Journal Article

Working beyond disciplines in teacher teams: teachers’ revelations on enablers and inhibitors

Gijselaers, Wim H., oude Egbrink, Mirjam G. A., Wolfhagen, Ineke H. A. P., Meeuwissen, Stephanie N. E.

2021

Overview

Introduction Health professions education faces transitions from monodisciplinary to integrated education and from soloist teachers to interdisciplinary teacher teams. Interdisciplinary teamwork has been found complex and prone to conflict. Teachers’ perceptions of why some teams work and learn as a real interdisciplinary team and others do not are lacking in this setting. We studied the factors that teachers perceive as enabling and/or inhibiting interdisciplinary team learning. Methods In this exploratory, qualitative study, we conducted 17 semi-structured, vignette-guided interviews with teachers recruited from diverse disciplines in undergraduate health professions programmes at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, through maximum variation sampling. Team learning research informed data collection and template analysis. Results We identified three themes representing the factors that teachers perceived to influence interdisciplinary team learning: ‘alignment/misalignment with the educational philosophy’ (regarding personal attributes, tendencies and motivation), ‘leadership practices’ (encompassing team vision, responsibility and reflection), and ‘involvement in organisational processes’ (covering organisational decision-making, support and learning opportunities). For interdisciplinary team learning in development of integrated education, teachers emphasised their personal ability to move beyond disciplinary boundaries. Shared team leadership enabled the creation of a shared vision, shared responsibility, and team reflection. Lastly, teacher involvement in educational management, peer support and learning was considered important. Discussion To work beyond disciplines in health professions education, teachers should take an interest in integrated education, share responsibility and work in an environment where people continuously learn from others. Organisations can facilitate this by involving teachers in decision-making processes and providing faculty development aimed to foster shared leadership and team reflection.

• Publisher: Bohn Stafleu van Loghum,Ubiquity Press
• Subject: Adult / Allied Health Occupations Education / Anxiety Disorders / Biological Sciences / Codes / Cooperative Behavior / Course Content / Creative Teaching / Curricula / Curriculum Development / Data Analysis / Data collection / Decision Making / Education / Educational Administration / Educational Development / Educational Finance / Educational Philosophy / Educational Quality / Faculty - psychology / Faculty Development / Female / Health Occupations / health professions education / Health sciences / Humans / Individual Characteristics / Integrated Activities / integrated curricula / Integrated Curriculum / Intellectual Disciplines / Interdisciplinary Approach / Interdisciplinary aspects / interdisciplinary teacher teams / Interviews / Interviews as Topic - methods / Knowledge / Leadership / Leadership Role / Learning / Learning Activities / Male / Medical Education / Medical research / Middle Aged / Multidisciplinary teams / Netherlands / Original / Original Article / Physiology / Qualitative Research / Quality of Working Life / Reflection / Teacher Collaboration / Teachers / Teaching / team learning / Teams