Improving the Teaching of Teamwork skills in Engineering and Computer Science

1
Improving the Teaching of Teamwork skills in
Engineering and Computer Science

• Robert W. Lingard
• California State University, Northridge

2
Overview

• Teamwork The Neglected Engineering Skill
• What is Teamwork?
• How Do We Know When Teamwork is Happening?
• Results from Recent Studies
• How Can We Improve Teamwork Learning?
• Conclusions

3
Teamwork The Neglected Engineering Skill

• Most today would agree that teamwork is important
  in engineering and computer science.
• Our industrial partners tell us they need
  graduates who can work effectively in teams.
• ABET demands that we teach teamwork and that our
  graduates can demonstrate teamwork skills

4
Teamwork The Neglected Engineering Skill
(Contd)

• Most educational programs do not adequately
  address the teaching of teamwork skills.
• Neither do they assess how well these skills are
  being mastered.
• Consequently, the learning of these skills is
  usually a matter of chance.

5
Teamwork Teaching Fallacies

• Its not the responsibility of Engineering and
  Computer Science faculty to teach teamwork and
  communication skills
• But then who does it?
• Experience is the best teacher
• Poor team experiences create negative feelings
  regarding teamwork
• Students will learn to work on teams once they
  graduate and get jobs
• Their lack of teamwork skills can make it harder
  to get jobs in the first place

6
What is Teamwork?
7
Teamwork in Soccer (Fútbol)
8
Teamwork on the Job
9
What Makes a Team Successful?

• It is composed of individuals with unique, yet
  synergistic talents.
• Each member understands and carries out his or
  her responsibilities.
• Members communicate effectively with one another,
  sharing ideas and listening to the suggestions of
  others.
• Members request help and offer help as needed.
• The team stays focused and members share a common
  goal.

10
Developing Measurable Teamwork Performance
Criteria

• A specific set of individual teamwork skills was
  developed based on input from the following
  groups.
• Current students
• Alumni
• Faculty
• Industry Partners

11
Specific Teamwork Skills

• Attend (nearly all) team meetings
• Arrive on time for (nearly all) team meetings
• Communicate clearly with other team members
• Share knowledge with others
• Introduce new ideas
• Openly express opinions

12
Specific Teamwork Skills (Contd)

• Consider suggestions from others
• Adopt suggestions from others
• Try to understand what others say
• Provide help to other team members
• Ask for help form other team members
• Complete assignments on time

13
Specific Teamwork Skills (Contd)

• Complete assignments with acceptable quality
• Do research and gather information
• Do a fair share of the work
• Be committed to team goals
• Show respect for others
• Distinguish between the important and the trivial

14
How Do We Know When Teamwork Is Happening?

• Make independent observations
• Evaluate the evidence of individual team member
  contributions
• Conduct peer reviews

15
Independent Observation

• Instructors, lab assistants, or
  outside observers attend team meetings
• But this observation can influence student
  behavior
• If meetings are held online the monitoring can be
  unobtrusive.
• Only some team activities are practical to observe

16
Evaluating Individual Team Member Contributions

• Individual contributions can be independently
  evaluated
• Requiring students to post contributions online
  is an easy way to gain access to
  these contributions
• But, not all teamwork skills involve artifacts
  produced by individual team members

17
Peer Evaluations

• Each team member evaluates the performance of
  other members
• Evaluations should be anonymous and include self
  ratings
• Team members are in the best position to evaluate
  teammates
• But, students are often reluctant to be critical
  of fellow students

18
Peer Evaluation Form
19
Results from Recent Studies
Teamwork Attribute Percent Achieved
Demonstrate an ability to do research and gather information 96.3
Generally tried to understand what other team members were saying 86.4
. . . 74.2-84.1
Show an ability to distinguish between the important and the trivial 69.9
Communicate clearly with other team members 68.1
Help someone on the team 66.4
Ask for help from someone on the team 63.9

20
How Do We Improve the Learning of Teamwork Skills?

• Identify the skills where improvement is most
  needed.
• Develop tools and techniques to improve leaning
  of those skills.
• Reassess to determine whether the new approach
  helped.
• Revise approach as needed and repeat.

21
The Ask For Help and Provide Help Skills

• People (especially students) tend not to ask for
  help when they need it.
• A possible solution is to reward both the
  requesting and giving of help.
• We created the Help Certificate to try to
  accomplish that.

22
Help Certificate
23
Clear Communication Within the Team

• Engineering students are conditioned to work
  independently and tend to be introverted.
• By giving assignments in which each member of the
  team must independently come up with a solution,
  and then present their solution to the team,
  communication can be improved.

24
Sharing a Solution with the Team
25
Distinguishing Between the Important and the
Trivial

• Engineering and Computer Science students are
  Fact-Finders in the Kolbe sense.
• That is, they can get bogged down in details.
  Analysis Paralysis can set in.
• We added an item to the required Meeting Report
  Form for student projects requiring them to
  identify the current important issues or problems.

26
Meeting Report
27
Help Team Members Focus on the Important Issues
28
Conclusions

• It is vitally important that Engineering and
  Computer Science students learn to work
  effectively on teams.
• It is less clear how to provide an effective
  learning environment in which they can do this.
• The approach recommended is one of continual
  improvement in which the areas of greatest
  weakness are identified and tools and techniques
  are developed to improve those specific skills.