Optimizing Student Team Skill Development using Evidence-Based Strategies—NSF Award 1431694

Optimizing Student Team Skill Development using Evidence‐Based Strategies NSF Award 1431694 The broad goal of this work is to study the effectiveness of various teamwork training interventions. This research requires the use of a common model of teamwork and a system for training, collecting ratings data, and providing feedback. We will leverage the NSF’s prior investment in the CATME system, which meets the research criteria and automates some of the data collection and feedback, which will aid in executing the research protocol consistently. Seven empirical studies will determine the effect sizes of training, practice in teams, practice rating, and feedback interventions on cognitive development (improvement of team skills) and metacognitive development (improvement of self‐ and peer‐evaluation skills). Outcomes. We focus both on cognitive skills related to team‐member effectiveness and on metacognitive skills that enable competent self‐ and peer‐evaluation of team members’ effectiveness. An intermediate knowledge‐level outcome affects both—developing an improved cognitive model of teamwork. Students must learn what skills are necessary for effective teamwork to be able to develop and evaluate them. Strategies. To achieve these outcomes, we have several strategies. Frame‐of‐reference training, which is well‐established and empirically supported, will align students’ cognitive model of teamwork with ours by teaching students the ways team members can contribute effectively to teams in the five key areas summarized earlier. Experience working in teams and evaluating teamwork will improve team skills and self‐ and peer‐evaluation skills. Experience in teams increases as students work on multiple teams. Rating practice will be accomplished by showing students descriptions or videotapes of fictitious team members and having them rate the contributions these fictitious team members make, in addition to rating themselves and their real teammates following work in teams. Finally, we will examine how the degree to which and manner in which feedback on team skills is provided affect student outcomes

Board # 114 : Progress toward Optimizing Student Team Skill Development using Evidence-Based Strategies

The broad goal of this work is to study the effectiveness of various teamwork training interventions. This research requires the use of a common model of teamwork and a system for training, collecting ratings data, and providing feedback. We will leverage the NSF’s prior investment in the CATME system, which meets the research criteria and automates some of the data collection and feedback, which will aid in executing the research protocol consistently. Seven empirical studies will determine the effect sizes of training, practice in teams, practice rating, and feedback interventions on cognitive development (improvement of team skills) and metacognitive development (improvement of self- and peer-evaluation skills). Outcomes. We focus both on cognitive skills related to team-member effectiveness and on metacognitive skills that enable competent self- and peer-evaluation of team members’ effectiveness. An intermediate knowledge-level outcome affects both—developing an improved cognitive model of teamwork. Students must learn what skills are necessary for effective teamwork to be able to develop and evaluate them. Strategies. To achieve these outcomes, we have several strategies. Frame-of-reference training, which is well-established and empirically supported, will align students’ cognitive model of teamwork with ours by teaching students the ways team members can contribute effectively to teams in the five key areas summarized earlier. Experience working in teams and evaluating teamwork will improve team skills and self- and peer-evaluation skills. Experience in teams increases as students work on multiple teams. Rating practice will be accomplished by showing students descriptions or videotapes of fictitious team members and having them rate the contributions these fictitious team members make, in addition to rating themselves and their real teammates following work in teams. Finally, we will examine how the degree to which and manner in which feedback on team skills is provided affect student outcomes. This presentation (Executive Summary and Poster) will provide a valuable update on this project, share various lessons for classroom practice, and provide guidance to other faculty who seek to use CATME in their research

The Rapid Adoption of SMARTER Teamwork Tools: the System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for Teamwork

