Team-based learning: an ethnicity-focused study on the perceptions of teamwork abilities of engineering students

D Beneroso,M Erans

doi:10.1080/03043797.2020.1865879

D Beneroso, M Erans

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2020.1865879

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Abstract

ABSTRACT A study into the influence of the team-based learning (TBL) model upon the perception of White, Asian and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students about their peers’ teamwork abilities is addressed herein. A large cohort of final-year engineering students grouped into 24 diverse teams assessed their team’s peers after completing a 10-credit TBL module by means of a peer-assessment survey instrument that spanned the areas of individual performance, adjustment and support, and decision-making. No significant differences were found in perceived student adjustment and support across the different ethnicity groups. Nevertheless, despite TBL having been reported to promote innovative outcomes stemming from the social diversity characterising the teams, our findings suggest that the implementation of TBL per se may not be enough to enhance the significantly poorer perceived performance and decision-making skills of BME students when they work in teams.

Highlights

Higher education institutions across the world continue to invest significant resources in accelerating the transformation of their educational and student experience models in response to the 21st century demands from industries, governments and businesses (Dori, Belcher et al 2003, Beichner, Saul et al 2007, Shinde and Kolmos 2011, Mitchell, Nyamapfene et al 2019)
Despite team-based learning (TBL) having been reported to promote innovative outcomes stemming from the social diversity characterising the teams, our findings suggest that the implementation of TBL per se may not be enough to enhance the significantly poorer perceived performance and decision-making skills of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students when they work in teams
It assesses how individual performance, individual adjustment and support, and decision-making abilities were perceived across White, Asian and BME

Summary

Introduction

Higher education institutions across the world continue to invest significant resources in accelerating the transformation of their educational and student experience models in response to the 21st century demands from industries, governments and businesses (Dori, Belcher et al 2003, Beichner, Saul et al 2007, Shinde and Kolmos 2011, Mitchell, Nyamapfene et al 2019). Active learning has been widely envisaged in the education literature as an approach to foster such educational transformation, where students are placed at the core of a dynamic learning process by undertaking meaningful learning activities during which metacognitive skills are nurtured (Prince 2004, Shekhar and Borrego 2018, Hartikainen, Rintala et al 2019, Hernández-de-Menéndez, Vallejo Guevara et al 2019). In the particular case of engineering education, active learning has been empirically validated as the preferred teaching practice over conventional lecturing approaches to enhance the cognitive acquisition of learning outcomes (Freeman, Eddy et al 2014), and has been evidenced to offer disproportionate benefits for students from underrepresented minorities (Theobald, Hill et al 2020). TBL has been reported to provide students with early practice at professional and teamwork competencies (Betta 2016)

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