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Steps to Ensure Support is Provided to all Class Members During an Assignment

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Steps to Ensure Support is Provided to all Class Members During an Assignment

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Truly collaborative group work is complex and messy, so we have a few tips and tools to get students working interdependently.

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Steps to Ensure Support is Provided to all Class Members During an Assignment

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Steps to Ensure Support is Provided to all Class Members During an Assignment

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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Many faculty now have students do some graded work in groups. The task may be, for example, preparation of a paper or report, collection and analysis of data, a presentation supported with visuals, or creation of a website. Faculty make these assignments with high expectations. They want the groups to produce quality work-better than what the students could do individually-and they want the students to learn how to work productively with others. Sometimes those expectations are realized, but most of the time there is room for improvement-sometimes lots of it. To that end, below is a set of suggestions for improving group projects. A list in the article referenced below provided a starting place for these recommendations.

1. Emphasize the importance of teamwork-
Before the groups are formed and the task is set out, teachers should make clear why this particular assignment is being done in groups. Students are still regularly reporting in survey data that teachers use groups so they don't have to teach or have as much work to grade. Most of us are using groups because employers in many fields want employees who can work with others they don't know, may not like, who hold different views, and possess different skills and capabilities.
2. Teach teamwork skills-Most students don't come to group work knowing how to function effectively in groups. Whether in handouts, online resources, or discussions in class, teachers need to talk about the responsibilities members have to the group (such as how sometimes individual goals and priorities must be relinquished in favor of group goals) and about what members have the right to expect from their groups. Students need strategies for dealing with members who are not doing their fair share. They need ideas about constructively resolving disagreement. They need advice on time management.

3. Use team-building exercises to build cohesive groups-Members need the chance to get to know each other, and they should be encouraged to talk about how they'd like to work together. Sometimes a discussion of worst group experiences makes clear to everyone that there are behaviors to avoid. This might be followed with a discussion of what individual members need from the group in order to do their best work. Things like picking a group name and creating a logo also help create a sense of identity for the group, which in turn fosters the commitment groups need from their members in order to succeed.

4. Thoughtfully consider group formation-Most students prefer forming their own groups, and in some studies these groups are more productive. In other research, students in these groups "enjoy" the experience of working together, but they don't always get a lot done. In most professional contexts, people don't get to choose their project partners. If the goal is for students to learn how to work with others whom they don't know, then the teacher should form the groups. There are many ways groups can be formed and many criteria that can be used to assemble groups. Groups should be formed in a way that furthers the learning goals of the group activity.

5. Make the workload reasonable and the goals clear-Yes, the task can be larger than what one individual can complete. But students without a lot of group work experience may struggle with large, complex tasks. Whatever the task, the teacher's goals and objectives should be clear. Students shouldn't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what they are supposed to be doing.

6. Consider roles for group members-Not all the literature recommends assigning roles, although some does. Roles can emerge on their own as members see what functions the group needs and step up to fill those roles. However, this doesn't always happen when students are new to group work. The teacher can decide on the necessary roles and suggest them to a group with the group deciding who does what. The teacher can assign the roles, but should realize that assigning roles doesn't guarantee that students will assume those roles. Assigned roles can stay the same or they can rotate. However they're implemented, roles are taken more seriously if groups are required to report who filled what role in the group.

7. Provide some class time for meetings-It is very hard for students to orchestrate their schedules. Part of what they need to be taught about group work is the importance of coming to meetings with an agenda-some expectation about what needs to get done. They also need to know that significant amounts of work can be done in short periods of time, provided the group knows what needs to be done next. Working online is also increasingly an option, but being able to convene even briefly in class gives groups the chance to touch base and get organized for the next steps.

8. Request interim reports and group process feedback-One of the group's first tasks ought to be the creation of a time line-what they expect to have done by when. That time line should guide instructor requests for progress reports from the group, and the reports should be supported with evidence. It's not good enough for the group to say it's collecting references. A list of references collected should be submitted with the report. Students should report individually on how well the group is working together, including their contributions to the group. Ask students what else could they contribute that would make the group function even more effectively.

9. Require individual members to keep track of their contributions-The final project should include a report from every member identifying their contribution to the project. If two members report contributing the same thing, the teacher defers to the student who has evidence that supports what the student claims to have done.

10. Include peer assessment in the evaluation process-What a student claims to have contributed to the group and its final product can also be verified with a peer assessment in which members rate or rank (or both) the contributions of others. A formative peer assessment early in the process can help members redress what the group might identify as problems they are experiencing at this stage.

Students, like the rest of us, aren't born knowing how to work well in a group. Fortunately, it's a skill that can be taught and learned. Teacher design and management of group work on projects can do much to ensure that the lessons students learn about working with others are the ones that will serve them well the next time they work in groups.

Reference: Hansen, R.S. (2006). Benefits and problems with student teams: Suggestions for improving team projects. Journal of Education for Business, September/October, 11-19.

Reprinted from Improving Group Projects. The Teaching Professor, 27.6 (2013): 4-5. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved.

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10 Recommendations for Improving Group Work

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Many faculty now have students do some graded work in groups. The task may be, for example, preparation of a paper or report, collection and analysis of data, a presentation supported with visuals, or creation of a website. Faculty make these assignments with high expectations.

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Steps to Ensure Support is Provided to all Class Members During an Assignment

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Steps to Ensure Support is Provided to all Class Members During an Assignment

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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The idea for sharing this post came from a session I recently conducted at the annual teaching conference organized by my university. A pedagogical conundrum was raised by a colleague whose enthusiasm and question stayed with me and inspired me to write this post. The question posed by this colleague is relevant to all instructors who have ever used group work to assess their students: How should one deal with the issues that arise when members of a group are not picking up their share of the responsibilities during a group work project?

The benefits of group work are well recognized (e.g., http://goo.gl/N8kqhy), as are the reasons students don't like working in groups (Taylor, 2011). We have all had groups that operated magically, when group members brought out each other's strengths and helped each member shine; but we have also had groups that failed miserably when members did not get along or did not pull equal weight in completing a group project.

Although much has been written about group work and its benefits and challenges, as well as variables, features, or components that can contribute to positive learning outcomes (Tomcho, & Foels, 2012), issues of implementation seem to pop up every time instructors get together to talk about their teaching challenges. In this post I focus on the persistent challenge of imbalance when not all group members contribute equally. What follows are a few simple ideas you might wish to consider that have worked well for me during years of trial and error in my teaching, as well as insights from my research.

1. Design a group project in which the students work in phases.

For instance, starting with a project idea, then moving to project development, followed by preliminary project outcomes - and requiring students to "check-in" at each phase before delivering the final project. Not only does this help ensure that the groups won't wait until the final deadline is upon them to work on their project, but it also enables the instructor to touch base with every group and to offer guidance, support, or mediation, if needed, during the process.

2. Develop an element of the project that allows group members to make their own choices.

In my teaching, I usually give students the freedom to choose a topic area that interests them within the scope of the course or that is the most relevant or meaningful to the team members. This decision helps create a sense of ownership and enhances the students' level of engagement, both of which are crucial for working on large group projects, and especially for those requiring students to carry out the work in phases throughout the term (see, for example, Enghag & Niedder, 2007, on the theoretical basis for student ownership of learning).

3. Within a group project, include a component requiring individual students to submit non-onerous individual work.

For example, the project could include a personal reflection piece (e.g., e.g., Huang, 2011a), in which each member individually reflects on the process and product of his or her own portion of the group work. Apart from the pedagogical benefits of learners engaging in individual reflection (Pavlovich, Collins, & Jones, 2009), this task or component will inevitably provide insights about the division-of-labor issue commonly raised by instructors and students alike. Both learners and the instructor can glean a great many insights from those individual reflection pieces, which instructors can take into account when assigning either project or final grades, depending on their individual approach to assessment. This process also enables students to gain greater understanding about what worked well and what could be improved.

One important matter to keep in mind when implementing the reflection component is the need to ensure that we, as instructors, clarify what we mean by "reflection" in order to minimize a potential mismatch between our expectations about reflective learning and our students' understanding of what it entails. What we'd like our students to do is to engage in critical reflection - that is, thinking that involves different levels of reflection, rather than simply restating or describing what they did, or what I have called "non-transformative" reflection.