The Rapid Adoption of SMARTER Teamwork Tools: the System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for TeamworkThe rapid adoption of Team-Maker and the Comprehensive Assessment of Team MemberEffectiveness (CATME) tools for team formation and peer evaluation make it possible to extendtheir success to have a significant impact on the development of team skills in higher education.As of October 19, 2014, the web-based systems have been used by more than 300,000 studentsof more than 6000 faculty at more than 1100 institutions in 59 countries—the figure belowshows the growth of the user base at the end of September.This paper and its accompanying poster will describe progress toward broadening the scope ofthose tools into a complete system for the management of teamwork in undergraduate education.The System for the Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediationof Teamwork (SMARTER Teamwork) has three specific goals: 1) to equip students to work inteams by providing them with training and feedback, 2) to equip faculty to manage student teamsby providing them with information and tools to facilitate best practices, and 3) to equipresearchers to understand teams by broadening the system’s capabilities to collect additionaltypes of data so that a wider range of research questions can be studied through a secureresearcher interface. The three goals of the project support each other in hierarchical fashion:research informs faculty practice, faculty determine the students’ experience, which, if wellmanaged based on research findings, equips students to work in teams. Our strategies forachieving these goals are based on a well-accepted training model that has five elements:information, demonstration, practice, feedback, and remediation.The paper that will be submitted and the poster presented at the conference will focus on newfeatures of the system, the development of training materials, and the deployment of a partnerwebsite that shares information about the SMARTER tools for teamwork and provides basicinformation about teamwork and team management. The observed growth is both penetrationinto the original target market and growth into unexpected markets

Optimizing Student Team Skill Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies

The critical importance of effective teamwork in engineering is widely recognized. Surprisingly, however, relatively little is known about how to develop teamwork skills in higher education classes, including what factors contribute to effective teamwork, their relative importance in a team\u27s overall performance, and the underlying individual and interpersonal dynamics. Increasing numbers of engineering instructors are adopting instructional practices relying on teamwork, yet many instructors simply form student teams and hope the members individually and collectively learn on their own how to work in teams and succeed in their task(s). Instructors do this because they do not have guidance for a better approach. This research project aims to address this gap in faculty knowledge. The empirical studies conducted as part of this project build on research in engineering education, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and other fields in a coordinated large-scale research project that will provide faculty with needed knowledge and tools to ensure that students learn team skills. The research team is conducting seven separate studies measuring the impact of teamwork training, experience working in teams, practice rating the teamwork of fictitious team members, and giving and receiving peer feedback. The research is measuring each of these effects in real teams on three learning outcomes: improved teamwork knowledge, improved ability to evaluate teamwork, and improved ability to function effectively in teams. These studies will result in practical recommendations for time-pressed faculty to implement

SMARTER Teamwork: System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for Teamwork

The rapid adoption of Team-Maker and the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME), tools for team formation and peer evaluation, make it possible to extend their success to have a significant impact on the development of team skills in higher education. The web-based systems are used by over 700 faculty at over 200 institutions internationally. This paper and its accompanying poster will describe strategies for broadening the scope of those tools into a complete system for the management of teamwork in undergraduate education. The System for the Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation of Teamwork (SMARTER Teamwork) has three specific goals: 1) to equip students to work in teams by providing them with training and feedback, 2) to equip faculty to manage student teams by providing them with information and tools to facilitate best practices, and 3) to equip researchers to understand teams by broadening the system’s capabilities to collect additional types of data so that a wider range of research questions can be studied through a secure researcher interface. The three goals of the project support each other in hierarchical fashion: research informs faculty practice, faculty determine the students’ experience, which, if well managed based on research findings, equips students to work in teams. Our strategies for achieving these goals are based on a well-accepted training model that has five elements: information, demonstration, practice, feedback, and remediation. Different outcomes are expected for each group of people. For the students, both individual outcomes, such as student learning, and team outcomes, such as the development of shared mental models, are expected. For the faculty, individual outcomes such as faculty learning and faculty satisfaction are expected. The outcomes for researchers will be community outcomes, that is, benefits for stakeholders outside the research team, such as generating new knowledge for teaming theory and disseminating best practices. Measuring these outcomes is the basis for the project’s evaluation plan

SMARTER Teamwork: System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for Teamwork

