Teamwork

Contributed by:

Musostudy

Intended Learning Outcome:

To identify reasons for working in teams

Tool:

Many students are reluctant to enter into group work. However, working as part of a team is an essential employability skill for most vocations. This activity helps students to consider working as part of a team in a work-based setting, then relating it back to how it is relevant to their studies. In his book, The Lecturer’s Toolkit, Phil Race describes the benefits to learning of small group work.

‘Much is now said about transferable skills, or key skills, particularly including oral communication skills, problem-solving skills, self-organisation skills, and reflection. Many of these skills can only be learned from, and with, other people, and can not be developed solely by reading and studying what others have written about them.’ (Race, 2014)

This TLA is based on that rationale.

Activity:

Ask students to identify teamwork activities that are crucial to the vocation related to the module.

Compare the list to those described on page 2 of the Race chapter (linked below) such as managing time, coping with group dynamic issues and effective collaboration.

Now ask students to consider how they behave in group work and how they can adopt those skills described.

Discuss the importance of ‘followership’ in group work (also described in the Race chapter) and ask students to negotiate some rules for creating positive group work in the module.

How:

Examples:

Large Group Teaching:

This can work well with large groups, where students often form into small groups.

Online Teaching:

Success:

Students are aware of the importance of group work and have adopted skills to help facilitate better group working.

Next Steps:

Links to other activities:

Acknowledgements:

Race, P. (2014) The Lecturer’s Toolkit. Fourth. Abingdon: Routledge.

Resources:

Link to Phil Race’s chapter on Making small-group teaching work (From The Lecturer’s Toolkit): https://phil-race.co.uk/2014/12/making-small-group-teaching-work/