Embodied Interaffectivity in the Emergence and Maintenance of Group Cohesion

Group cohesion is an affect-laden construct, with a large body of research indicating its importance for success of teams. Surprisingly, it has received scant attention in collaborative learning contexts, and little is known about its development as dynamically emergent in the spontaneous, interdependent actions of actors during groupwork. This paper details an illustrative case analysis which took an embodied perspective to explore the role of interaffectivity in the emergence and maintenance of cohesion in one small group of university students who reported a highly positive and productive experience of collaborative science activities over a semester. The case analysis made visible group cohesion as unfolding and enactive in the myriad ephemeral and seemingly inconsequential microlevel behaviors that evolved into macro-temporal patterns of positive embodied interaffectivity, magnifying their visibility and collective impact. A fine-grained embodiment lens unveiled how participants cocreated collaborative affordances in actions that involved corporeal orientation as well as use of space, task, and other material artifacts. Task-related humor within routine task interaction offered the potential for establishing group cohesion in early group life, but also posed a potential threat to task-focused cohesiveness, requiring careful modulation at critical task points. Attentiveness not only to the task but importantly, to one another as interpersonal attentiveness, appeared to be a key factor in developing and maintaining group cohesion, also demonstrating collaborative learning as a process of orienting to and understanding tasks through one another. An embodiment lens highlighted mutual attentiveness in the ongoing orienter-orientee microprocesses that facilitated group orientation early in group life, and in reorienting to positive embodied interaffectivity when the group reconvened for their joint science activities in subsequent weeks.

Learning environments for interprofessional education: A micro-ethnography of sociomaterial assemblages in team-based learning

BACKGROUND

Teamwork and collaboration are central to interprofessional education but fostering these attributes in large undergraduate cohorts is challenging.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to examine the complexities of IPE group learning processes by examining how the material and intersubjective intertwine when newly formed interprofessional groups (Chinese medicine, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work) synchronously engaged with face-to-face and online learning in a blended, team-based learning environment.

METHODS

It was a micro-ethnography study using a sociomaterial theoretical lens. We selected two undergraduate interprofessional healthcare student groups within a large scale programme for contrastive video analysis of synchronous spatial and physical configurations, associated talk, and online activity.

RESULTS

Video analysis of evolving physical configurations indicated that Group B was spatially more evenly grouped, and physically orientated to an identifiable leader, despite their blinded peer evaluations indicating distributed leadership. Group A faced a critical event at a public forum leading to spatial disruption breaking into subgroups and isolates; however, this group identified one member as a defined leader in the peer evaluations.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on online scores, we found that peer identification of leaders may influence learning processes but not learning outcomes in the first IPE team meeting. The design of the physical and virtual learning environments contributed to the developing, sociomaterial processes of group cohesion in interprofessional team-based learning.

Mapping the Evaluation of Problem-Oriented Pedagogies in Higher Education: A Systematic Literature Review

Problem-oriented pedagogies have emerged as strategic way for universities to respond to an international higher education agenda that increasingly prioritises innovative, student-centred learning, and the cultivation of both civic and employability competences. Alongside this pedagogic shift is a policy-driven emphasis on monitoring teaching and learning for quality assurance purposes. This article aims to untangle the ways problem- and inquiry-based pedagogies are currently evaluated in universities, and thus consider how ‘quality’ implementation, and the effects of this suite of pedagogic approaches, might be better understood, practised, and measured. Taking a systematic approach to the review of the literature, the article maps evaluation methods that assess the effectiveness of problem-oriented and inquiry-based pedagogies implemented in university settings. The key findings include that evaluation methods in the field (i) prioritise qualification-related outcomes, (ii) are limited in scale and scope, and (iii) often function as demonstrations of performativity rather than as part of an ongoing improvement cycle. The article argues that evaluations that take a multi-method approach from the perspective of a range of stakeholders, with an exploration of civic and social competences in addition to employability outcomes, would significantly strengthen the field.