Advancing science and practice on how teams learn, collaborate, and innovate, through process-based, multimodal, and real-world research
Aim
The Team Dynamics Group brings together researchers to advance fundamental and applied understanding of how people learn, collaborate, and innovate in team settings within professional and educational settings. In doing so, we take a process perspective, focusing not only on whether teams perform well, but how interactions, learning, and coordination unfold dynamically over time, especially under pressure, change, and complexity.
Our research bridges multiple disciplines, including learning sciences, psychology, organizational behavior, computer science, physiology, human factors, and data science. Using sensor-based and novel technologies (such as video analytics, physiological measures, positional tracking, pattern analysis, LLM, and experience sampling), we create rich, fine-grained insights and capture the micro-dynamics of collaboration as they truly happen in the moment. In doing so, we also aim to capture the mechanisms that drive collaboration, innovation, and professional learning in teams.
Our work is situated in diverse contexts, including:
- Critical Action Teams (e.g., Firefighters. Police, Medical)
- Workplace learning communities
- Student (consultant) teams and challenge-based learning projects
- Innovation teams and cross-boundary collaborations
Other forms of teams and collaborative groups can also be included; as long as they involve people learning, collaborating, or innovating together.
By translating fine-grained multimodal findings into interventions, training methods, and feedback systems, we help teams and educators better understand, support, and optimise collaboration and professional learning.
Themes
The Team Dynamics group works across the following themes, while remaining open for new directions to emerge organically over time. We engage in joint activities such as research roundtables, invited talks, collaborative workshops, paper development sessions, and collective data exploration to deepen our scientific thinking and strengthen shared expertise.
- Learning in and through teamwork
=> How individuals and teams develop knowledge, skills, and shared understanding during collaborative work - Innovation and collaborative problem solving (CPS) in teams
=> How teams explore, create, iterate, and implement new ideas in dynamic environments. - Collaboration under pressure and uncertainty
=> How communication, coordination, and shared cognition unfold and adapt under stress - Temporal and process dynamics of teamwork
=> Moment-to-moment interaction patterns, transitions, breakdowns, recoveries, and learning episodes - Multimodal and sensor-based methods for team research
=> Integrating video, audio, physiology, movement, log data, ESM, and AI to understand teamwork in day-to-day interactions - Team resilience and adaptation
=> Why some teams maintain stability and performance under disruption while others fail (and how to train resilience) - Human–technology interaction in collaborative settings
=> How technological tools, dashboards, feedback systems, and AI support (or hinder) collaboration and learning - Professional and educational teams as learning communities
=> How to facilitate and support effective workplace learning communities, knowledge-sharing networks across roles and organisations - Translating insights into interventions and feedback systems
=> Video-based reflection, physiological feedback, data-driven debriefs, simulation-based training
How to join?
The group is open to scholars who:
- Conduct research on teams, collaboration, professional learning, leadership, or human–technology interaction;
- Have an interest in multimodal / process-oriented research methods, or;
- Want to explore sensor-based research and data-driven approaches to studying teamwork (at all levels: Master students, PhDs, faculty, external partners).
If you would like to join or attend one of our activities, please get in touch with David Otten, or Marcella Hoogeboom.
Members
To be added (now approx. 10 members from PLT, IST, CS, ET)