2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Teamwork skills are essential to success in professional settings. Keeping this in mind, engineering courses offer projects that require students to participate in teams. Although many students have prior experience in teamwork that may be under a different context, most do not receive sufficient formal guidance on effective team building. We observed that some student teams become dysfunctional due to inconsistent team expectations, ineffective communication, and an inability to manage conflicts. Recent student surveys also pointed out an unmet need to empower them with these teamwork skills. We believe that students will best learn these teamwork skills in the context of their own team projects.
Our proposed approach here will enable students to build students interpretation of teamwork by learning in classroom lectures/activities and working with others. Throughout this process, students should learn to be resilient team members capable of understanding their unique and shared roles in a team. To implement the proposed approach, we are developing three learning modules covering three essential teamwork aspects: team formation, effective communication, and conflict management. We plan to teach one module per year in sophomore, junior, and senior year courses that require team projects. We will introduce the modules before the students start their team projects so that they can immediately apply what they learn. With each year focusing on a different aspect of teaming, students can continue developing and improving their skills throughout their undergraduate coursework. We introduced the first module in the Spring of 2022. Currently, we are developing the second module and will implement it in Spring 2023.
During their sophomore year, we introduced students to team formation, stages of team dynamics, characteristics of successful teams, and the development of team charters. The following year, they will study how teams are composed of individuals with different experiences, perspectives, and working styles. With this knowledge, students will learn to communicate and collaborate effectively as a team. During the final year, we will familiarize them with the nature of conflicts and their management methods. We will conduct each module in a workshop format with roleplay activities, in-class topic discussions, and relevant assignments. Students will then apply their knowledge to build and run effective teams and reinforce good practices during their course projects. After teaching the modules, we will administer mid- and post-project surveys to capture the outcomes and student feedback. We will then compare the survey data to a baseline group who did not receive training to provide insight into students’ improved teamwork abilities. Developing this critical professional skill set will help prepare students for leadership positions and successful careers after their graduation.

Acknowledgment: This work is supported by National Science Foundation Grant EEC-2022275.