A three-year Cornell University research project will examine how engineering instructors can deliberately teach teamwork skills instead of assuming students learn them simply by completing group assignments.
The National Science Foundation awarded $499,999 to Alexandra Werth, an assistant professor in Cornell's Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, to develop a framework connecting specific teamwork goals with teaching strategies.
The project will draw from education, organizational management and engineering-education research. Werth said teamwork is both an engineering accreditation requirement and a skill employers consistently rank among the abilities they want from graduates.
Effective teams do not always build skills
Werth said research often measures whether a student team completes its work effectively, rather than whether individual members improve at resolving conflict, giving feedback or collaborating across different areas of expertise.
Those outcomes can diverge. A smooth-running team may deliver a successful project without giving students much practice managing disagreement, while a team that encounters conflict can create a useful learning opportunity when faculty provide instruction and tools.
“Team effectiveness is not team skill development,” Werth said. She said students cannot practice some interpersonal abilities unless a challenge arises and an instructor helps them work through it.
Teaching choices depend on the assignment
The researchers will begin with a systematic review comparing findings from several fields. They will identify where recommendations agree, conflict or work only under particular circumstances, then interview engineering instructors nationwide about how the emerging framework fits classroom experience.
Werth said there is no single best method for forming teams. An instructor who wants students to learn programming collaboratively might mix skill levels so students can teach one another, while a class using programming only as a tool for a larger project might benefit from grouping students with similar coding experience.
A prior national survey by Werth and collaborators asked more than 100 faculty members what they wanted students to learn from teamwork. The instructors identified many goals, some of which conflict, suggesting faculty may need to prioritize particular outcomes for each course or assignment.
Online resource could guide instructors
The project could ultimately produce an online tool allowing instructors to enter the characteristics and learning goals of a course and find relevant research and teaching strategies.
Werth expects the initial literature review to take about a year, with faculty interviews beginning as preliminary findings emerge. The team plans several publications during the grant period alongside practical classroom resources.
The broader goal is to move engineering education away from a one-size-fits-all approach and treat teamwork as a set of distinct skills that can be intentionally taught, practiced and assessed.
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