Interdisciplinary teacher teams: Context, design, and process

Teacher involvement strategies have become an important part of educational reform. Work group enhancement, although less used than individual approaches, is gaining attention in reform efforts and research investigations. Hackman and Oldham's model on work group effectiveness provides a useful conceptual framework for understanding the nature of interdisciplinary teacher teams. This article reports on a study of interdisciplinary teacher teams during the 2nd year of implementation of teaming in a middle school. Based on observational and interview data, the study identifies the major context, design (structure), and process features of each of the four teams in the school. The article also provides a discussion of implications for practice and research in the area of collaborative teaching reforms.