Team Member Selection: A Functional Based Approach

and Motivation The modern learning approaches in engineering education require substantial training of students within a team-based environment 1,2,3 . The success or failure of these student teams depends heavily on the composition of the team. Therefore, the proper selection of the team members is critical to successful team functioning and, ultimately, in achieving the desired outcomes of the learning environment. A variety of approaches for the selection of team members have been used. For example, colleagues at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering used a “balanced” type of approach based, mainly, on the student grades obtained in previous courses. In this selection approach, the idea is that grade distribution will bring the balance of skills needed for successful team functioning. Others simply allow the students to choose their members with (many times) the total number of students per team as the only guideline. In other universities (e.g., West Virginia) instructors frequently use a “dual” selection approach. The students choose pairs and then the instructor forms the teams by pairing the pairs. This method allows for partial input from the students as well as from the instructor. The approach hopes to achieve the skill level needed by an effective integration of personality and by providing some diversity in the composition.