The goal is to encourage students to move beyond simply recalling what they did either individually or together within the group and instead to reflect on their personal discoveries about their own learning and the process of working collaboratively (i.e., understanding, analyzing, and evaluating the process and the product of their group efforts), and, importantly, to "verbalize" what they would do differently the next time around (i.e., pointing to the future).

This component is an example of what is called "writing/speaking to learn" (Manchón, 2011). For this task, it's important that students not be required to follow any formatting or style guidelines. The reflection should be an informal piece of writing, much like a diary entry, and can be in any modality (e.g., writing, audio recording, video clip) that suits the characteristics or preferences of individual students to allow for their individual expression. For some additional simple guidelines about implementing learner reflection, refer to Huang (2011b).

4. Devote a segment (30 minutes or so) during class before all group projects begin to implement two important steps.

Step 1: Get to know each other. The first 10 minutes can be a period for all students to find and meet with the group members they have either been assigned or have self-selected. They should then spend some time exploring each other's communication styles, which may arise from personal or culture-related differences (Lewis, 2006), to help them better anticipate different communication preferences and approaches to group work. This time can be spent sharing responses to guiding questions or statements, such as "I would describe my communication style/personality as ...," "I tend/prefer to deal with conflict by ...," and "I would appreciate my team members doing/not doing ...." (Huang, 2014). Guiding questions are especially helpful for groups that are culturally and linguistically diverse.

Step 2: Establish group norms. During the next 20 minutes, encourage each group to negotiate its own group norms (derived from Step 1) and ground rules. During this time, members of each team should elucidate, negotiate, and establish roles, responsibilities, and expectations. This process makes explicit the specific contributions and ownership of responsibilities that each team member negotiates and agrees to.

Below is a sample checklist that instructors can modify and use to facilitate this process and help prepare each group project to succeed (Huang, 2014). You can revise the items to suit a project or provide the list as an example for each group to use in creating its own list. The list can also be revisited during each check-point mentioned earlier and adjustments made as needed. Upon completion of the project, instructors can request the checklist(s) to be submitted (but not graded), along with other deliverables that are due.

5. Prepare students to expect the unexpected.

Rather than directing their every concern to you, students should be encouraged to become problem solvers not only by identifying problems, but also by developing solutions and choosing and evaluating the best ones so as to balance personal learning with the group's project goals. At the same time, you'll want to create and maintain a culture of openness that lets your students know you are readily available to provide guidance when groups reach an impasse.

In any group work situation, it is always possible that compatibility issues will arise between or among team members, as well as conflicts or problems with unequal distribution of work. The pre-group-project considerations described above, however, can easily be implemented to help minimize the likelihood that conflicts will develop that could negatively affect learning and outcomes. They may also help instructors and students in dealing with the specific common challenge of students who are not pulling their own weight in group collaborations, while maximizing the benefits of a group project not only in terms of content, but more, if not most, importantly, in learning how to work with others - a valuable life lesson that's best learned through experience.

References:
Enghag, M., & Niedderer, H. (2008). Two dimensions of student ownership of learning during small-group work in physics. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 6(4), 629-653.

Huang, L.-S. (2011a). Language learners as language researchers: The acquisition of English grammar through a corpus-aided discovery learning approach mediated by intra and interpersonal dialogues. In J. Newman, S. Rice, & H. Baayen (Eds.), Corpus-based studies in language documentation, use, and learning (pp. 91-122). Amsterdam: Rodopi Press.

Huang, L.-S. (2011b, Fall). Key concepts and theories in TESL: Learner reflection. TEAL News: The Association of B.C. Teachers of English as an Additional Language, pp. 9-13.

Huang, L.-S. (2014). Lessons learned from team-facilitation in ELT: Strategies for navigating the challenges and making it work. IATEFL ES(O)L Newsletter, pp. 13-17.

Lewis, R. D. (2006). When cultures collide: Leading across cultures (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Manchón, R. M. (Ed.). (2011). Learning-to-write and writing-to-learn in an additional language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Pavlovich, K., Collins, E., Jones, G. (2009). Developing students' skills in reflective practice: Design and assessment. Journal of Management Education, 33(1), 37-58.

Taylor, A. (2011). Top 10 reasons students dislike working in groups...and why I do it anyway. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 39(2), 219-220.

Tomcho, T. J., & Foels, R. (2012). Meta-analysis of group learning activities: Empirically based teaching recommendations. Teaching of Psychology, 39(3), 159-169.
Dr. Li-Shih Huang, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Learning and Teaching Scholar-in-Residence, Learning and Teaching Centre, University of Victoria, BC, Canada.

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Students Riding on Coattails during Group Work? Five Simple Ideas to Try

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How should faculty deal with the issues that arise when some students ride on the coattails of others during a group work project?

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Student accountability matters more now than ever as K-12 schools and districts move to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a remote education environment, teachers must rely on students' self-motivation to push them to their full potential at the end of a uniquely difficult school year.

Motivating students to take responsibility for their learning and achieve their best has always challenged teachers. Even veteran educators admit this struggle. But holding students accountable for their own success is key to improving outcomes, especially when they're doing most of their work outside of the classroom environment.

Here are six key strategies for promoting student accountability in or out of the classroom.

1. Create a culture of trust and responsibility

Student accountability begins with establishing the right learning environment. A good place to start is by teaching and reinforcing the core competencies of social and emotional learning, in which students learn to understand and manage their emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, build and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible choices.

When students feel connected to each other and their teacher, and when they learn that their actions have consequences, they are more likely to take responsibility for their behavior and their learning.

To promote student accountability, teachers also must create an environment in which all students feel trusted and respected and have the support they need for success. "If students sense that they are not welcome, accepted, or supported in the classroom, it is unlikely that they will engage in classroom activities," says education researcher Robert Marzano. This also applies to distance or blended learning. "Carol Goodenow (1993) found teacher support was consistently the strongest predictor of motivation among students in sixth through eighth grades."

2. Set high standards and clear expectations

Explain to students what you expect of them, and don't be afraid to set high goals. For remote teaching, this means setting clear due dates for assignments and doing daily attendance check-ins at a set time. Visit our PowerSchool COVID-19 support page for tips to make taking and managing attendance easier when using PowerSchool SIS for distance learning.

Students still need encouragement. Tell them you believe in them and are there to help them succeed, whether that means setting virtual office hours or simply inviting questions in project comments or by email. Above all, make sure they understand that attaining high standards is possible if they apply themselves to the task at hand.

"Self-efficacy is quite possibly the most important factor affecting engagement," Marzano says. "Even if students feel good, are interested in what is occurring, and believe it to be important, they will probably not fully engage if they believe the task is impossible. Clips from movies such as Rudy, Oliver Twist, and Apollo 13 can be used to help students discern common traits among those who accomplish great things even in the face of significant obstacles." Finishing the school year remotely is difficult, but it's a challenge they can rise to overcome.

3. Give students ownership of the learning process

Ask students how they think distance learning can be improved. When students are given a voice and a choice in their learning, student accountability often follows. Giving students a say in how they will learn has been linked to gains in student effort and achievement. For instance, a Stanford study of four urban high schools that have adopted a student-centered approach to instruction found that all four schools are outperforming most other schools in their communities that serve similar student populations.

In his book Who Owns the Learning?, education thought leader Alan November says shifting control from the teacher to the student can be very powerful-but it doesn't absolve teachers of their responsibility. In fact, it places teachers in a more important role than ever. "Frankly, I think it's easier to do the traditional transfer model of knowledge," he notes. "It takes more skill to create a classroom where students are really motivated to manage their own learning."

PowerSchool Ecollect Forms offers a great tool for listening to students and families. Custom pulse surveys help you quickly collect feedback and learn how to best support students. Some districts already use the tool this way, like Marysville Exempted Village School District in Ohio. They use Ecollect Forms to create Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs) for each student based on survey responses.

4. Help students learn to self-assess their work

Without a teacher in the room, students need very clear direction on how to assess their own work and progress. Students are more likely to assume responsibility for their learning if they are regularly reflecting on and assessing their own work, studies suggest. "When students self-evaluate their progress toward learning, reflect on their learning, and generate strategies for more learning, they will show improved performance with meaningful motivation," one research paper indicates.

