Encouraging Productive Behavior in Student Teams with Interventions

Abstract

Teamwork pedagogies are used for teaching and learning in sociology, addressing general education goals, and developing students’ professional skills. Nevertheless, problems arise in group work that negatively affect learning, engagement, treatment of others, and team satisfaction. An intervention was added to an Introduction to Sociology course with an established teamwork pedagogy to improve these outcomes. We compared the results of student surveys before and after the intervention, finding improvement in students’ satisfaction with teamwork and students’ perceptions of their teammates. There were large, statistically significant improvements in interactional fairness. Students’ perceptions of learning improved, although the gains were not statistically significant. We theorize that the intervention improved the psychological safety climate for students, resulting in attitudes and dispositions that benefited social interactions in their teams. Our study demonstrates that faculty can encourage productive behavior in student teams with carefully crafted interventions.