Student Perceptions of the Place, Mode, and Teacher Contribution to Teamwork within Undergraduate Chemical Engineering

Abishek Sekhar; Peter Neal; Sarah Grundy

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Chemical Engineering Division (ChED) Technical Session 10: Teaming and Professional Skills
Tagged Division: Chemical Engineering Division (ChED)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44314
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/44314
Download Count: 197

Paper Authors

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Abishek Sekhar

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Peter Neal The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia orcid.org/0000-0002-8831-5327

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Dr Peter Neal is a Senior Lecturer in Process Engineering (Education Focussed) with the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He has more than 15 years’ experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate engineering, focusing on developing his students’ design, inquiry, and professional skills. He currently leads the Faculty of Engineering’s work to increase participation of students from low SES backgrounds and co-leads the University’s Teamwork Community of Practice. In 2022, Peter was made a Fellow of the UNSW Scientia Education Academy – a select group of outstanding educators. Previously, he conducted techno-economic research with Dairy Australia and CO2CRC and was Deputy Head of School (External Relations) with the UNSW School of Petroleum Engineering.

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Sarah Grundy The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

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Dr Sarah Grundy is a Lecturer at the School of Chemical Engineering. Sarah has over 15 years' experience in industry developing graduate engineers and scientists. She has come back to UNSW (2020) as an Education Focused (EF) academic teaching postgraduate and undergraduate engineering students, focusing on design courses from first year through to final year and course convenor of several Work Integrated Learning activities and courses for the Faculty.

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Abstract

The challenges of contemporary practice require engineers who can work in multidisciplinary teams comprised of professionals from various backgrounds and disciplines. Graduate engineers are expected to enter the workforce equipped with the ability to work seamlessly with these teams. Thus, it is critical that engineering students develop these skills within and alongside their curricula studies. However, the literature on students’ appreciation for teamwork is equivocal. Students with a positive perception are correlated with collegiality, equitable work distribution, and fair assessment techniques. Common complaints are that that work is unfairly distributed among the team or that their contributions did not receive the recognition they believe it deserved. Further, students point to a lack of guidance on how to develop teamwork skills or they were taught in an ineffective manner. Some students felt they learned less when working in teams and preferred working individually. Given this context, we sought to understand the attitudes of students within our institution to teamwork. The aim of this study is to understand the factors that contribute to positive or negative perceptions of teamwork. Particularly, how various teaching and assessment practices, prior experience, and team structures impact students’ perceptions of teamwork. We conducted an online, anonymous survey of engineering students predominantly from chemical engineering. The results showed that students strongly agreed with teamwork being a positive experience, but less agreement with propositions for more teamwork and learning better in group contexts. Students desired explicit instruction in teamwork skills and preferred teams with 4-5 members. There were also diverse opinions within the respondents on how work should be distributed within the team and sufficiency of online-only teams. In general, the results indicated that the teacher occupied an educative and mediating role in facilitating teamwork, especially in the current context and prevalence of online and hybrid teams. We conclude by making recommendations for teachers on the implementation of team-based activities that will provide their students with positive and effective learning experiences for the development of teamwork skills.

Citation
Format

Sekhar, A., & Neal, P., & Grundy, S. (2023, June), Student Perceptions of the Place, Mode, and Teacher Contribution to Teamwork within Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44314

TY - CPAPER
AB - The challenges of contemporary practice require engineers who can work in multidisciplinary teams comprised of professionals from various backgrounds and disciplines. Graduate engineers are expected to enter the workforce equipped with the ability to work seamlessly with these teams. Thus, it is critical that engineering students develop these skills within and alongside their curricula studies.

However, the literature on students’ appreciation for teamwork is equivocal. Students with a positive perception are correlated with collegiality, equitable work distribution, and fair assessment techniques. Common complaints are that that work is unfairly distributed among the team or that their contributions did not receive the recognition they believe it deserved. Further, students point to a lack of guidance on how to develop teamwork skills or they were taught in an ineffective manner. Some students felt they learned less when working in teams and preferred working individually.

Given this context, we sought to understand the attitudes of students within our institution to teamwork. The aim of this study is to understand the factors that contribute to positive or negative perceptions of teamwork. Particularly, how various teaching and assessment practices, prior experience, and team structures impact students’ perceptions of teamwork.

We conducted an online, anonymous survey of engineering students predominantly from chemical engineering. The results showed that students strongly agreed with teamwork being a positive experience, but less agreement with propositions for more teamwork and learning better in group contexts. Students desired explicit instruction in teamwork skills and preferred teams with 4-5 members. There were also diverse opinions within the respondents on how work should be distributed within the team and sufficiency of online-only teams. In general, the results indicated that the teacher occupied an educative and mediating role in facilitating teamwork, especially in the current context and prevalence of online and hybrid teams.

We conclude by making recommendations for teachers on the implementation of team-based activities that will provide their students with positive and effective learning experiences for the development of teamwork skills.

AU - Abishek Sekhar
AU - Peter Neal
AU - Sarah Grundy
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Student Perceptions of the Place, Mode, and Teacher Contribution to Teamwork within Undergraduate Chemical Engineering
UR - https://peer.asee.org/44314
DO - 10.18260/1-2--44314
ER -