Team learning process : a longitudinal study in dynamic situation

Purpose: This paper aims to explore team learning processes used by soccer players in a professional training context by focusing on their identification and evolution for 22 months. Design/methodology/approach: A soccer team from a professional academy participated to this study based on six training sessions. Qualitative data on training sessions were collected. Data analysis followed four steps: reporting the game timeline and behaviours connected to each situation; coding verbal data by delineating meaningful units of activity; classifying meaningful units of activity according to team learning processes derived from previous studies; and providing a temporal graph representing occurrences of team learning processes at each training session. Findings: Results showed that soccer players used 13 team learning processes during training sessions. Two processes are mainly mobilized to visualize the situation and to plan. A temporal graph was edited to represent processes evolve over training sessions. The latter illustrated a stability in team learning processes mobilization during the 22 months follow-up. Research limitations/implications: This study complete knowledges about team learning by providing a fine-grained understanding of how players learn in teams and how team learning processes evolve over time. Practical implications: This paper can help practitioners who manage teams in high temporal pressure situations to design adapted training programs. Originality/value: This exploratory study highlights that the team learning processes usually mobilized “off-field” could also be used by team members in high temporal pressure situations, “on-field”. This study offers an original longitudinal approach that fits with some recent calls for contribution about team activity and could benefit to other research fields.