2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This empirical research, research brief presents initial findings on faculty motivations for incorporating teamwork in engineering coursework, based on a national survey conducted in Summer 2024. Teamwork is a critical aspect of both engineering education and practice, necessitating a deeper contextual understanding of the diverse settings and pedological decisions that inform teamwork related experiences in the classroom. However, despite its importance, specific motivations, objectives, and goals for implementing teamwork have been largely unexplored. Furthermore, faculty motivations for teamwork may not align with teamwork practices enacted in the classroom.

This work involves results of a national faculty survey tool investigating instructor attitudes about learning and teaming in engineering coursework. This survey research a broad sample of respondents (n = 110) with representation across engineering discipline, instructor position/rank, race/ethnicity, gender, institution type, and course type. Our research seeks to connect pedagogical decisions and practices concerning teamwork to specific motivations and learning outcomes. We address the following research questions: 1) What are the diverse motivations engineering faculty have in incorporating teamwork into their classes? 2) How do specific practices and learning objectives link to these espoused beliefs about teamwork to actual classroom practices and experiences?

To answer these, we conduct qualitative analysis of instructors’ open-ended responses in the survey, regarding their motivations for incorporating teamwork. This data is compared to instructors’ closed form motivation responses, mindsets on learning and teaching, and enacted beliefs on teamwork as evidenced by specific teaching practices, learning objectives cited, and submitted syllabi. Future work will identify best practices tied to these specific teamwork motivations and contexts. Our findings aim to elucidate complexities surrounding teamwork in engineering education and support faculty in effectively facilitating teamwork in their classes.