Elaine Seat

An evaluation of a design team facilitator training program for engineering upperclassmen

Due to increasing demands for improved teamwork skills in engineering students, a design team facilitator training program was created for engineering upperclassmen. This program is an integral part of the new engage freshman curriculum at the University of Tennessee. The present study is an evaluation of the structure and impact of the program using four criteria: (1) facilitator reactions, (2) facilitator behavior, (3) participant personality, and (4) design team dynamics. Significant results were found for a measure of each criterion. The implications of these results are discussed and summarized.

Perceptions of team performance: a comparison of male and female engineering students

Teaching engineers to work effectively on teams has become a critical component of engineering education. It is no longer adequate for engineering students to graduate with strong technical skills. They must also be able to work effectively on teams. The authors believe that the current team emphasis in engineering provides a unique opportunity to maximize the role of women by capitalizing on their unique blend of technical and relational strengths. This study examines perceptions of the relative performance of men and women on first year engineering fundamentals project teams. To measure perceptions of team performance, the authors gave a peer-rating instrument (Team Developer) to 263 men and 43 women assigned to 68 teams. They compared males and females on self-rating, team rating and self-team rating discrepancy along four behavioral dimensions: communication, collaboration, decision-making and self-management. Contrary to expectations, they found no overall difference between self and team ratings and no difference between males and females in self-ratings, team ratings, or self-team rating discrepancy. They discuss the implications of their findings for female students on predominately male teams.

The performance of engineering students on the Group Embedded Figures Test

The Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) measures the ability of a person to disembed or pull out specified objects from a given background. The ability to disembed has been shown to be a necessary skill in problem solving and is consequently thought of as a necessary trait for individuals interested in engineering. Therefore, the GEFT has the potential to be used as a predictor of student success in an engineering program. In order to test this hypothesis, the GEFT was given to undergraduate engineering students (with both high and low academic success) and to a control group of liberal arts students at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The paper presents the results of the comparisons and the implications for improving engineering student performance.

Administering, scoring and debriefing team developer

Team Developer is a computer-based peer rating instrument that allows team members to provide each other with feedback about their team behaviors. Team Developer has been used in the College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee since 1999 as a team building tool with courses having as few as two teams up to courses having 450+ students on 96 teams. This paper discusses the practical use of Team Developer from set up, administration, scoring, and debriefing. Assessment applications and lessons learned are also discussed.

Predictors of student rating accuracy

Teamwork has become an integral part of modern engineering practice. Likewise, teaching students to work effectively in teams has become an important component of engineering education. However, evaluating individual student contributions to team development and performance has been difficult. The paper explores the use of peer ratings for evaluation of individual contributions to team performance. Peer ratings are susceptible to bias when, for example, team members either unfairly gang up on an unpopular individual or protect an undeserving student. Therefore, it would be helpful to know if some students provide more accurate ratings than others and what the characteristics of accurate raters might be. The study looked for predictors of rating accuracy by comparing how an individual rated their own team behavior with how their fellow team members rated them on those same behaviors. Specifically, we used the Team Developer instrument to obtain self-ratings and team ratings on a variety of team behaviors. The discrepancy between self and peer ratings provided a measurement of rating accuracy. We then compared rating accuracy with demographic and academic variables to determine possible predictors of rating accuracy. Our results showed a tendency toward self-enhancement in the ratings across all four behavioral dimensions. Limited support was demonstrated for higher rating accuracy in higher performing students and lower accuracy in lower performing students. Implications for student evaluation are discussed, along with limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.

Team toolbox: activities & suggestions for facilitating project teams

This paper shares the experience of facilitating project design teams and offers practical suggestions and activities for improving workgroup performance. The activities presented here represent a series of mini-lectures and class exercises used to promote team development in a yearlong engineering project design course for first-year students. These short activities are useful in engaging college students and getting them to examine the effectiveness of their own teams. Attention is paid to group process, with different activities throughout the project design cycle, from icebreakers at team inception through reflection on strengths and areas for improvement at project completion. Included in this paper are semi-structured exercises for many various situations, including increasing communication, examining group norms, managing conflict, providing guidelines for creative brainstorming, monitoring team progress, and utilizing strengths of all team members. The information offered here is intended to give fresh ideas to those who work with teams so that they may more easily and confidently incorporate a focus on group process into project design courses.

In their own words: the experience of older undergraduate students placed on engineering project teams with traditional first-year students

This qualitative study investigates the experience of older caucasian male undergraduate students placed on design teams comprised primarily of straight-out-of-high-school first-year undergraduates in a first year engineering course. Data collection and analysis were based on the phenomenological method of open-ended interviews with subsequent thematic analysis of the transcripts from which five major themes emerged. Results showed that the older students (1) had a sense helping their younger teammates, (2) believed they took charge of their teams, (3) were apprehensive about being placed on a team of traditional first-year students, (4) felt academically behind their younger counterparts, and (5) received academic help from the younger students on their teams.