Team learning at work:Getting the best out of interdisciplinary teacher teams and leaders

This research investigated how interdisciplinary teacher teams, comprising teachers from a variety of backgrounds (e.g. clinical, basic and social sciences), share, explain and exchange knowledge between colleagues when working on integrated health professions education. The research studied teams responsible for integrated education through the lens of team learning. Team learning is about the interaction taking place in a team, and describes the behaviours team members exhibit in their efforts to understand and integrate each other’s knowledge and experiences. The study identified three team approaches with varying levels of team learning; the teams that demonstrated high levels of team learning produced the best educational quality as perceived by students. The next study led to the discovery of various levels of influence for team learning (on the individual, team and organisational level). The research then focused on an important team factor; leader inclusiveness behaviour. Next, to support the development of a leader identity striving towards inclusiveness and engagement of a diversity of people, the research designed a faculty development programme. Lastly, the role of higher education institutions was studied and the conclusion was that institutions can support teacher teams in cultural, structural and functional ways. The researcher therefore called to draw more attention for the role of leadership in higher education organisations