In scenario one, the group seems to define success as receiving a high grade, even though the team relies heavily on only two out of the five members. Meanwhile, in scenario two, success seems to be defined as having a team that works well together; coming up with plans that are easily executed and… Continue reading Defining Success in Team Based Projects →
In scenario one, the group seems to define success as receiving a high grade, even though the team relies heavily on only two out of the five members. Meanwhile, in scenario two, success seems to be defined as having a team that works well together; coming up with plans that are easily executed and spending minimal time outside of class working on the group’s presentations. In the third scenario, the team took an admiral approach by volunteering for responsibilities that the individual team member was uncomfortable with. The goal in doing so was to learn and/or become comfortable with techniques and tools that would be needed in their future.
The disappointments experienced in team one was many; they become fractured, with underlying tension ruling over all their meetings. Individual learning was not accomplished, as the majority of the work was completed by the two members who were most familiar with the subject, while the remaining team members either didn’t contribute or had their ideas dismissed without explanation or conversation. Even though a high grade was achieved, most of the team ended up learning very little from the project. Team two’s major disappointment was that, even though the team worked cohesively, the overall grade for the projects was low. Though team cohesiveness should be a goal in any team project, it can’t be the only goal. The third team’s goal of learning new tools and techniques was only partially achieved because, instead of working together and possibly learning from each other, it appeared that the individual members tried to teach themselves how to learn these new ideas and techniques. Instead of assuming that they were all autodidacts, they should have shared their collective knowledge with each other, helping their fellow team members accomplish their goals of learning new things by spreading their collective experiences with each other.
If group one defined teamwork as, well working together as a team, instead of just receiving a high grade, maybe the tensions between the team members could have been worked through. Since their only goal was to achieve a high grade, that is all that they did. The team members that knew little regarding the subject matter at the beginning of the project, knew little at the end as well. Team two gave the impression that their goal was to work as little as possible on the project outside of class and, again, that is all that they achieved. Though the team worked well together, the grade they achieved was lower than average. Most likely, the team didn’t take the time to really refine their project, and their grade reflected their effort. The last team’s goal to increase the individual team members knowledge and familiarity regarding tools and techniques that they would need in the future wasn’t even accomplished. If instead of focusing on individual learning, they tried to help each other learn these things then it’s possible that they would have learned far more from each other than expected. Though the grade they received was acceptable, the time spent accomplishing this was more than it needed to be due to a lack of teamwork.
In my opinion, successful teamwork should be defined as the following: Working with a group of your peers in a cooperative environment with the common goals of furthering everyone’s understanding of the subject matter and accomplishing the tasks set forth in the assignment. Successful teamwork should also include overcoming obstacles within the team and resolving any disagreements between each other in order to share each individual’s respective knowledge and skills in an environment that are conducive to learning.