Building in self-reflection assignments as part of larger projects can help. This provides opportunities for students to stop, assess, and make sure they understand their progress before moving on. But for this to work, teachers must set very clear expectations and offer methods for students to check their work along the way.

Vicky Davis, host of the 10-minute Teacher Podcast, suggests giving students rubrics up front. This way, they know the criteria and can assess and track their progress throughout large, complex projects. Students should know whether they've met the required criteria before they receive a grade.

5. Connect the classroom to the home

Keeping families updated about distance learning schedules, activities, and expectations cannot be understated. Parent and guardian engagement can have a significant effect on their children's learning. When they take an active role in monitoring their children's assignments and progress, students tend to take more responsibility for their learning and are more likely to stay on track.

Teachers can encourage family involvement in distance learning by establishing communication directly with parents and guardians. Consider scheduling a weekly video conference to loop them in on upcoming work. This gives them a chance to ask any questions they have and get a face-to-face response.

Teachers can still use tools like PowerSchool Unified Classroom® to help students take charge of their own learning. Post project-based or inquiry-based assignments that give students ownership of their academic success, along with rubrics for students to assess their own work. Students and parents also have easy access to grades and assignments.

6. Communicate IT support for students and families

As tech savvy as students may be these days, issues will still arise when shifting to distance learning. Offering easily accessible IT support for students and families helps them fix problems fast and get back to learning and working. Make sure they know that whether they believe the problem is on your end or theirs, your school or district is there to support them.

Set up support hours with a phone number and email contact. Families should know when and how to reach out if they experience problems. Encourage them to use this resource instead of asking teachers to investigate tech-related problems.

While many issues can be fixed remotely, sometimes users need in-person assistance. If allowed by your local policies, you may be able to provide curbside tech support. Wichita Falls Independent School District in Texas began doing this in early April. Families can bring student devices and hardware to one of the district's schools during designated morning or evening hours each week. Assistance is by appointment only to help the school manage support needs.

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6 Tips for Promoting K-12 Student Accountability During Distance Learning

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Student accountability matters more now than ever as K-12 schools and districts move to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a remote education environment, teachers must rely on students' self-motivation to push them to their full potential at the end of a uniquely difficult school year.

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Peer Assessment Tool for TBL and Group Projects

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When we first introduce the group assignment to our students we establish our expectation for professional teamwork delivered by all teammates. We emphasise that we will adjust individual grades fairly, proportional to the peer-assessed contribution of each teammate to their team's delivered outputs. In short, we let the students know that we will be holding them accountable for their actions in the team and their contributions to the work produced by the team. In addition to informing students of our expectations, educators must also provide them with the tools to help students hold themselves accountable.

There is a smorgasbord of tactics from which the teacher can select to raise a student team's effectiveness through improved accountability. These tactics for accountability include class policy, contracts, project plans, team roles, and responsibilities, mandated collaborative tools, journaling, and the writing of a concluding reflective essay.

Class policy for group assignments

Class policy refers to your institution's policies and your own expectations regarding teamwork. Relevant institutional policies include

Academic integrity

Peer assessment and self-assessment

Equity and diversity

Countering harassment

Student complaints resolution

Student disciplinary process

Your personal policy or expectations could include

Recommended process for managing and/or excluding teammates who freeloader.

Advice on managing personal workload and stress

Advice on keeping teammates advised of changed personal circumstances

A statement that you use teammate peer assessment as a basis for adjusting personal grades above or below the team result you will award for each team's delivered outputs. Later you'll explain how the peer assessment works and you'll give students practice at using the peer assessment process.

Examples of how these policies and expectations are presented in an extract from a course syllabus by Peter Mellalieu. Peter recalls
"I make it clear to students that they need not carry a freeloader in their team. However, they must first seek to manage the free-loader to give them the opportunity to contribute. If that fails, they can apply my 'three strikes' process. A strike against a student includes behaviors such as failing to respond to communications, failing to attend a scheduled meeting, or delivering unsuitable, unprofessional, or plagiarised material. However, I explain I must know in advance that a team is proceeding towards excluding a teammate. There may be a special circumstance of which the team might not be aware that requires my diplomatic intervention."
Teammate peer assessment, feedback, and grading

The ultimate accountability is awarding students individual grades based on their contribution to task and contribution to team harmony and performance. The process that we recommend begins with teammate peer assessment, proceeds to teammate peer feedback, and concludes with a personal result derived from teammate peer assessment.

Teammate peer assessment engages teammates using a form of peer assessment to rate each other's contribution to their team's processes, outputs, and outcomes as they pursue together a group assignment. The peer assessment typically includes quantitative ratings and qualitative evidence to support the awarded ratings. Based on each student's relative peer-assessed contribution, a personal (grade) result may be calculated and awarded.

Teammate peer feedback communicates to teammates in a personalised report the quantitative and qualitative results of teammate peer assessment. Ideally, the report includes developmental advice from each teammate directed towards raising the report recipient's individual effectiveness for their current and future group assignments. Typically, the communication of the peer feedback report is the first stage for constructive, courageous conversations between teammates as they clarify understanding of the feedback received, and the implications for the adjusted behaviours recommended by their teammates.

Personal result from teammate peer assessment is a grade awarded to one teammate calculated from the relative teammate peer-assessed score received by that teammate combined mathematically with the team result awarded by the teacher for that team's total outputs (essays, reports, presentations, software, designs, prototypes, posters...). Typically, the personal result is calculated automatically above or below the team result in proportion to the relative (peer assessed) contribution of each teammate.

Psychological contracts, project plans, and team responsibilities
Psychological contracts
Using Psychological contracts as part of your group assignments is a great way to hold students accountable. Psychological contracts allow students to take an active role in setting the tone for group interaction, group contracts can help "motivate ownership of learning" ( Hesterman, 2016, p. 5 ). Writing group Psychological contracts can also help students identify expectations of one another, communicate those expectations, and practice articulating their expectations.

The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center at UC Irvine has a great sample group psychological contract form as does the University of Waterloo . The important thing to remember is that you dedicate time in class for the student teams to craft their own contracts. Having students co-create their group contracts will result in better engagement and individual accountability.
Project plans
If you've got a real meaty project for your students, then requiring them to develop a simple project plan as part of the assessment is a fantastic way for students to understand all of the tasks that need to be done in order to complete the project. Once they understand the tasks and dependencies, then they can decide who is going to do what and the date that the task needs to be completed. Remember, a project plan is a living document. You will have teams that underestimate the time required to complete a task or discover that they left out a task. It's ok to amend and adjust as necessary.

Project management tools that we recommend are the following:

- excellent tool that integrates well with Google Drive.

- easy to use and integrates well with Slack

- easy to use and also integrates well with Slack

Team responsibilities
Some projects may lend themselves to have students mimic workplace roles such as project lead, project manager, writer, researcher, editor, and so forth. If this is the case, then it is a great opportunity to have rotating roles to ensure that each student in the group has a go at each of the roles, thus ensuring that all of the students have greater exposure to as many areas of the project as possible. Again, this tactic inhibits students pursuit of a 'divide and conquer' approach).

Rather than mimic workplace roles, students can choose from a list of general project roles such as facilitator, checker, explorer, Carnegie Mellon presents a list of possible roles for group projects that will get the ball rolling. You can even have students create their own roles.

Collaborative tools (Google Docs and Slack)

Having insight into the assessment groups' progress, processes and communication is critical. The level of insight to which we refer means that you would be able to quickly see when groups actually start working on their projects, the level of participation from each group member, and the quality of their communication. This can be realized if you use collaborative tools like Google Docs and Slack to which you are a shared viewer. We believe that it is important to note that it is not enough to simply require your students to use these tools. You must demonstrate that you are taking a hands-on approach. This need not be more complex than commenting on their communication in Slack or adding a comment to their Google Doc. For example, "It looks like you guys are running a bit behind schedule. You need to pick it up."

We wrote a detailed blog post on using Google Docs for group projects that will help you get started.

