Benefits and Problems With Student Teams: Suggestions for Improving Team Projects

Hansen, Randall S.

doi:10.3200/joeb.82.1.11-19

Cited by 279 publications

(257 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Even if group work in education has been examined in numerous studies, there is still much to be discovered concerning students' experiences of group work in schools. There are few reports from a student perspective (Cantwell & Andrews, 2002;Hansen, 2006;Peterson & Miller, 2004;Underwood, 2003). To sum up the results, positive experiences resulted from the necessity of all group members participating and showing respect for each other.…”

Section: Students' Experiences Of Group Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To sum up the results, positive experiences resulted from the necessity of all group members participating and showing respect for each other. In addition, the students emphasise the importance of understandable goals, tasks, and organisation (Hansen, 2006). According to Underwood (2003) and Peterson and Miller (2004), there is also a problem with students who do not contribute to the group work, so-called free-riders.…”

Section: Students' Experiences Of Group Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Teachers’ leadership and students’ experience of group work

Chiriac

Granström

2012

Teachers and Teaching

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Section: Students' Experiences Of Group Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Students' Experiences Of Group Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teachers’ leadership and students’ experience of group work

Chiriac

Granström

2012

Teachers and Teaching

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“…Greek teachers, to facilitate smooth, undisturbed cooperation within students groups, tend to let students form the groups by themselves (apparently on the base of pre-existing interpersonal friendly relationships), and at the same time they avoid allocating individualised duties in each member of the group (Gray & Larson, 2008;Greany & Rodd, 2003). Such a strategy, however, does not encourage students to cooperate with different characters, undermining that way the substantial social objectives of almost every PBLA (Hansen, 2006; Hmelo-Silver et al, 2013; Strobel et al, 2008). In fact, teachers and students should be encouraged to cooperate within various diversified mixed-ability groups where different performances, learning styles, and behaviours co-exist just like they co-exist in real-life after-school situations (Gillies & Ashman, 2003).…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Teachers and students seem to enjoy and make full advantage of rich, refreshing experimentations, as long as they are convinced that they do not pointlessly 'waste their time' within their over-demanding educational reality (Johnson & Johnson, 2003;Matsumura & Pascal, 2003). PBLAs which are intriguing, meaningful and obviously useful are more likely to gain students' respect and promote their active participation in every learning procedure (Hansen, 2006;Hedberg, 2009;Johnson & Johnson, 2013). Teachers must receive specialized training during post-graduate studies and through further education programmes to feel confident to implement diversified teaching strategies within their classrooms and to be given a free hand to experiment, individualize, guide, monitor, support, and assess learning procedures which internationally are expected to produce valuable educational outcomes (Dochy et al, 2003;Frame, 2002;Gillies et al, 2008).…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Project-based Learning in a Conservative Educational System. Greek Students’ Views

Koutrouba¹,

Alexaki²

2016

Eur. j. soc. sci. educ. res.

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The present questionnaire-based study examines 170 Greek upper secondary public and private education students' perceptions about the factors that facilitate or undermine project-based learning within the framework of the highly conservative Greek educational system, about the cognitive, affective and social skills they developed during the carrying-out of project procedures, and about the levels of satisfaction they experienced during their cooperation with their supervising teachers. According to the results, project-based learning is more effectively implemented in private schools due to infrastructure provided, due to effective coordination of welldefined and pre-planned activities, and due to higher levels of teachers' professional commitment and students' learning objectives and expectations. The research also shows that project-based learning, even when embedded in and restricted by traditional educational environments, is considered to produce higher academic attainments for low-achievers, and to facilitate the development of high-ranked cognitive and social skills through students' involvement in real-life situations, and active participation in problem-solving and decision-making procedures. It also indicates that for the majority of the participants the role of the supervising teacher is crucial since s/he defines the rules of communication, the techniques and the stages of the project carrying-out, and the assessment procedures. It finally shows that Greek students, despite apparent satisfaction experienced due to their participation in project procedures, remain skeptical as regards traditional teachers' ability to assess reliably group performance, to provide effectively individualized assistance to low-performing group members, and to encourage high-achievers who have never before worked in unfamiliar learning situations.

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“…But with limited experience of team working, students cannot always overcome these difficulties, and many student team projects fail to deliver satisfactory outcomes. In their study, Dunne and Rawlins (2000) recognised that a team project in higher education can provide a safe environment for learning about team working, although students do need to be provided with some guidance as they embark on team working (Hansen 2006;Prichard, Stratford, & Bizo, 2006). Felder and Brent (1994) introduced cooperative learning to engineering students and concluded that the benefits to students outweighed the problems arising in their team working, but many academics remain to be convinced that team project work is a good learning activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ground Rules in Team Projects: Findings from a Prototype System to Support Students

Whatley¹

2009

InSITE Conference

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Executive SummaryStudent team project work in higher education is one of the best ways to develop team working skills at the same time as learning about the subject matter. As today's students require the freedom to learn at times and places that better match their lifestyles, there is a need for any support for team project work to be also available online. Team working requires that the task roles as well as the maintenance roles are taken into consideration, in that social interactions are just as important as carrying out the tasks of the project.The literature indicates that groupware, whilst effective in supporting the task roles, provides limited support for the maintenance roles of team working in the work place. As groupware was not specifically designed for student team working, it provides limited support for maintenance roles in student team projects. Virtual learning environments similarly provide support for completing the task roles. Many researchers have found that students experience difficulties with their team project work that reduce the perceived benefits of working in a team. It is proposed that helping students to agree on ground rules at the start of a project will improve team cohesion. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a prototype system to help students to agree on ground rules as they start their team projects. The system was tested with teams of students carrying out information systems team projects, using an interpretive case study research approach. In this case the teams had the additional problem of being composed of students from across three years of their undergraduate degree programmes, so they did not always have prior knowledge of each other's preferences. We were trying to establish how useful this software tool would be to these student teams, in starting their project work.The findings showed that some of the student teams did find the ground rules function useful, but the team leaders were the ones who most appreciated its potential. The students may use the outputs in very different ways, but even just looking at the ground rules appeared to get team members thinking about their expectations for team working. Student teams do not often start by thinking about norms, but this study shows a positive benefit of encouraging teams to agree on ground rules at the start of their projects.

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Benefits and Problems With Student Teams: Suggestions for Improving Team Projects

Cited by 279 publications

References 58 publications

Teachers’ leadership and students’ experience of group work

Teachers’ leadership and students’ experience of group work

Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Project-based Learning in a Conservative Educational System. Greek Students’ Views

Ground Rules in Team Projects: Findings from a Prototype System to Support Students

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