Curricular Elements That Promote Professional Behavior In A Design Class

Student teams are commonly used in engineering classes to integrate learning of teamwork, design, and analytic skills. Learning is greatly enhanced when the teams and individuals exhibit professional behaviors. However, not all students embody these behaviors. This case study examines curricular elements that promoted professional behaviors in a design class at University of Idaho. The study used staged surveys, coded student assignments, questionnaires, and student prioritization of responses to substantiate findings. Our research question is: “What factors within this design class promoted professional team behaviors and why?” The data suggests that the interrelated functioning of three curricular elements was the most significant factor in promoting professional behavior. The three curricular elements were a challenging team project, teaching and use of teamwork processes, and accountability coupled with coaching. Though the case employed specific implementations of these elements, broader characteristics of these elements emerged. First, the challenging project necessitated the practice of team processes and provided strong motivation. Second, effective teamwork processes exhibited the characteristics of direct applicability to team goals and appropriate investment of effort for returned value. Third, accountability with coaching appeared to be a strong combination to keep students’ behavior professional and to keep teams on track with the project.