Lecturer's blog 16: "The ubiquitous nature of student group work, and how we can enhance the experience and learning of our students" by Jacoba Oedzes

In the coming months, lecturers following the Academic Education Track will write the lecturers' blog and give their views on this track, teaching innovation and best practices.

In many of our programs and courses, we as teachers rely on different forms of student group work. This group work is important: it ensures some efficiency for us as teachers, and at the same time enhances experiential learning and student teamworking skills. In fact, obtaining teamworking skills is increasingly important for our students, as most of them will encounter this in their future careers. Furthermore, because of the importance of these employability skills, some of our programs (e.g., the MSc HRM) incorporate effective teamwork collaboration skills in their ILO’s. All of this raises the question of how we, as teachers, can actively contribute to students obtaining groupwork-related intended learning outcomes, and how we can minimize potential problems that such groups may face (e.g., social loafing).

Group work: the challenge

Research into student group work suggests that simply exposing students to team-based projects is insufficient for improving their teamwork skills (Donia, O’Neill & Brutus, 2015). This suggests that it is important for teachers to provide students with helpful tools and/or support to improve their learning within these group settings. In turn, this leads to tension in the sense that teachers are restricted in terms of resources (perhaps most importantly time) to closely supervise or coach all of the student groups. Ultimately, it provides an interesting challenge: As teachers, we should find efficient, yet effective ways to help students develop teamwork collaboration skills throughout the courses we teach.

The goal of this blog is twofold. First, I present a number of evidence-based preconditions for effective group work. Second, I will shortly describe two interventions aimed at enhancing student teamwork skills that I will test in different courses next academic year. I would be excited to refine these ideas further, so do not hesitate to contact me if you have experience, feedback or additional ideas.

Preconditions for effective group work

The current research on student group work provides some important preconditions for effective group work. This is not an exhaustive list, just some examples of evidence-based preconditions and best practices.

1. Research demonstrates that student attitudes about teamwork are positively related to the teamwork effectiveness (Stout, Salas & Fowlkes, 1997). This points to the importance of introducing the teamwork in a positive and constructive manner, and enhancing student’s engagement with the group work.
2. Recent research shows that student teams should be characterized by a dense and decentralized advice-giving structure. This means that all group members should talk to all other group members to discuss task-related input. Importantly, when only one or a few students are involved in discussing the assignment content, this negatively affects group collaboration norms and reduces group performance (Jiang, Yang, Guo & Zhang, 2022). As teachers, we should therefore focus on ensuring that all students are involved, and ensuring a relatively equal contribution from all members.
3. Student teams should engage in constructive controversy. This means that teams should reap the benefits of task conflict (conflicts about content), and minimize relationship and process conflict. Teachers can help student-teams achieve this by providing basic team training on the theoretical principles of constructive controversy and conflict profiles (see O’Neill et al., 2017 for more details).
4. Psychological safety in teams fosters team performance, learning, and reduces free-rider problems. Research finds that psychological safety in student groups can be enhanced by using agile project management tools which are also used by organizations (e.g., having a clear group leader, engaging in scrum session to discuss collaboration progress; Marder et al., 2021).

Plans to enhance student group work

Now the question is how to apply such findings in our own teaching and/or come up with alternative suitable methods for enhancing student group work. I am teaching two very different courses next year in terms of student population and will therefore try out two new (and different) methods. First, in the course Gedrag in Organisaties (BDK, first year, 500+ students), students work together in groups of 2 or 3 students to prepare group presentations. Before the course, I will collect data on students’ individual personality levels and provide them with personalized reports on what their findings mean for their personal strengths and weaknesses in terms of group work. Additionally, I’ll provide the groups with a group-level report on what their composition is, and how this may affect group-level characteristics. During the course, students have to incorporate this knowledge into their group work and reflect together with their group members on these aspects. Second, I’ll be teaching the course HR Analytics (MSc HRM, master level, 70 students). In this course, the outcomes of group work represents 75% of students’ grade and is therefore a large and important component of student learning. I am planning to collect data on the group’s network a number of times throughout the semester and provide the groups with data-driven advice on how to improve their networks. Halfway the course, I will organize a session to discuss research on the effects of social networks on effective group collaboration that they can further incorporate during the semester. For both these courses, I will evaluate the effectiveness of providing the students with these different types of information (personality information vs social network information) and take lessons learned to further design interventions that improve student group work.

Finally, I would like to pass the torch for writing this blog to my AET-colleague Martijn Keizer.

References

Donia, M., O'Neill, T. A., & Brutus, S. (2015). Peer feedback increases team member performance, confidence and work outcomes: A longitudinal study. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 12560). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Jiang, Y., Yang, L., Guo, W., & Zhang, W. (2022). Linking Social Networks to Student Learning and Performance in Project Teams: The Promise of Collaborative Norms. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 21(4), 561-579.

Marder, B., Ferguson, P., Marchant, C., Brennan, M., Hedler, C., Rossi, M., Black, S. & Doig, R. (2021). ‘Going agile’: Exploring the use of project management tools in fostering psychological safety in group work within management discipline courses. The International Journal of Management Education, 19(3), 100519.

O’Neill, T. A., Hoffart, G. C., McLarnon, M. M., Woodley, H. J., Eggermont, M., Rosehart, W., & Brennan, R. (2017). Constructive controversy and reflexivity training promotes effective conflict profiles and team functioning in student learning teams. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 16(2), 257-276.

Stout, R. J., Salas, E., & Fowlkes, J. E. (1997). Enhancing teamwork in complex environments through team training. Group Dynamics: Theory, research, and practice, 1(2), 169.