While Google Docs will give you insight into progress and processes, Slack is the tool that will provide insight into their communication. If you are not yet familiar with Slack, it is one of the most popular communications tools used in industry. Slack is also catching on with leading-edge tech adopters in education , as Professor Phil Simon of ASU reflects
As I entered my second year as a full-time college professor , I wanted to shake things up a bit inside the classroom. I had known for a few years about how was gaining traction as a new communication and collaboration tool in the private sector. I was intrigued. I did some and, this semester decided to give it a shot. My rationale here was straightforward. First, I was curious to noodle with a tool that has received so much hype . Second, in all likelihood, my students will not use a proper learning management system (LMS) such as Blackboard or Canvas after they receive their diplomas. On the other hand, they will almost certainly use a new collaboration tool at some point in their careers. Why not introduce one of the most powerful and ones while they are still in school?
We, too, came to the realization that learning management systems tend, in practice, to be little more than a one-way communications platform 'broadcasting' content and communications outward from the teacher. Specifically, Patrick adopted Slack as the communications tool of choice for all of his classes. He now has insight into all group discussions. He can see immediately if groups are struggling and can identify unconstructive communication. Another advantage of using Slack is that it connects seamlessly with apps that are already used to manage group projects like Google Docs, Trello, and Asana. Since adopting Slack, Patrick has found his students are much more engaged and productive in their group projects.

Conclusion

The foundation for every successful group assignment is student accountability. Set the expectation when you introduce the group assignment by including the class policy for group assignments. Once you've set the stage, then create student buy-in by letting them co-create their psychological contracts. From this point on it's about providing students with the tools to communicate and collaborate effectively and that provides the educator with the visibility to monitor group activity if needed. Having a formative peer assessment activity halfway through the project will allow students to see how their peers believe they are performing. If this is done at the midpoint of an assignment, then there will be enough time for students to get back on track if they did not meet their peers' performance expectations.

Though accountability is crucial to the success of group assignments, it is but one piece of the puzzle. To help you with the other pieces, we have written an ebook titled, "How to teach using team assignments: The 7 step formula for fair and effective team assessment."

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Accountability: The Key to Successful Group Assignments - Peer Assessment Tool for TBL and Group Projects

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When we first introduce the group assignment to our students we establish our expectation for professional teamwork delivered by all teammates. We emphasise that we will adjust individual grades fairly, proportional to the peer-assessed contribution of each teammate to their team's delivered outputs.

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Dear Carrie,

I'm trying my best to implement small group instruction in my classroom. We have finally settled into our rotations and I have student accountability strategies in place, but I can't seem to keep up with all of the grading and assessment. It was so much easier when my class was doing the same activity all at once. Any ideas?

- Overwhelmed by Paperwork in NY

Dear Overwhelmed by Paperwork in NY,

I've been in your shoes and I feel your pain! You want to give quality student feedback, but you also want to have a life on the weekend. I truly believe using small group work produces the best results because it lends itself to differentiation and builds student independence. As a TeachThought article shares, " What separates good teachers from the excellent ones? The excellent ones are handing out fishing poles; creating a culture in the classroom of independence and self-reliance. These students don't just recite facts or regurgitate information- they have learned how to learn." Try these five examples of instructional strategies to encourage student accountability while minimizing your paperwork load.

1. Act like a Police Officer

One of the analogies I use in my Professional Development sessions is the "eSpark Police." Everyday when I take my four-year-old and six-year-old to school, my route includes a long winding road. The speed limit is so slow that some days I feel as though I'm driving backward. But I don't speed. EVER. Why? Because 2-3 times a week, the local police are sitting at one of the intersections. Carry this analogy over to your classroom. Randomly pop in at one of your learning centers. Ask to see their work and progress. Praise students who are on track, refocus students who have lost track. The police don't have to follow my kids and I to school every day for me to follow the speed limit. I just need to see the police a few times a week to be reminded of my duties as a responsible citizen. Likewise, you don't need to follow your students around everywhere they go, but they should understand that you would be there when they lose sight of their learning objectives.

2. Stop Doing All the Work

Peer feedback is critical in the real-world. Rarely do you put something out in a work environment without the opinion of a peer. We need to teach our children to give and accept quality peer feedback. As students move through centers, have them journal about their learning. Set expectations for student accountability and explain that they will be sharing their work with a peer at the end of the week. Ask students to nominate each other for learning that is above and beyond-maybe a weekly "shout out" session. You don't always have to be the one giving all the feedback. Save your feedback for the really important things such as final drafts, assessments or struggling learners. Communicating examples of instructional strategies for peer collaboration will help both your students and yourself in the long run.

3. Create Meaningful Portfolios

Portfolios and projects were at the center of my classroom, and my students and I were happier learners because of that choice. Give your students a checklist of learning activities they can complete during the week and set very clear expectations for each activity on Monday. Tell your students that you expect them to complete a minimum of five of the activities. For your struggling learners, conference with them on the first day to guide them to appropriate choices (or modify the material for the students). At the end of the week, allow the students to pick two items that demonstrate their best learning. Grade one artifact with thought and add meaningful feedback for growth. The rest of the material can be reflected upon by a peer using a rubric or can be graded as a class. As a parent, I'd rather have my child come home presenting one artifact with meaningful feedback than 10 papers with a simple star at the top.

4. Focus on the Final Product and Spot Check the Process

One of my favorite apps on the iPad was a simple whiteboard app. At the end of a learning session, I would ask a series of questions and have the students write their answers on the whiteboard. After each question, students held up their iPads and I scanned the room for quick understanding. I would take note of struggling students and check-in with them quickly the next day. I'd also check for students that mastered the content and would give them an extra push. This is a great way to spot check the learning and add student accountability without grading stacks and stacks of paperwork. Frankly, if I used a worksheet in my classroom, I almost always had the students grade their own work. I was focused on the higher-order thinking projects in my grading and assessment-I wanted to see the application, or what I told my students was "the real-deal."

5. Busy Work for Kids Means Busy Work for You

When you move your classroom to a centers model, it can seem overwhelming, especially the first year. I remember scrambling to find learning activities for each station and many times ended up with photocopied (boring) worksheets. It was an awful cycle. My students completed long, dreadful worksheets and I therefore graded long, dreadful worksheets. IT NEVER ENDED. In my 8th year in the classroom, I finally found a great balance in a center model and used it in every single subject area. Here are examples of instructional strategies for language arts centers:

The first 10-15 minutes is whole group instruction that set expectations and provides instruction for centers.

Center #1: Meet with teacher for portfolio check-in and feedback

Center #2: Word Work Center

Center #3: Read to Self, Independent Reading Project

Center #4: Read to Self, Independent Reading Project (cont.)

Center #5: Differentiated Apps on iPads

Center #6: Watch an instructional video created by the teacher, complete activity as a group

Being a teacher can be overwhelming. Try to think of ways you can shift your own practice, and therefore your student learning, to be more meaningful and less focused on the completion of paper worksheets. After implementing these 5 examples of instructional strategies, you might be surprised at the fun you can have when you confidently shut your classroom door at the end of the day and head off to enjoy the rest of your life.

Best,

Carrie

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5 Examples of Instructional Strategies That Encourage Student Accountability

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Dear Carrie, I'm trying my best to implement small group instruction in my classroom. We have finally settled into our rotations and I have student accountability strategies in place, but I can't seem to keep up with all of the grading and assessment.

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by Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado Boulder

Groups do not always work productively, and not all tasks are suited to group work. Poor group dynamics, or ill-suited tasks, can reduce student engagement. This article focuses on helping students engage productively in active learning classrooms through the type of tasks that are used, and support of productive group dynamics.
Interested in more ideas on student engagement? You can see all my articles on helping students engage in active learning, and also download a PDF summary of all recommended engagement strategies.
How do group structures and tasks affect student engagement?

As you might imagine, not all "cooperative groups" work cooperatively. That is, students may be in a group, but not be working collaboratively towards a common goal that improves their learning. Students can come in with poor attitudes towards group work ( Gillespie, Rosamond, and Thomas 2006), including having a fear of loafers. Or the structure of the groups may be at fault: Often, what we think are cooperative groups are traditional classroom groups (where some students work hard and others do not), or pseudo learning groups (where students have no interest in working together) ( Moreno 2009; Nokes-Malach, Richey, and Gadgil 2015). These types of learning groups often do not actually improve student learning when compared to traditional instruction.

