Socio-material perspectives on interprofessional team and collaborative learning.

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Sociology of Health
• Learning Sciences

Background:

• Interprofessional teamwork and collaboration are crucial in healthcare practice and education.
• Traditional views of learning in interprofessional settings focus on individual acquisition, limiting conceptualization and support.
• Socio-material theories offer an alternative by viewing learning as collective dynamics, social participation, and engagement with material contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reconceptualize interprofessional learning through the lens of socio-material theories.
• To move beyond individualistic, acquisition-oriented notions of learning in collaborative healthcare.
• To provide a framework for understanding and assessing learning in interprofessional contexts.

Main Methods:

• A review of socio-material literature and theories, including complexity theory, cultural-historical activity theory, and actor-network theory.
• Summarizing key principles of socio-material approaches.
• Reframing interprofessional learning to focus on collective dynamics and social-material relations.

Main Results:

• Learning in interprofessional contexts is reconceived through socio-material perspectives.
• Focus shifts from individual learning to collective dynamics and social-material relations.
• Five ways learning is enacted are proposed: diverse contributions, social interactions, synthesis of ideas, integration of material elements, and organizational connections.

Conclusions:

• Socio-material perspectives offer a valuable alternative to individualistic learning theories in interprofessional settings.
• The paper provides practical illustrations for identifying and assessing socio-material learning.
• This work guides educators and researchers in applying and assessing socio-material learning theories in interprofessional contexts.