Cooperative Learning:Teamwork for Engineering Classrooms

Cooperative Learning:Teamwork for Engineering Classrooms

Karl A. Smith

University of Minnesota

March 1995 IEEE education society/ASEE electrical engineering

division newsletter

Karl A. Smith

University of Minnesota

March 1995 IEEE education society/ASEE electrical engineering

division newsletter

Team ManagementReflections

Think about your most successful/effective team project experience What were the characteristics of the team? What were the conditions?

Have you had experiences with teams that were ineffective or frustrating? What made the team ineffective? What could you have done to improve the team?

Types of Teams

Perf

orm

an

ce L

evel

Types of Teams

Pseudo

Cooperative

High-PerformingCooperative

Traditional

members

team

Pseudo-learning Teams

Believe they will be evaluated individually relative to others

Perceive other group members as rivals Block or interfere with each other’s learning Attempt to mislead and confuse each other Would achieve more if they worked alone

Team members:

Traditional Classroom Learning Teams

Believe they will be evaluated and rewarded as individuals, not as a team

Interact primarily to clarify how assignments are to be done

Have no motivation to teach what they know to their teammates

May seek a free ride on the efforts of teammates Or may feel exploited and do less

Team members:

Cooperative Learning Teams

Have a goal of maximizing all members’ learning Hold themselves accountable for doing high quality work Work face-to-face to produce joint work-products Promote success through helping, sharing, assisting, explaining,

and encouraging Provide both academic and personal support based on a

commitment to and caring about each other Use teamwork skills to coordinate their efforts and achieve their

goals Share responsibility for providing leadership Analyze how effectively they are achieving their goals Emphasize continual improvement of the teamwork process

High-performance Cooperative Learning Team

Meets all the expectations of the cooperative learning team

Outperforms all reasonable expectations, given its membership

High level of commitment Mutual concern for each other’s personal growth Achieve high-performance and also have lots of

fun

What Makes Cooperative Learning Work?

Positive interdependence Face-to-face interaction Individual accountability/personal

responsibility Teamwork skills Group processing

Teamwork Skills

Leadership Decision-making Trust-building Communication Conflict-management Team processing Conversation about the process

Course Grading

Not on a curve You are not competing with your

classmates If you all do well, you will all get good

grades Cooperation is rewarded, not penalized

Full Laboratory ReportsFull Laboratory Reports

Write the laboratory report as if the experiment was your idea.

Imagine that you are working for a consulting firm or in a research laboratory and that you needed to do laboratory research to investigate options for a real world project.

See the class web site for detailed guidance.

Write the laboratory report as if the experiment was your idea.

Imagine that you are working for a consulting firm or in a research laboratory and that you needed to do laboratory research to investigate options for a real world project.

See the class web site for detailed guidance.

Laboratory NotebooksLaboratory Notebooks

Use a Laboratory notebook to keep track of the details exact masses and volumes used in the

preparation of samples sources of materials used detailed descriptions of techniques

Document procedures that didn’t work as well as procedures that were successful

Use a Laboratory notebook to keep track of the details exact masses and volumes used in the

preparation of samples sources of materials used detailed descriptions of techniques

Document procedures that didn’t work as well as procedures that were successful

Oral Report LogisticsOral Report Logistics

Sign up for the oral report on the web. Make sure to verify that you aren’t signing up for a slot that is already taken!

Information on the various topics may be obtained from World wide web Library (allow enough time to recall resources)

Recommend PowerPoint Give a paper copy of the presentation to me at the

beginning of the presentation The oral presentations will be given at the beginning of

the period

Sign up for the oral report on the web. Make sure to verify that you aren’t signing up for a slot that is already taken!

Information on the various topics may be obtained from World wide web Library (allow enough time to recall resources)

Recommend PowerPoint Give a paper copy of the presentation to me at the

beginning of the presentation The oral presentations will be given at the beginning of

the period