Teaching Teamwork: A Training Video Designed for Engineering Students

Abstract

Madeleine Arvold is a second year industrial-organizational psychology master's student at Seattle Pacific University. Madeleine is interested in organizational and team cultures, and particularly on the effects of those cultures on the attraction and retention of women in the technology industry. Mr. Steven David Mow, Seattle Pacific UniversitySteven D. Mow is and Industrial-Organizational Psychology M.A. student at Seattle Pacific University. He has four years of formal leadership and team development experience which he uses to influence and enrich his involvement with various training and development research based projects purposed to build effective and impactful teams and leaders.Mr. Zachary W Cook, Seattle Pacific University Zachary W. Cook is a master's student in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Seattle Pacific University. He is passionate about developing people, and utilizing research based practices in this endeavor.Natalie Goode, Seattle Pacific University Natalie Goode is a Master's student at Seattle Pacific University studying Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Mrs. Caitlin H. Wasilewski, Seattle Pacific UniversityCaitlin H. Wasilewski is an Industrial-Organizational Psychology PhD student at Seattle Pacific University. During her graduate studies she has been involved in several research projects investigating students, faculty, and graduates of STEM disciplines with the goal of improving engagement and retention in these populations.Mr. Rida Y Al-Hawaj, Seattle Pacific University Rida Al-Hawaj is a master's student at Seattle Pacific University. He is majored in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. He received his B.S in psychology from Portland State University. He got interested in the topic of "Educating Engineering Students on Effective Team Skills" because he started his academic journey by majoring in electrical engineering and faced many problems in teams because of the lack of team skills. In his spare time, he enjoys doing photography and learning new things. You can reach him at: alhawajr@spu.edu Dr. Melani Plett, Seattle Pacific UniversityProf. Melani Plett is a Professor in Electrical Engineering at Seattle Pacific University. She has over seventeen years of experience in teaching a variety of engineering undergraduate students (freshman through senior) and has participated in several engineering education research projects, with a focus how faculty can best facilitate student learning. The ability to communicate and work effectively on a team has increased in importance in the field of engineering as the demands of business and industry have evolved 1 . Engineers today report that communication is critical to their success and spend a large percentage of time interacting with others 1 and working on teams 2 . Despite the need for interaction in practice, industry reports indicate engineering graduates show skill deficiencies in communication and teamwork 3 . Due to the importance of these skills, many encourage their integration into the engineering classroom, suggestin...

Work In Progress: A Teamwork Training Model to Promote the Development of Teaming Skills in Chemical Engineering Students.

“…As detailed in the foregoing, despite the mounting evidence that teamwork is a fundamental skill for new engineers, most chemical engineering students tend to see the development of teaming skills and the training in effective teamwork as a requirement to complete a course rather than a necessary skill in their professional careers [4], [5], [11]. It can be very challenging for engineering educators to promote interest in skills that are often seen as unnecessary by students, and for the most part, few engineering instructors have been trained in teamwork as part of their education in academia [4], [11].…”

“…As detailed in the foregoing, despite the mounting evidence that teamwork is a fundamental skill for new engineers, most chemical engineering students tend to see the development of teaming skills and the training in effective teamwork as a requirement to complete a course rather than a necessary skill in their professional careers [4], [5], [11]. It can be very challenging for engineering educators to promote interest in skills that are often seen as unnecessary by students, and for the most part, few engineering instructors have been trained in teamwork as part of their education in academia [4], [11]. Moreover, the perception engineering students usually have about teamwork is further cemented by unfulfilling teamwork experiences, these experiences are often the result of assuming students will acquire teaming skills by being assigned to work in teams as part of a class, and that students will know how to work with others without receiving further training to cultivate these skills [4], [5].…”

“…Hence, we propose chemical engineering undergraduate programs must find ways to adapt to these fast-moving work environments as they aim to close the knowledge gaps that exist between industry needs and current teaching offerings in engineering curricula [4], [5], [13]. Recent engineering graduates are often underprepared for fast changing workplaces that are centered around teamwork and that require adaptability and flexibility [3], [5], [11]. We suggest this gap can be reduced by creating an effective model to train students in the development of teaming skills and by changing their perception of teamwork.…”

Team Effectiveness in Predicting Student Learning: An Analysis of First-year Engineering Students

“…used theory and findings from research in psychology and suggested applications in engineering, specifically facilitating teamwork in classrooms and minimizing negative team behaviors [23]. Arvold [24] built a teaching video module to train engineering students in developing skills of teamwork and communication. A comparison between globally and locally distributed teams by Ang revealed significant outperformance of local based teams [25].…”