Students need to have a reason to work together ( "positive interdependence"), be accountable as a team as well as individually for their learning, learn skills for working together productively, and have clear expectations for the outcome of group work ( Slavin 2010; Anderman and Dawson 2010). Luckily, students typically find group work fun and motivating, and over time will typically have more productive learning experiences ( Nguyen et al. 2021; Bacon, Stewart, and Silver 1999).

Additionally, the benefits of cooperative learning are highly dependent on the task itself ( Slavin 1995). Students are motivated by interest: if a task feels stimulating, fun, relevant, authentic and novel, this will draw students in. Students are also attracted by the value of a task: A task that is useful, important, and challenging with high benefit and few costs will engage students ( Pintrich 2003; Boekaerts 2010; Engle and Conant 2002; Moreno 2009). Tasks that are less motivating are ones that can be completed using superficial memorization and without setting clear goals or involving any collaboration. A task may also be overly restrictive, offering little student latitude. Design authentic, collaborative, and fun tasks with the goal of sparking pleasure, pride, and satisfaction in students. Variety in group tasks is very motivating and tends to keep students engaged ( Shekhar et al. 2015). A commitment to variety also allows you to address different student interests ( Boekaerts 2010; Pintrich 2003; Tanner 2013), and keep student attention as the semester progresses ( Ertmer, Newby, and MacDougall 1996).

Strategies for helping students work productively in groups

Below are some general strategies for helping to support productive group work. There are many other resources devoted to this topic. See Further Reading for many of my preferred sources. Below are some of the most salient strategies related to student engagement.

Hold students individually accountable for group work

Students must have some accountability for their individual learning in order for groups to work effectively ( Slavin 1995).

Give groups a collaborative goal

It is also important to have the group working together to achieve a collaborative goal, and that the group's success is dependent on the individual learning of all members ( Slavin 1995).

Use productive group structures

The structure of groups is also important for success and engagement. The group size should be well suited to the task, and so that each student will be able to contribute. A group might benefit from having roles assigned to each student, especially early in the semester, to facilitate productive collaboration.

Can support greater group diversity. Reduces anxiety of students who may not feel comfortable asking to join a group. Students gain experience learning to work with people they don't know.

Students may prefer this. Students may be more comfortable and productive if they can choose others with whom they know they can work productively and feel safe. Some research shows students are more productive when they choose their own groups.

Students may not prefer this approach. Instructors may not know students or their context well enough to put them in groups that will work well together. The logistics of assigning groups may be more work for the instructor.

Students may choose to work with their friends and be more likely to be distracted by off-topic conversations or exclude group members who are not part of a friend group.

Aim for diversity in student achievement, gender, culture, and ethnicity. At the same time, avoid putting a single student from a marginalized group alone in a group, as they may be more likely to be excluded. Use CATME' s online team maker to form teams based on such criteria.

In a small class where many students know each other, have students write down the names of other students they do and don't want to work with, and assign groups based on their preferences, to avoid the anxiety students might feel if they have to find people to work with on the spot.

By test scores, random number generation, and then balance by race/gender.

By student choice (nearest neighbors, friends) or by characteristics (e.g., high school attended, mutual interests).

Help groups collaborate effectively and monitor their performance

Students are likely to need some help in working together well. Below are several strategies for helping students to start out on the right foot and keep working together well. See also useful training and supports for productive team-work at CATME.org, including team member preparation documents, team charters and sample team agendas. There are also several helpful suggestions for dealing with dysfunctional teams in Felder and Brent (2016).

Build motivating tasks

Build "motivational embellishments" into your activities, leveraging students' psychology to draw them in naturally to the task and make them want to engage due to intrinsic interest and value for the activity. Motivational embellishments include the insertion of specific challenges, material based on student interest, or giving students perceived control over the outcome of the task.

Summary and Action Items
This article is a product of the Framing the Interactive Engagement Classroom project, led by Stephanie Chasteen (University of Colorado Boulder), with collaboration from Jon Gaffney (Eastern Kentucky University) and Andrew Boudreaux (Western Washington University). Many thanks to University of Colorado reviewers Rebecca Ciancanelli and Jenny Knight, plus undergraduate assistant Maya Fohrman. This work was generously supported by the University of Colorado Science Education Initiative Sociocultural theory, social constructivism, positive interdependence, accountability, cooperative learning and the University of Colorado Center for STEM Learning, via a Chancellor's Award. Please contact Stephanie Chasteen with any comments or questions.
Most active learning techniques involve the creation of student groups, but groups do not always work productively, and not all tasks are suited to group work. Poor group dynamics, or ill-suited tasks, can reduce student engagement in active learning. This chapter focuses on helping students engage productively in active learning classrooms through the type of tasks that are used, and support of productive group dynamics.

Hold students individually accountable for group work

Students must have some accountability for their individual learning in order for groups to work effectively.

Follow up group work with individual assessments of learning.

Use assessments of individual effort to adjust grades.

Give groups a collaborative goal

It is important to have the group working together to achieve a collaborative goal, and that the group's success is dependent on the individual learning of all members.

Give students goals as a group.

Use achievement rewards.

Use group exams.

Use productive group structures

The structure of groups is important for success and engagement. The group size should be well suited to the task, and so that each student will be able to contribute.

Use team-building exercises.

Coach students and model effective behavior.

Help teams develop productive goals.

Require groups to self-reflect.

Help groups collaborate effectively and monitor their performance

Students are likely to need some help in working together well.

Use team-building exercises.

Coach students and model effective behavior.

Help teams develop productive goals.

Require groups to self-reflect.

Build motivating tasks

Build "motivational embellishments" into your activities, leveraging students' psychology to draw them in naturally to the task and make them want to engage due to intrinsic interest and value for the activity. Motivational embellishments include the insertion of specific challenges, material based on student interest, or giving students perceived control over the outcome of the task.

Don't bite off more than you can chew. Vary group learning methods.

Give clear, written instruction.

Focus on authentic, real world scenarios.

Allow for fun.

Give tasks that are just above student ability.

Give students choice and autonomy.

For further reading on this topic, see Ames 1991; Seidel and Tanner 2013; Millis 2012; Slavin 2010; Tanner 2013; Teed, McDaris, and Roseth 2018; Felder and Brent 2016.

Keywords to search in the literature

Image courtesy of PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder

References

E. Anderman and H. Dawson, Learning with Motivation, in Handbook of Research on Learning and Instruction, edited by R. Mayer and P. Alexander, (2010).

J. Bliss, W. Firestone, and C. Richards, Rethinking Effective Schools: Research and Practice, 1st ed. (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 1991).

M. Boekaerts, The crucial role of motivation and emotion in classroom learning, in The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice, edited by H. Dumont, D. Istance, and F. Benavides, (2010).

B. Brown, A. Gamoran, S. Lamborn, K. Seashore-Louis, N. Mounts, M. Nystrand, B. Smith, G. Smith, L. Steinberg, and G. Wehlage, Student Engagement and Achievement in American Secondary Schools, 1 ed., edited by F. Newmann, (Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, 1992), Vol. 1.

R. Felder and R. Brent, Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide, 1st Edition ed. (Jossey-Bass- A Wiley Imprint, San Francisco, 2016).

B. Linder, M. Somerville, Ö. Eris, and N. Tatar, Work in progress - Taking one for the team: Goal orientation and gender-correlated task division, presented at the IEEE Frontiers in Education (FIE) 2010, Arlington, VA, 2010.

R. Mayer and P. Alexander, (Routledge, Abingdon, 2016).

B. Millis, Cooperative Learning in Higher Education: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy, 2nd edition ed. (Stylus Publishing, LLC, Sterling, 2012).

R. Moreno, Educational Psychology, (John Wiley & Sons Inc., Somerset, 2009).

K. Nguyen, J. Husman, M. Borrego, P. Shekhar, M. Prince, and M. DeMonbrun, Students' Expectations, Types of Instruction, and Instructor Strategies Predicting Student Response to Active Learning, presented at the American Education Research Association (AERA), San Antonio, Texas, 2017.

R. Slavin, Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice, 3rd Edition ed. (Allyn & Bacon Publishers, Boston, 1995).

