Abstract
<p>Positive experiences of teamwork in design contexts significantly improve students’ satisfaction with teaching and their attitudes towards future teamwork. Thus, an understanding of the factors leading to negative and positive team experiences can inform strategies to support effective teamwork. This paper examines design students’ perceptions and experiences of teamwork. Three sources of qualitative data were analysed: a pilot survey completed by 198 design students in four institutions; five focus groups with 23 students; and a national survey completed by 417 students from 18 Australian universities. Students were from a range of design disciplines, with the majority studying architecture. The findings provide insights into issues and challenges of learning how to design in teamwork contexts, in particular the importance of adopting strategies to promote individual accountability within a team and ensuring fair assessment that acknowledges levels of individual contributions. The paper concludes with recommendations for teachers.</p>
Highlights
Teamwork skills are essential in the design industry where practitioners negotiate often-conflicting design options in multi-disciplinary teams
Educators recognise that teamwork can lead to an improvement in student learning due to: the development of social behavioural skills (Cohen, 1994; Goldfinch & Raeside, 1990), higher order thinking (Cohen, 1994), and critical thinking skills (Dochy, Segers et al, 1999; Gokhale, 1995; Sluijsmans, Dochy et al, 1999), the capacity for lifelong learning (Hanrahan & Isaacs, 2001), moving students from a passive to more active learning role (McGourty, Dominick et al, 1998), the ability to tackle more substantially-sized assessment projects (Goldfinch & Raeside 1990), and peer learning within teams
These themes can be further grouped into three categories: (1) unequal contributions and unfair assessment, (2) individual differences between students and other issues arising from the process of designing, and (3) pedagogical factors including team formation, task design and teaching
Summary
Teamwork skills are essential in the design industry where practitioners negotiate often-conflicting design options in multi-disciplinary teams. Researchers have reported higher education students’ views of engagement in team and group work as a generally satisfying and productive learning experience (see, for example, Espey, 2010; Gillespie, Rosamond, & Thomas, 2006). In a survey of 264 university students, Van Duyne (1993) found an overall positive view of teamwork, with a mean score of 3.82 for attitude towards group work (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being very favourable). Other researchers report correlation between students’ perceptions of fair assessment and positive attitudes towards team experiences. Students have been found to be more likely to have positive attitudes about working in groups if the teachers provided some levels of training on teamwork and discussed group management issues (Chapman & Auken, 2001)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
