的一致性的原则,积极、稳妥、准确地反映了语音的实际变化,与时俱进地反映了现代汉语轻声的面貌。最后提出几点商榷意见,以供再修订时参考。     

《现代汉语词典》第五版释义商榷15则

《现代汉语词典》第五版的少数词条释义有不明、偏颇或不合逻辑等问题。这里对“持家”、“国家”、“爱国”、“剥削”、“直系亲属”、“批判”、“批评”、“民主”、“自尊”、“江湖”、“耍滑”、“耍滑头”、“呵护”、“腐败”和“花苞”15条进行了商榷和修改,以供下次修订时参考。     

Data teams for school improvement

The use of data for educational decision making has never been more prevalent. However, teachers and school leaders need support in data use. Support can be provided by means of professional development in the form of “data teams”. This study followed the functioning of 4 data teams over a period of 2 years, applying a qualitative case study design. The findings show that data use is not a linear process, and that teams go through different feedback loops to reach higher levels of depth of inquiry. The data team procedure is a promising way of enhancing data-based decision making in schools.     

知识团队的绩效评价

本文根据知识型团队所从事的创造性工作的特点,通过对绩效标准的设定、绩效评价等绩效管理重点内容的讨论,提出了必须采用结果导向的思维方式和通过建立绩效契约来对其进行绩效管理的观点,并以效率型指标、效益型指标、递延型指标和风险型指标作为知识团队的绩效评价依据,提出了一种不同于加权平均式绩效评价的综合计分方法.     

CAMELOT: collaborative and multimedia environment for learners on teams

In the business-systems-design learning environment, there may be more than one solution to any given problem. For instance, the data model will be different depending on each learner’s perspective. Accordingly, group learning systems are very effective in this domain. We have developed a collaborative and multimedia environment for learners on teams (CAMELOT) using the ‘nominal group technique’ for group problem solving. In this paper, the basic framework of the collaborative learning system and the effectiveness of collaborative learning in designing the data model are described. By using CAMELOT, each learner learns how to analyse through case studies and how to collaborate with his or her group in problem solving. Learners come to a deeper understanding from using CAMELOT than from studying independently because they can reach better solutions through discussion, tips from other learners and examination of one another’s individual works.     

Course teams: myth and actuality

This article argues for the development of group intervention techniques to improve the efficacy of course teams in the preparation of distance education materials. A review of recent commentaries on course teams is presented along with an initial selection and discussion of course team issues. These are presented in the refreshingly frank domestic context of actual interactions. The irritations generated by these will be familiar to practitioners. The author concludes with a series of recommendations to enrich the quality of course team life and output. It is hoped that this provocative analysis of the course team method of producing distance education materials will generate a lively response.     

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.     

Making a world of difference: Collaboration.Excellence for intercultural teams

Cultural awareness training that emphasizes communication delivers only a partial solution to the challenges that intercultural work teams face. Improving collaboration requires a strong foundation of performance management before a work team can determine how they will cooperate to perform to excellence. Against the backdrop of the authors' experiences, the program Collaboration.Excellence offers a three‐phase approach that performance improvement professionals can take to build effective intercultural work teams.     

Mainstream assistance teams: a scientific basis for the art of consultation

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether a consultant-driven prereferral intervention may be shortened in duration, thereby improving its efficiency, without reducing its effectiveness. Subjects were 60 general educators; their 60 most difficult-to-teach pupils without disabilities; and 22 consultants, representing 17 elementary schools in a large metropolitan school system. The teachers were assigned randomly to a short (n = 24) and long version (n = 24) of the prereferral intervention and to a control group (n = 12). Analyses indicated that the two variants of the prereferral intervention improved teacher perceptions of their difficult-to-teach students and decreased referrals for testing and possible special education placement. Moreover, results suggested that the short and long versions were equally effective. Implications for consultation-related activity are discussed.     

Team-reflection: the missing link in co-teaching teams

In literature, co-teaching is mostly defined as an instrumental and pedagogical means delivered by collaborating special and regular teachers, from which students with and without special educational needs benefit in regular schools. The importance of a shared vision on the part of members of co-teaching teams as to what they consider as good education for students is not mentioned in definitions of co-teaching. The authors argue that sense-making by reflection about what can be considered as good education – good teaching and good learning – is essential when co-teachers want to understand or change their practice or relationship with their partner. We reviewed 17 articles about co-teaching teams’ professional development and identified that challenges to co-teachers’ professionalisation mostly were directed to interpersonal and normative aspects of development in co-teaching teams. We elaborate on five distinguished movements that can bring about change in teacher professionalism. These movements correspond to the challenges retrieved from the literature review and can be used to contribute to move toward a new perspective on professionalism of co-teachers. A contemporary definition of co-teaching is proposed because former definitions do not suffice to express the value of constructing a shared vision on good teaching and learning. We argue that team-reflection is the missing link in terms of enhancing normative professionalism of co-teaching teams and recommend that further research should be conducted to value team-reflection as a means to overcome challenges of co-teaching teams.     

Learning productivity: a case analysis of the 'e-BOSNO' course for manager teams

Action learning in a workplace context, focused on projects relating to real business needs, is the basis of the management seminars offered by the BOSNO (in Dutch, ‘BedrijfsOpleiding voor Samenwerkende Nederlandse Ondernemingen’[Company training for Dutch companies working in cooperation with each other]) consortium in The Netherlands. In the seminars, managers from participating companies work in teams on multiple‐step problem analysis and solution strategies, supported by workplace coaches. The teams also interact with each other so that peer learning is stimulated. To extend the BOSNO management seminar model in both depth and flexibility, a new approach called e‐BOSNO was designed in which a web‐based learning support environment played a critical role. This paper describes the e‐BOSNO design process and gives results from the first cycle of e‐BOSNO. The results showed the participants to be much more active and interactive than in previous e‐BOSNO seminars, even though there were fewer face‐to‐face meetings. Workplace‐oriented learning occurred and was shared in a way which makes it available for reuse in subsequent e‐BOSNO seminars.