Work in Progress: Promoting Group Work for Learning: Student Characterizations of Exemplary Project Group Members

Jim L. Borgford-Parnell; Ken Yasuhara; Kamal Abdulla Ahmed; David Schipf

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: Faculty Development Work-in-Progress Poster Session
Tagged Topic: Faculty Development Constituency Committee
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--31301
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/31301
Download Count: 409

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Paper Authors

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Jim L. Borgford-Parnell University of Washington orcid.org/0000-0003-3188-6302

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Dr. Jim Borgford-Parnell is Director and Instructional Consultant of the Office for the Advancement of Engineering Teaching & Learning at the University of Washington. He taught design, education-research methods, and adult and higher education theory and pedagogy courses for over 35 years. He has been involved in instructional development for 20 years, and currently does both research and instructional development in engineering education. Jim has taught courses on the development of reflective teaching practices, and has presented workshops on learning how to learn and developing metacognitive awareness. He has published and presented on engineering design, engineering pedagogies, and instructional development topics.

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Ken Yasuhara University of Washington

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Ken Yasuhara is an instructional consultant and assistant director at the Office for the Advancement of Engineering Teaching & Learning (ET&L) at the University of Washington. He completed an A.B. in computer science at Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. When he finds the time, he plays with bicycle tools and knitting needles.

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Kamal Abdulla Ahmed University of Washington

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David Schipf University of Washington

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David is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. He is focusing on optical communications and other applied optics topics, as well as sensors and micro-systems. He has become increasingly interested in engineering education research and practical improvements to undergraduate and graduate education in the science and engineering fields.

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Abstract

This Work-in-Progress paper details our extensive experience with a student workshop model and ongoing analysis of data collected in the workshops. At the [institution’s] [teaching and learning organization], our primary activity is instructional consultation with faculty, but we also frequently guest-present a workshop for students entitled “Teamwork for learning and project success.” Engineering faculty invite us to present this workshop in a wide range of group-project courses.

The workshop’s immediate, practical objective is to help students begin group work on the right footing. The fundamental emphasis, however, is on seeing group projects (at least in school) primarily as a context and vehicle for learning. Our experience suggests that both students and faculty tend to see efficient project completion, quality of work, and realistic preparation for professional life as the primary reasons for doing course projects in groups. While valid, none of these reasons alludes to the fact that learning with other people is a highly effective way to learn. As detailed in this paper, our workshop equips and encourages students and faculty alike to appreciate group project work in terms of retention, access, and transfer of knowledge.

The workshop is timed to occur after project groups have been formed. During the workshop, students confer in their project groups, and each group develops a consensus list of characteristics of exemplary group members. These characteristics become the criteria they later use for peer assessment.

Over the course of many workshops in several years, we have collected these lists from hundreds of groups and have begun analyzing them for common patterns. We discuss encouraging results suggesting that even lower-division undergraduates list characteristics that align well with the conditions that the group learning and project management literatures identify as contributing to successful learning and project completion, respectively. We conjecture that much of the workshop’s value lies in two distinct outcomes: (1) helping students articulate and place confidence in their experientially derived knowledge concerning effective group work and (2) helping both students and faculty (re-)frame the group project as a uniquely powerful opportunity for learning—not just a means toward successful project completion.

Citation
Format

Borgford-Parnell, J. L., & Yasuhara, K., & Ahmed, K. A., & Schipf, D. (2018, June), Work in Progress: Promoting Group Work for Learning: Student Characterizations of Exemplary Project Group Members Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--31301

TY - CPAPER
AB - This Work-in-Progress paper details our extensive experience with a student workshop model and ongoing analysis of data collected in the workshops. At the [institution’s] [teaching and learning organization], our primary activity is instructional consultation with faculty, but we also frequently guest-present a workshop for students entitled “Teamwork for learning and project success.” Engineering faculty invite us to present this workshop in a wide range of group-project courses.

The workshop’s immediate, practical objective is to help students begin group work on the right footing. The fundamental emphasis, however, is on seeing group projects (at least in school) primarily as a context and vehicle for learning. Our experience suggests that both students and faculty tend to see efficient project completion, quality of work, and realistic preparation for professional life as the primary reasons for doing course projects in groups. While valid, none of these reasons alludes to the fact that learning with other people is a highly effective way to learn. As detailed in this paper, our workshop equips and encourages students and faculty alike to appreciate group project work in terms of retention, access, and transfer of knowledge.

The workshop is timed to occur after project groups have been formed. During the workshop, students confer in their project groups, and each group develops a consensus list of characteristics of exemplary group members. These characteristics become the criteria they later use for peer assessment.

Over the course of many workshops in several years, we have collected these lists from hundreds of groups and have begun analyzing them for common patterns. We discuss encouraging results suggesting that even lower-division undergraduates list characteristics that align well with the conditions that the group learning and project management literatures identify as contributing to successful learning and project completion, respectively. We conjecture that much of the workshop’s value lies in two distinct outcomes: (1) helping students articulate and place confidence in their experientially derived knowledge concerning effective group work and (2) helping both students and faculty (re-)frame the group project as a uniquely powerful opportunity for learning—not just a means toward successful project completion.

AU - Jim L. Borgford-Parnell
AU - Ken Yasuhara
AU - Kamal Abdulla Ahmed
AU - David Schipf
CY - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA - 2018/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Work in Progress: Promoting Group Work for Learning: Student Characterizations of Exemplary Project Group Members
UR - https://peer.asee.org/31301
DO - 10.18260/1-2--31301
ER -