An empirical study of the relationship among communication, trust and performance of undergraduate course learning team: Based on structural equation model

Abstract

During the past decade, team work emerged as an important research area in business management, focusing on the enterprise. However, publications on course learning team are very few. In China, team-learning course practice is one popular and important teaching and learning reform in high schools. In this study, we examine the team-learning course practices from the pedagogical perspective of learning performance. We want to know: Can the team communication, team trust influence the college students’ course learning team’s performance? If do, to what degree do they affect team learning? How can the useful practices be enhanced further? We drew theory from organizational learning and team working literatures to carry on our investigation. The data was collected using a set of questionnaires distributed to six different colleges in China in 2021. We got 404 copies valid, and the data were analyzed using SEM. Results showed the communication frequency, the feedback degree and the learning degree all have a significant positive influence on team performance. Team cognitive trust, institutional trust, arithmetic trust and relational trust also have a significant positive effect on learning performance; yet the degree of these influences differs sharply. The teams’ performance is influenced by team communication and team trust. We recommend enhancement of the course reform practice by team communication and team trust. Teachers who had put team-learning model into practice yet had little confidence in its efficiency can use this to help them to guide the course learning team in a better way.