Using Transactivity to Understand Emergence of Team Learning

Area of Science:

• Teamwork and Collaboration Science
• Organizational Psychology
• Educational Research

Background:

• Team learning is crucial for effective teamwork but how it emerges from conversations is under-researched.
• Existing research has not fully explored the role of conversational dynamics in team learning.
• Understanding the emergence of team learning processes is key to improving team performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how team learning processes emerge from team conversations.
• To determine if transactivity (acting on each other's reasoning) explains the emergence of team learning.
• To analyze the forms that emergent team learning can take within professional teams.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative interaction analysis of video recordings from three teacher teams.
• Focus on analyzing conversational sequences and team member interactions.
• Examining the relationship between transactivity and the content of team learning.

Main Results:

• Team learning processes are significantly influenced by the degree of transactivity among members.
• Increased transactivity leads to changes in the content of team learning.
• Specific team learning processes, such as information storage and retrieval, occurred primarily during high transactivity interactions.

Conclusions:

• Transactivity is a key mechanism for the emergence of team learning processes.
• The level of interaction and responsiveness among team members shapes the nature of team learning.
• Interventions aimed at enhancing transactivity could foster more effective team learning, particularly for knowledge management.