Building Teams That Learn: Study of Learning Effects in Engineering Student Teams

Abstract

Reviews of research on team learning generally show that it has positive and substantial effects on achievement Slavin 1995 . Team learning is believed to enable students to practice higherorder cognitive processes among peers in small groups Biggs and Moore 1993 . Team learning also helps improve social skills by peer discussion and argumentation Jacques 1991 . Students can be exposed to alternative perspectives and in this way develop critical thinking skills Banta 1993; Downes et al. 1991; Terenzini et al. 1995 . On the contrary, less is known about what factors contribute to team success or failure Chambers and Abrami 1991 . This research assessed the team learning method through students’ perception of its effectiveness. Various aspects in the implementation of team learning were also explored in an attempt to locate factors that may affect the outcomes of team learning. The objective of this research was to solicit students’ feedback regarding learning in small teams on a real-life problem-based subject entitled “Professional Studies,” undertaken by four classes of students majoring in building surveying BS , building engineering and management BEM , construction economics and management CEM , and real estate RE . Questions were clustered into three main areas related to team process, individual factors, and outcome in team learning, using a five-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” In addition, the questionnaire contained two open-ended prompts that asked students to list three items they liked and disliked most about working in teams. By using these open-ended prompts, it is hoped that students had the opportunity to voice their true opinions of working in teams, so that future problem-based projects can be tailored more toward working and learning in teams. This is a skill that is vital in real-world settings.