2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The challenges of contemporary practice require engineers who can work in multidisciplinary teams comprised of professionals from various backgrounds and disciplines. Graduate engineers are expected to enter the workforce equipped with the ability to work seamlessly with these teams. Thus, it is critical that engineering students develop these skills within and alongside their curricula studies.

However, the literature on students’ appreciation for teamwork is equivocal. Students with a positive perception are correlated with collegiality, equitable work distribution, and fair assessment techniques. Common complaints are that that work is unfairly distributed among the team or that their contributions did not receive the recognition they believe it deserved. Further, students point to a lack of guidance on how to develop teamwork skills or they were taught in an ineffective manner. Some students felt they learned less when working in teams and preferred working individually.

Given this context, we sought to understand the attitudes of students within our institution to teamwork. The aim of this study is to understand the factors that contribute to positive or negative perceptions of teamwork. Particularly, how various teaching and assessment practices, prior experience, and team structures impact students’ perceptions of teamwork.

We conducted an online, anonymous survey of engineering students predominantly from chemical engineering. The results showed that students strongly agreed with teamwork being a positive experience, but less agreement with propositions for more teamwork and learning better in group contexts. Students desired explicit instruction in teamwork skills and preferred teams with 4-5 members. There were also diverse opinions within the respondents on how work should be distributed within the team and sufficiency of online-only teams. In general, the results indicated that the teacher occupied an educative and mediating role in facilitating teamwork, especially in the current context and prevalence of online and hybrid teams.

We conclude by making recommendations for teachers on the implementation of team-based activities that will provide their students with positive and effective learning experiences for the development of teamwork skills.