Changing Student Perceptions of the Value of Teamwork
Molly Espey, Applied Economics and Statistics, Clemson University
Background: I have used team based learning (TBL) in an introductory microeconomic theory course designed for natural science students (APEC 257) in the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences for seven years. I also taught a similar class (APEC 202) for agricultural science students for four semesters. In 2007, I introduced a survey into these courses to assess students’ attitudes about working with peers in class and in careers and to determine if a semester of working in a TBL class influenced those attitudes.
Description: Three different introductory level classes are analyzed: two in Fall 2007 (one section of APEC 202 and one section of APEC 257), one in Fall 2008 (APEC 257). These courses included five individual and group readiness assessments tests at the beginning of each unit, daily group interactions that progressed in complexity over each unit, ten individual homework assignments, two or three midterms, and a cumulative final taken by individuals. Interdisciplinary groups of 5 to 7 students were formed by the instructor on the first day of class. All students were given a “Value of Teams” survey to complete at the beginning of the first day of class before any information about the course was provided. The survey was administered again on the last day of class. The survey included twelve questions about working with peers in classes and in the workplace and also solicited demographic and academic information from the students. For comparison, the same process was used in an upper division course taken by many of the same students.
Evaluation: A total of 135 students in the introductory level courses and 54 students in the upper division course completed surveys. There were significant improvements in the introductory level students’ attitudes about working with others as measured by the change in their response to these survey questions from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester. Class averages indicated a statistically significantly more positive response to at least half of the questions[1] about the value of working with others. Demographic information allows the average responses and changes in responses to be compared across gender, age, grade point average, and to compare freshman to all other students. Attitudes improved, at least to some extent, across every demographic and academic group, some more than others, except students with a grade point average below 2.50.
While attitudes did not change significantly in the upper division class over the semester, about two-thirds of these students had one of the introductory level courses with the same instructor, so were more familiar with TBL on average. Those students who were familiar with TBL and the instructor started the semester with a statistically significantly more positive attitude about working with others than the students in the introductory level courses, suggesting a lasting improvement in attitudes.
Conclusion: While not all students like the idea of working in teams, students are not dead-set in their attitudes and become more positive when exposed to a positive TBL learning environment.
[1] Six of the average responses were more positive for APEC 202 in Fall 2007, seven for APEC 257 in Fall 2007, and eight for APEC 257 in Fall 2008.