R. Slavin, Cooperative learning: What makes group-work work?, in The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice, edited by H. Dumont, D. Istance, and F. Benavides, (2010).

R. Teed, J. McDaris, C. Roseth, Cooperative Learning, Science Education Resource Center and Carleton, 2018).

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How can I help students work well in small groups, so they are more likely to engage?

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Groups do not always work productively, and not all tasks are suited to group work. Poor group dynamics, or ill-suited tasks, can reduce student engagement. This article focuses on helping students engage productively in active learning classrooms through the type of tasks that are used, and support of productive group dynamics.

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Use these five best practices to help your students build a valuable 21st-century skill.

iStock.com/Christopher Futcher

Most of us who teach believe in the power of collaboration and frequently engage our students in collaborative activities. But how many times have we put students in groups only to watch them interact with their laptops instead of each other? Or pursue their own individual goals instead of consult with one another? Or complain about a lazy teammate?

Promoting real collaboration is hard to do well-and it doesn't just happen on its own. If we want real collaboration, we need to intentionally design it as part of our learning activity. These are five strategies to encourage effective collaboration.

Create Learning Activities That Are Complex

Students need a reason to collaborate. If the assignment is too simple, they can more easily do it alone. At most, they may check in with each other or interact in superficial ways. The real reason to collaborate is because the task is complex-it is too difficult and has too many pieces to complete alone.

Complex activities are challenging, engaging, stimulating, and multilayered. Complex activities require "positive interdependence" (Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 2008), a situation in which attaining the goal, completing the task, being successful, and getting a good grade require that the team work together and share knowledge.

One way to do this is through rigorous projects that require students to identify a problem (for example, balancing population growth in their city with protection of existing green spaces) and agree-through research, discussion, debate, and time to develop their ideas-on a solution which they must then propose together.

Prepare Students to Be Part of a Team

Help students understand the benefits of collaboration and what successful collaboration looks like.

Guide students through the stages of team building (forming, storming, norming, and performing).

Give students time and opportunities within the activity to develop leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication, and conflict-management skills.

Establish expectations and norms for working together.

Design, or have students design, protocols for handling conflict disagreement so they can resolve issues within their teams.

Teach students active listening skills.

Collaborative groups can't be assigned-they have to be built and nurtured. Students often need to learn how to work effectively with others and as part of a team. We have to help students understand the what, why, and how of collaboration. We can do this in several ways:

Minimize Opportunities for Free Riding

Create small groups of no more than four or five people. When there is less room to hide, nonparticipation is more difficult.

Ensure a high degree of individual accountability (Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 2008) by assessing students both individually and as a group. For example, at the end of the day give students an individual quiz based on the intended outcome of their collaborative activity.

Design meaningful team roles that relate to the content and to the task. Roles like time keeper are episodic and don't intellectually engage students in the content, and this can encourage free riding. In contrast, more meaningful roles such as manager, monitor, and leaders for each subtask of the activity give students ownership in the process and allow the teacher to assess students based on successful completion of these roles.

Have students evaluate their own participation and effort and that of each team member and triangulate those assessments with your own

When students complain about collaborative groups, it often has to do with the free riding of one member who lets others do all the work and then benefits from the group grade. We can eliminate free riding in a number of ways:

Build in Many Opportunities for Discussion and Consensus

Many group projects are based on efficiency, dividing labor to create a product in the most effective way possible. This focus on the product means that we often ignore the process of collaboration. Rich discussions that connect students with the experiences of others, that engage them deeply in a shared intellectual experience, and that promote coming to consensus are essential to collaboration.

For instance, students can come to consensus around a solution or decision where they must defend or propose a common vision or develop a set of beliefs or principles. This focus on discussion and consensus builds both academic and social skills-students learn to defend their ideas through evidence and analytical reasoning, to negotiate meaning, and to argue constructively.

Focus on Strengthening and Stretching Expertise

The challenge of designing good collaborative activities is ensuring that all students, even those who struggle, play an important role. Collaboration should not just strengthen students' existing skills but ensure that their interactions stretch existing knowledge and expand one another's expertise. If, for example, a student is much stronger in one skill than her peers in her group, she can teach others and her grade can be contingent upon how much her peers learn.

In collaborative activities, we want to ensure that students don't just occupy the same physical space but that they share an intellectual space-that they learn more, do more, and experience more together than they would alone. As teachers, we can promote real collaboration by shifting our role from instructor to coach-promoting team autonomy, checking in on students and providing instant feedback, and helping them increasingly learn to work together productively to attain a common goal.

Reference:

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R., & Holubec, E. (2008). Cooperation in the Classroom.

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5 Strategies to Deepen Student Collaboration

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Use these five best practices to help your students build a valuable 21st-century skill.

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Videos That Convey Sharing Responsibility and/or Reciprocity

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Videos That Convey Sharing Responsibility and/or Reciprocity

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Being Responsible - Responsibility Song,  Kids and Toddlers

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Videos That Convey Sharing Responsibility and/or Reciprocity

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Videos That Convey Sharing Responsibility and/or Reciprocity

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Responsibility for Kids | Character Education

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Theories or Methodologies Regarding Working Together

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Theories or Methodologies Regarding Working Together

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4. TEAMWORK AND COMMUNICATION

Suzan Last

An important aspect of effective teamwork entails understanding group dynamics in terms of both team situation and individual temperament. This section reviews a variety models often applied in workplaces that can help a team perform optimally and manage crises effectively.

"Tuckman's Stages of Group Development," proposed by psychologist Bruce Tuckman in 1965, is one of the most famous theories of team development. It describes four stages that teams may progress through: forming, storming, norming, and performing (a 5th stage was added later: adjourning). According to McCahan et al., the stages move from organizing to producing, and although the stages appear linear, in fact teams may move backwards to previous stages, depending on events that may influence the team and the communications strategies that they use. Some teams can also stall in a stage and never fully realize their potential. Figure 4.2.1 outlines these stages. Please refer to the McCahan et al. text for a more complete discussion.

Figure 4.2.1 The Stages of the Tuckman Model.

Note that at each stage, communication is a critical component of successfully moving to the next stage. The forming stage, when everyone is getting to know each other and are trying to make a good impression, is a good time to create a set of shared expectations, guidelines, or a Team Charter. A team forming activity is also a good idea to help build trust and get to know the various strengths and weaknesses of the team members. This is an orientation stage, on both an interpersonal and professional level, where preliminary boundaries and expectations are established.

The storming stage is the one most often characterized by group conflict. It is often where the preliminary expectations and boundaries are challenged as individuals learn more about each other's motivations. This coincides with the "brainstorming" stage of the design process, in which each member contributes ideas that could potentially become the focus of the project. It is also the stage where team mates learn about each others' strengths and weaknesses, and try to determine what their roles will be in the project. Learning to harness the constructive potential of conflict and compromise in this stage is important to progressing to the next stage.

During the norming stage, if conflicts have been resolved and team mates have proved flexible, all is going well, each team member knows their role and works on their part of the project. Sometimes, people work independently in this stage, but check in with team mates frequently to make sure work flow is efficient and effective. Group cohesion ensures that everyone is responsible to the task and to each other; Gantt Charts can be very helpful in keeping everyone on track during this stage. Problems might arise at this stage if teammates do not fully understand their role, the team expectations, or the overall goal; revisiting the forming or storming stage may be required.

Few first-time teams reach the performing stage, as this happens when teams have worked together well on several projects, have established a synergy, and have developed systems that that make projects go smoothly and efficiently. Less time is needed to form, storm and learn to norm; performing teams can move quickly and interdependently to tackling the task at hand. Adjourning and going their separate ways can often be somewhat emotional for these teams. Figure 4.2.2 depicts the trajectory of each team member during each stage.

DISC theory, developed in 1928 by Dr. William Moulton Marston (who also, as it happens, created the Wonder Woman comic series!), has evolved into a useful model for conflict management as it predicts behaviours based on four key personality traits he originally described as Dominance, Inducement, Submission, and Compliance. The names of these four traits have been variously revised by others over the decades, so you might find different terms used in different contexts. The four general traits are now often described as (1) Dominance, (2) Influence/Inspiring (3) Steadiness/Supportive, and (4) Compliance/Conscientiousness (see Figure 4.2.3).

