Teaching Middle Years by Donna Pendergast & Katherine Main & Nan Bahr

Author:Donna Pendergast & Katherine Main & Nan Bahr [Donna Pendergast & Katherine Main & Nan Bahr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2017-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

Knowledge, skills and processes in effective team practices

The success of a teaching team depends on a combination not just of the aggregated skills, talents and resources of the individual members, but also of the processes team members use to interact with one another to complete the task. Understanding the interrelationship between team processes has increasingly been recognised as critical to developing theoretical models of team effectiveness (Marks, Mathieu & Zaccaro, 2001).

Team effectiveness depends on more than productivity (task completion) or performance (the team working together). It also involves different levels of each individual’s self-efficacy, satisfaction and commitment to the team (relationships) (Marks, Mathieu & Zaccaro, 2001).

Certain knowledge, skills and processes are important throughout the teaming process, from the team’s formation to the maintenance of a performing team. A range of skills associated with some of the collaborative tasks undertaken by teachers was identified by Main (2007). However, the importance of some of the skills and knowledge is heightened during certain stages of a team’s progress. For example, a newly formed team will need to utilise organisational, decision-making and team process skills to set up the team, while a team entering the storming stage will have a heightened need for communication, negotiation and conflict management skills. The aggregate of each team member’s assessment of their feelings, behaviours and task focus may enable teams to identify where the team is predominantly sitting. This in turn may allow targeted professional development to be undertaken in the predominant skills associated with that stage to help the team progress.

In addition, the effects of the relationship processes must be factored in. These are particularly salient for teaching teams in which poor interpersonal relationships may adversely affect professional relationships. For example, if group members have had negative experiences in team work or with another member of the team, they may enter a work group with a negative attitude and cause the group to falter, and sometimes stay, within the antagonistic stage of the relationship process model. Specific skills and resources relating to each set of processes are essential to the successful functioning of a team. Lag effects of task behaviours on process behaviours have been identified, and process behaviours can also cause lag effects on task behaviours (J.E. Jones & Bearley, 2001, cited in J.K. Ito & Brotheridge, 2008). If the team is to progress, issues in the stage that is lagging need to be resolved. Factors necessary to move teams effectively and efficiently through each process can be identified at an individual, team and whole-school level.

Barriers to effective team practices

The expectation that collaborative practices will result when teachers are placed in teams has not always been realised. Collaborating on some tasks has not always been effective in classrooms, beneficial for teachers or students or useful to teaching practice. A number of barriers to effective team practices have been identified, and several, such as balkanisation, groupthink, wasted collaboration and lack of staff continuity, are particularly salient in middle school teaching teams.

Balkanisation

When a team is formed and there

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.