Vertical or shared? When leadership supports team learning for educational change
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Vertical or shared? When leadership supports team learning for educational change Mieke Koeslag‑Kreunen1,2 · Piet Van den Bossche2,3 · Marcel R. Van der Klink1 · Wim H. Gijselaers2 Accepted: 7 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
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. Keywords Team learning · Higher Education · Teacher teams · Team leadership behavior · Shared leadership · Task complexity
* Mieke Koeslag‑Kreunen [email protected] 1
Research Centre for Educational Innovation and CPD, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 550, 6400 Heerlen, The Netherlands
2
Department of Educational Research and Development, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 Maastricht, The Netherlands
3
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Antwerp, Sint‑Jacobstraat 2, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Higher Education
Introduction Higher education institutions are under pressure to modify and reinvent their educational programs to prepare students for an increasingly complex world. These institutions are progressively challenged to become more attuned to students’ needs by improving their employability and better preparing graduates for emerging jobs (Lehtinen et al. 2014). Moreover, greater workplace complexity has led to calls for new interprofessional programs that equip students with the necessary technical skills and cognitive competences (e.g., Klaas
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