Industries often use DISC assessments in professional contexts. Having some insight into your teammates' personality traits can help when trying to resolve conflicts. General characteristics of each trait are as follows:

Dominance

Characteristics: direct, decisive, ego-driven, problem-solver, and risk-taker; likes new challenges and freedom from routine; driven to overcome obstacles

Strengths: great organizer and time manager; challenges the status quo; innovative

Weaknesses: can be argumentative, disrespectful of authority, and overly ambitious (taking on too much); can be blunt, stubborn, and aggressive

Inspiring/Influential

Characteristics: enthusiastic, persuasive, optimistic, trusting, impulsive, charismatic, and emotional

Strengths: creative problem solver; great cheer-leader, negotiator, and peace-maker; a real "people person"

Weaknesses: more concerned with popularity than tangible results; lacks attention to detail

Steady/Supportive

Characteristics: reliable, predictable, friendly, good listener, team player, empathetic, easy-going, and altruistic.

Strengths: dependable, loyal; respects authority; has patience and empathy; good at conflict resolution; willing to compromise.

Weaknesses: resistant to change; sensitive to criticism; difficulty prioritizing

Cautious/Conscientious/Compliant

Characteristics: has high standards; values precision and accuracy; analytical and systematic; even-tempered, realistic, and logical; methodical; respect for authority

Strengths: great information gatherer/researcher; able to define situations precisely and accurately; offers realistic perspective

Weaknesses: can get bogged down in details; needs clear boundaries, procedures, and methods; difficulty accepting criticism; may avoid conflict or just "give in." May be overly timid.

Richard Beckhard's GRPI model, originally developed in 1972, has been widely adapted in sports contexts as the GRIP model (see Figure 4.2.4), outlining four interrelated components of highly effective teamwork:

Goals: everyone must fully understand and be committed to the goals of the team, and of the organization. Everyone's goals must be aligned in order to establish trust, make progress, and achieve desired outcome.

Roles: all team members must know what part they play, what is expected, and how they are held accountable and responsible.

Interpersonal: quality communication and collaboration require and foster trust among team members; sensitivity and flexibility needed to deal with conflict and make progress.

Processes: defined system for how decisions are made, how the team solves problems and addresses conflict; defines work flow and procedures to be followed in completing the project.

Thomas and Kilmann's model for handling team conflict outlines five main approaches to managing team conflict ( Competing, Accommodating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Collaborating), placed in a matrix of two scales: Assertiveness-the degree to which one tries to meet one's own needs; and Cooperativeness-degree to which one tries to satisfy the needs of other team members (See illustration).

Each approach can have both positive and negative impacts:

1. Competing: highly assertive, but uncooperative behaviour, characterized by the urge to "win at all costs," dominate, and engage in power struggles. This can result in animosity, but can also spur teammates to compete constructively, which can lead to interesting innovations if well managed.

2. Accommodating: highly cooperative, but unassertive behaviour. This may seem like a good way to avoid conflict, but it can also lead to self-silencing of good ideas in order to appease others, which may lead to feelings of resentment.

3. Compromising: this approach is the most moderate in both scales, and while it might seem constructive, it can lead to dissatisfaction and mediocre progress or results. Sometimes compromise is necessary, but often, the best solution comes from a single inspirational source.

4. Avoiding: being unassertive and uncooperative is generally the least effective way to deal conflict, as this simply avoids the problem and neglects the need for a solution. However, when a feasible solution to a problem seems impossible, sometimes ignoring it and focusing on what is good can be the best way to just get through it.

5. Collaborating: being highly assertive and cooperative is the best way to find solutions that benefit the whole team and build respect.

In his 2005 book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni outlines five common problems teams experience that impact their effectiveness:

1. Lack of trust: if team members do not trust each other, they are unlikely to take risks or ask for help. A lack of trust means a low level of comfort that makes it difficult to communicate and perform effectively as a team

2. Fear of conflict: avoiding conflict can lead to an artificial "peace" at the expense of progress and innovation. Conflict is a normal part of team work and can be very productive if managed effectively.

3. Lack of commitment: team members do not commit to doing the work, do not follow through on decisions or tasks, do not meet deadlines, and let their teammates down, ultimately affecting the success of the whole project.

4. Avoidance of accountability.

5. Inattention to results: when team members focus on their own personal goals instead of project goals, they lose sight of the expected results that actually measure the success of the project. Not focusing on the results during the process means that no one is planning how to improve those results.

Lencioni advises tackling each dysfunction, displayed in the pyramid in Figure 4.2.5, from the bottom up. Establishing trust is a crucial first step to being able to manage conflict, achieve commitment, create accountability and focus on results.

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4.2 Five Models for Understanding Team Dynamics

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4. TEAMWORK AND COMMUNICATION Suzan Last An important aspect of effective teamwork entails understanding group dynamics in terms of both team situation and individual temperament. This section reviews a variety models often applied in workplaces that can help a team perform optimally and manage crises effectively.

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Videos That Convey Sharing Responsibility and/or Reciprocity

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Videos That Convey Sharing Responsibility and/or Reciprocity

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The Reciprocation Principle - The Six Principles of Influence

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Implementing Group Work in the Classroom | Centre for Teaching Excellence

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Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making sk

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Theories or Methodologies Regarding Working Together

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Theories or Methodologies Regarding Working Together

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What you'll learn to do: Describe the study and theories of group and teamwork

We talked at some length about self-managed teams. They're often high-performing, but found only in certain situations within organizations. They're not that common.

More often than not, leaders are called upon to lead their groups and teams to goal fulfillment. How is that done? How can one leader walk into a group situation and see which steps are necessary to make that group a high-performing team?

We'll talk about the history of groups and teamwork, and how leadership theories have developed since the Industrial Age. Early theories lay the foundations for later ones, and, after we take a look at all of them, we'll see if we understand any more about what makes a good leader than we did when we started.

Learning Outcomes

Differentiate among early team management theories

Differentiate among modern team management theories

Discuss strategies for managing teams today

Early Management Theories

Once you have a group of people (or a team of people), they will need to achieve goals and objectives. We know how the group came together, how they will function effectively and how they will become a team. So let's talk now about how the group will be managed.

Management of people didn't really become a subject of scientific study until the turn of the twentieth century, when researchers began to understand that there was more to the motivation and hard work of an employee than just a paycheck. Before that . . . well, managing people wasn't exactly an art.

During the industrial revolution at the turn of the 19th century, the United States entered a phase where significant changes occurred in the areas of transportation, agriculture and manufacturing, allowing us to produce goods quickly and efficiently. James Watt invented the steam engine, which shortened transportation times and allowed us to move goods faster. Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, opening the door to quicker, more efficient cotton harvesting.

But even as Francis Cabot Lowell invented his water-powered mill, it wasn't to lessen the burden of his laborers. Women would work in his plant 12 to 14 hours a day, and they were paid better than ladies at other textile manufacturers . . . for a while. But when Lowell wanted to increase his profits and meet customer demands, he cut his employees' pay and lengthened their hours. Because of that, trade unions formed, strikes occurred and the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association was created.

We were a long way from the "take care of your employees and they'll take care of you" notion.

There were still management problems, though, and they presented problems for these new factory owners. Large numbers of people had to be managed, trained, controlled, and motivated. Materials and tools needed to be supplied. Managers looked to handle these issues scientifically.

Scientific Management

Frederick Winslow Taylor was an engineer for Bethlehem Steel in 1889, when he decided to analyze the issue of soldiering, which is when workers are deliberately working under capacity.

He observed workers unloading iron off of rail cars and loading steel onto them. Taylor studied the movements, tools, and processes of the workers and determined that, while they were currently loading about 12.5 tons a day, they were clearly capable of loading 47.5 tons a day. He recommended that workers be provided incentives in the form of wage increases to meet new loading goals. These recommendations, when followed, led to increased production for Bethlehem Steel.

