Abstract
University teacher teams can work toward educational change through the process of team learning behavior, which involves sharing and discussing practices to create new knowledge. However, teachers do not routinely engage in learning behavior when working in such teams and it is unclear how leadership support can overcome this problem. Therefore, this study examines when team leadership behavior supports teacher teams in engaging in learning behavior. We studied 52 university teacher teams (281 respondents) involved in educational change, resulting in two key findings. First, analyses of multiple leadership types showed that team learning behavior was best supported by a shared transformational leadership style that challenges the status quo and stimulates team members’ intellect. Mutual transformational encouragement supported team learning more than the vertical leadership source or empowering and initiating structure styles of leadership. Second, moderator analyses revealed that task complexity influenced the relationship between vertical empowering team leadership behavior and team learning behavior. Specifically, this finding suggests that formal team leaders who empower teamwork only affected team learning behavior when their teams perceived that their task was not complex. These findings indicate how team learning behavior can be supported in university teacher teams responsible for working toward educational change. Moreover, these findings are unique because they originate from relating multiple team leadership types to team learning behavior, examining the influence of task complexity, and studying this in an educational setting.
Highlights
Higher education institutions are under pressure to modify and reinvent their educational programs to prepare students for an increasingly complex world
Multiple types of team leadership behavior will be included: to explore (RQ1) which types relate to team learning behavior in university teacher teams that need to work toward change, and to examine (RQ2) whether task complexity moderates a relationship between different types of team leadership behavior and team learning behavior
Which types of team leadership behavior relate to team learning behavior in university teacher teams that need to work toward change?
Summary
Higher education institutions are under pressure to modify and reinvent their educational programs to prepare students for an increasingly complex world. Greater workplace complexity has led to calls for new interprofessional programs that equip students with the necessary technical skills and cognitive competences (e.g., Klaassen 2018). This requires institutions to rethink the nature of their educational offerings and to reconsider how education is organized and to bring university teachers together across classic disciplinary boundaries (Kezar 2011; Klaassen 2018). Working in teacher teams differs from working together in the same group or department; it requires teachers to share responsibility for “the design or implementation of a curriculum innovation in the form of (re)design of a course or entire curriculum and/or the improvement of teaching” (Gast et al 2017, p. 737)
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