Impact Of Structured Writing And Awareness Of Cognition On Effective Teaming

Metacognition is the awareness and understanding by a student of his or her own learning own skills, performance, preferences, and barriers. This paper describes a pilot scale effort to develop metacognition in engineering teams at Rowan University, through structured writing, and the use of the Learning Combination Inventory (LCI). The theoretical basis for the LCI is the Interactive Learning Model, which proposes that learning processes occur through four distinct learning patterns: sequential, precise, technical, and confluent. The LCI was used to profile the learning style of each student in the Rowan Chemical Engineering department. During the Fall Semester of 2004, engineering teams in the Junior/Senior Engineering Clinics were broken into four categories. Category I teams received instruction in use of the LCI and met with a facilitator and their teammates to examine their LCI profiles. In this meeting, potential areas for future conflict were discussed and the teams developed strategies to avoid these conflicts. Category II teams received no LCI instruction but participated in a series of structured writing assignments designed to enhance their awareness of teaming. These assignments included developing and ratifying a team charter and submitting biweekly reports on barriers to success and team dynamics. Category III teams received both the LCI training and participated in the structured writing assignments, while Category IV teams served as a control and participated in none of the activities. At the beginning of the semester, each person was surveyed to determine their perception of their teaming skills, their opinion of teams, and their level of interest in learning about teaming. The participants were surveyed again at the end of the semester and were also asked to evaluate the usefulness of the strategies. Preliminary data analysis indicates that the teams did not feel that they benefited from the structured writing activities, though several individuals mentioned that they would have been helpful if their team was experiencing problems. Almost everyone that participated in the LCI said that they learned quite a bit and several found it useful in dealing with their teammates. Category III teams showed improvement in their perception of teaming and were less likely to report negative teaming experiences than members from the other categories. Final reports were also gathered and evaluated using rubrics to gauge impact on the actual projects, showing that groups that received LCI-training outperformed groups that did not in attaining many of the learning objectives.