Using Your Brain To Build Teams That Work: A Study Of The Freshman And Sophomore Engineering Clinics At Rowan University

This paper discusses the results of the first semester of a longitudinal study of intentional teambuilding undertaken in the Freshman and Sophomore Engineering Clinics at Rowan University. Students took Johnston & Dainton’s Learning Combination Inventory (LCI), a 28item self-report instrument that quantitatively and qualitatively captures the degree to which an individual uses each of four learning patterns. Through these patterns the learner represents how he or she sees the world, takes in stimuli, integrates the stimuli and formulates a response to it. An individual can begin his or her learning with a particular pattern or patterns, use patterns as needed, or avoid them. Teams were then created in order to maximize individual and collective use of learning patterns. This paper will report 1. The results of the initial study conducted during the Fall 2001 semester. 2. An overview of the patterns that resulted from the administration of the LCI to all Freshmen and Sophomore Engineering students at Rowan 3. Examples of the patterns of the teams that were assigned (to show how it’s done) 4. Comments from students regarding their team experiences 5. An evaluation of the study to date. Introduction Responding to the demands of industry for graduates skilled in teamwork, many engineering programs have introduced projects that require students to work in teams. Positive team experiences also contribute significantly to student academic success and to improved rates of retention. Creating teams, however, does not always engender effective team behavior. Students who report negative team experiences typically cite lack of communication among – and lack of commitment by – some participants as factors critical to unproductive or failed work efforts. Nationwide there is increasing interest in the subject of forming teams on the basis of qualifications that are more closely associated with individual learning patterns than with specific technical qualifications alone. Of course, it is important to take into consideration the actual technical skills that a particular member brings to a project team but if the team members do not adequately function as an effective unit, the technical skills will be wasted. The act of forming effective teams, then, should be emphasized as an important technical skill. P ge 7.287.1 “Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ” 2002, American Society for Engineering Education” The Freshman and Sophomore Clinics at Rowan University The Freshman and Sophomore Clinics at Rowan University are intensive, team-based and multi-disciplinary laboratory courses taken by all engineering students in the college. The Freshman Clinic is taught by engineering faculty from each of the four disciplines at Rowan: Mechanical, Electrical and Computer, Civil and Environmental, and Chemical. It targets problem solving and engineering measurements in the fall semester and introduction to design and competitive assessment in the spring semester. In Freshman Clinic, we have concentrated on using teams to build a feeling of belonging among the first year Engineering students who are mostly in classes outside of the college. We begin with the first day of class in the fall when teams of 4 or 5 students are asked to participate in a tower building contest using Jenga blocks. This first day exercise allows the students to get to know some of the people in their section and to become acquainted with their section instructor in an informal atmosphere. During the remainder of the semester, the students work in teams on laboratory projects, presentations, and in homework study-groups. Sophomore Clinic is team-taught by faculty from engineering and college writing in the fall semester and faculty from engineering and public speaking in the spring. The curriculum in Sophomore Clinic is coordinated so that the students’ writing and speaking assignments are planned and accomplished in conjunction with the laboratory design projects that increase in sophistication during the academic year. At the completion of these first two years of Engineering Clinic, the students must be prepared to work on design projects in mixed teams of junior and senior students throughout the remainder of their undergraduate program. During the Junior and Senior years the students are expected to perform at a near-professional level on industry and government sponsored projects. Throughout the Clinic sequence, the effective performance of the students’ team is crucial to their success. While team performance is critical in each of the Rowan Engineering disciplines, the development of models for effective team building needs more attention. We actively encourage the students to participate in their teams, but we do not provide extensive formal instruction in team management or team interaction skills. Some topics relevant to teamwork, such as brainstorming or dealing with difficult people, are addressed, however, the details of team interaction are not specific lecture or discussion topics. In addition, there has been no systematic attempt to form teams on a consistent basis. We have sometimes tried to group students based on perceived strength by assuring that all the strong students do not end up in a single group. Another consideration which has been used in the past is to assure that no team had only one woman student. It was felt that the women would be more comfortable in a predominately male environment if they were not isolated. A new method that combines consideration of the students’ strengths, preferences and needs with information that the students can use to improve their group experience will be a welcome addition to the engineering program at Rowan University.