SMARTER Teamwork: System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for TeamworkThe rapid adoption of Team-Maker and the Comprehensive Assessment of Team MemberEffectiveness (CATME) tools for team formation and peer evaluation make it possible to extendtheir success to have a significant impact on the development of team skills in higher education.The web-based systems have been used by more than 110,000 students of more than 2400faculty at more than 500 institutions internationally—the figure below shows the growth of theuser base. 2400 The system has had 113,373 unique student users. 2200 Fitted curves are third order. 2000 1800 Faculty and staff 1600 1400 1200 Number of 1000 users 800 Institutions 600 400 Aug Oct. 2005 2012 200 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Years since software was releasedThis paper and its accompanying poster will describe strategies for broadening the scope of thosetools into a complete system for the management of teamwork in undergraduate education. TheSystem for the Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation ofTeamwork (SMARTER Teamwork) has three specific goals: 1) to equip students to work inteams by providing them with training and feedback, 2) to equip faculty to manage student teamsby providing them with information and tools to facilitate best practices, and 3) to equipresearchers to understand teams by broadening the system’s capabilities to collect additionaltypes of data so that a wider range of research questions can be studied through a secureresearcher interface. The three goals of the project support each other in hierarchical fashion:research informs faculty practice, faculty determine the students’ experience, which, if wellmanaged based on research findings, equips students to work in teams. Our strategies forachieving these goals are based on a well-accepted training model that has five elements:information, demonstration, practice, feedback, and remediation.The paper that will be submitted and the poster presented at the conference will focus on newfeatures of the system, the development of training materials, and the deployment of a partnerwebsite that shares information about the SMARTER tools for teamwork and provides basicinformation about teamwork and team management

Peer Control in Organizations

Georgia Southern University faculty member Misty L. Loughry authored “Peer Control in Organizations” in the publication Organizational Control. Chapter Summary: Peer control occurs when workers who are at the same organizational level or in the same field exert lateral control over their peers. Peer control is widespread in organizations, yet is not well understood. This chapter discusses the scope of the peer control concept, including different types of formal and informal peer controls designed by managers and workers. The potential benefits and drawbacks of peer control are also discussed. Five theoretical perspectives that can be used to examine informal peer control are reviewed. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research on peer control. The goals of this chapter are to show that peer control is an important, yet insufficiently understood, element of the organizational control system and to stimulate new research on peer control

Peer Control in Organizations

Peer control occurs when workers who are at the same organizational level or in the same field exert lateral control over their peers. Peer control is widespread in organizations, yet is not well understood. This chapter discusses the scope of the peer control concept, including different types of formal and informal peer controls designed by managers and workers. The potential benefits and drawbacks of peer control are also discussed. Five theoretical perspectives that can be used to examine informal peer control are reviewed. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research on peer control. Peer control is widespread in organizations and impacts a variety of important individual and organizational outcomes, but relatively little management research examines peer control as compared to other forms of organizational control, such as supervision/leadership and incentive pay. Yet wider spans of control and greater use of teams and self-managed work groups have decreased organizations\u27 use of direct supervision and increased the importance of interpersonal influence and lateral coordination to direct and motivate work in organizations (Ilgen and Pulakos,1999; Pfeffer, 1997). Furthermore, although competitive and economic conditions often leave little room for organizations to offer enough incentive pay to have a substantial influence on workers, the discretionary rewards and sanctions that coworkers give one another frequently do have very meaningful influences on workers. The goals of this chapter are to show that peer control is an important, yet insufficiently understood, element of the organizational control system and to stimulate new research on peer control

Why Won\u27t Task Conflict Cooperate? Deciphering Stubborn Results

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest why the theoretically positive relationship between task conflict and team performance has received mixed empirical support. Design/methodology/approach – We review the literature on task conflict and offer explanations for findings that contradict the expected positive relationship between task conflict and team performance. Findings – High levels of correlation among task, relationship and process conflict, and measurement and data analysis issues make it difficult to isolate the effects of each type of conflict. Group-level moderators, including values congruence, goal alignment, norms for debate and the group’s performance history and conflict history affect the relationship between task conflict and performance. The complex relationship between conflict and trust may cause task conflict to have mixed effects on performance. Individual differences and conflict management approaches also affect the relationship between task conflict and performance. Temporal issues and stages of group development are other relevant influences. Practical implications – To better achieve the theorized performance benefits of task conflict, a context characterized by trust is needed. Then norms fostering task conflict can be cultivated and employees can be trained in conflict management. Individual differences that affect team members’ ability to confidently accept task conflict can be considered in selection. Originality/value – Suggestions are presented for future research that may explain discrepant findings in the past empirical literature. In particular, it may be difficult for some team members to perceive task conflict in well-functioning teams. Measures of task conflict that avoid the use of words with a negative connotation should be tested