The process that Taylor laid out was a template for other organizations:

1. Each task should be studied scientifically to determine the best way to perform it.

2. Workers should be carefully selected and trained to perform the tasks.

3. Managers and workers should cooperate to ensure efficient production.

4. Managers should plan, and workers should be responsible for implementing those plans.

Bureaucratic Management Approach

Rather than concentrate on increasing worker productivity and efficiency, the administrative approach to scientific management focused on helping managers coordinate organizational duties.

Max Weber developed a bureaucratic approach to management. A German citizen, Weber was interested in industrial capitalism, particularly how it was successful in some areas and not in others. Weber traveled to the United States to observe industrial capitalism, and determined that the U.S. used professional managers, business and economic relationships, whereas in Germany people were given positions of authority based on social standings and connections, and businesses were highly linked to family.

In order to help eliminate the practice of social privilege and favoritism prevalent in family-owned businesses, Weber proposed the bureaucratic approach. Bureaucracies have a negative connotation today, but in the true definition of the word bureaucracies are impersonal structures based on clear authority, responsibility, formal procedures and separation of management and ownership.

In his approach, Weber proposed:

Hierarchal management structure.

Division of labor.

Formal selection process for new employees.

Career orientation.

Formal rules and regulations.

Impersonality.

Weber didn't anticipate the problems that would come from his approach (division of labor leading to boredom, formal rules leading to "red tape"), his bureaucratic method is in practice among many organizations today, and his idea that hiring and promotion should be based on capability and not social standing is written into US labor laws.

Administrative Management Approach

In his administrative management approach, theorist Henri Fayol proposed five basic management functions that are still an important part of management practice today. In his 1916 book General and Industrial Management, he talked about those functions:

Foresight: an organizational plan for the future.

Organization: implementation of the plan.

Command: select and lead workers.

Coordinate: make sure all activities are coordinated and helping to reach goal.

Control: ensure activities are going as planned.

French-born Fayol came to some of these basic concepts when he witnessed the shutdown of a mine. A horse had broken its leg, and the mine had to be shut down because no one had the authority to purchase a new one. Seeing this as a failure of management to provide the right resources, he began his studies of management structures.

Fayol's studies also produced fourteen principles that could guide management behavior, but felt that they weren't rigid or exhaustive. Five of those principles still exist in current management theory and practice:

Unity of command.

Fairness and equity.

Discipline and order.

Scalar chain of command.

Teamwork and subordination of individual interests.

Weber's bureaucracy approach informs most organizations today and Fayol's approach helps us understand the basics of management no matter what the industry or situation. Now let's look at some studies and research that bring in the human relations approach.

Humanistic Viewpoint

Mary Parker Follett's teachings, many of which were published as articles in well-known women's magazines, were popular with businesspeople during her lifetime. But she was virtually ignored by the male-dominated academic establishment, even though she attended Radcliffe University and Yale and was asked to address the London School of Economics. In recent years her writings have been "rediscovered" by American management academics, and she is now considered the "Mother of Modern Management."

Follett developed many concepts that she applied to business and management, including the following:

A better understanding of lateral processes within organizational hierarchies. These concepts were applied by DuPont Chemical Company in the 1920s in the first matrix-style organization. A matrix organizational structure uses a grid rather than a pyramidal system to illustrate reporting paths. An individual may report both to a functional manager (such as sales or finance) and to a product manager.

The importance of informal processes within organizations. This is related to the idea of authority deriving from expertise rather than position or status. For example, an informal group may form in an organization (during or outside of official work hours) to socialize, form a union, or discuss work processes without management overhearing.

Noncoercive power sharing, which she called integration, to describe how power operates in an effective organization. She wrote about the "group principle" that characterized the whole of the organization, describing how workers and managers have equal importance and make equal contributions.

Coining the term "win-win" to describe cooperation between managers and workers. She also talked about empowerment and facilitation rather than control.

Promoting conflict resolution in a group based on constructive consultation of equals rather than compromise, submission, or struggle. This is known as the constructive conflict concept.

Follett devoted her life's work to the idea that social cooperation is better than individual competition. In her 1924 book Creative Experience, Follett wrote "Labor and [management] can never be reconciled as long as labor persists in thinking that there is a [management] point of view and [management] thinks there is a labor point of view. These are imaginary wholes which must be broken up before [management] and labor can cooperate."

We've talked before about Elton Mayo, Fritz Roethlisberger, and the Hawthorne Studies. They visited the Western Electric Hawthorne Works to determine the affects of lighting on productivity. As we know, they learned much more about the workers than just whether they did better in a well-lit atmosphere. They learned that their observation alone increased worker productivity, that workers value their social relationships and rely on group norms to restrict their productivity output.

There were several different flaws in the Hawthorne studies and their methodologies, but it spurred on studies by Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor, Frederick Herzberg and David McClelland, all approaching their research from the source of motivation of the worker and how that can be manipulated to increase productivity.

Modern Management Theories

These early scientific and humanistic approaches to managing people gave way to more studies on how to achieve more productivity, efficiency and profit. Those theories and findings became the basis for further learning.

Systems View

The systems view of management suggests that organizations are a complex collection of interrelated parts, working toward a common purpose.

In the systems view, a system is defined in two ways: externally, by its purpose and internally, by its subsystems and internal functions.

Externally, the concept dictates that each system has a role to play in the system at the next level up. For instance, a company that makes boxed macaroni and cheese creates its product for the system at the next level, the boxed macaroni and cheese market. The boxed macaroni and cheese market impacts the next level systems, like the food industry.

Internally, the system view looks at subsystems and internal functions. Each of these systems interrelates and contributes to the overall purpose of the parent system. So, the accounts receivable and accounts payable departments contribute to the overall purpose of the finance department, which contributes to the overall purpose of the organization and so on.

Managerially speaking, an organization looks to the system above it in the hierarchy to define its purpose, and then organizes its subsystems to serve that purpose. A manager's duty is to operate the systems in his charge to support the larger systems.

Contingency View

The contingency view of management suggests that the effective management of an organization depends on various contingency factors, so if a manager is going to be successful he or she must understand the different aspects of an organization and the factors that can affect performance.

What kinds of variables affect the performance of an organization and its workers?

For one, an organization's size is a contingency factor. Small organizations can behave informally and are often more flexible than larger organizations. They can make decisions faster, and managers have direct control over processes. Large organizations require indirect control mechanisms, and they can't change direction quickly the way a smaller organization can. But they can have divisional structures with workers that are highly specialized, and this may not be appropriate for a smaller organization.

Environmental change and uncertainty also impact the way an organization is managed. A organization with centralized processes works best with a stable environment. Certainty and predictability allow an organization to create policies, rules and procedures to fit the way they do business. An organization with decentralized processes is an advantage when there's a unstable environment. Organizations in an unstable environment need to be able to respond quickly to changes, thus they require specialization for non-routine tasks and problems.

Work technologies have an impact on organizations as well. The technology to do the work impacts the type of worker that needs to be hired, the span of management to manage those workers, and so on.

What about customer diversity? Globalization? A business must adjust for all of these contingencies as well. The contingency view is based on the idea that there's no one best way to manage an organization, and that managers should be ready to adjust to different situations as they present themselves. Conversely, researchers suggests that managers themselves perform differently in different situations, and their success is as much situational as it is based on their talents and behaviors. We'll talk more about that in a future module.

Chaos View

Chaos theory is a scientific principle that describes the unpredictability of systems, such as weather patterns, water flows and, if you're a Spielberg fan, the actions of human-engineered dinosaurs. Although they appear to be chaotic behaviors, they can be defined by mathematical formulas and are not as random as one might think.

Chaos management views pick up where contingency views leave off. In the early 1980s, Tom Peters, management guru, wrote a handbook explaining the Chaos Theory, specifically intended for managers. In it, he emphasizes that managers must be prepared for a constantly changing environment.

According to Peters, changing global environments and technology are evidence of chaos, and businesses should not just observe them without response. Peters suggests that the permanently installed hierarchal structure is a cause of inflexibility in organizations that's damaging. Not only should organizations be flexible with their structures, but they should be prepared to achieve their organizational results in a variety of ways.

The secret to capitalizing on the chaos view is a customer-responsive approach. Peters suggests that organizations review their vision and mission, and be open to and willing to embrace change.

Managing Teams Today

Now that we understand some basic approaches and views to managing people, both individually and in team settings, we can use some of these concepts to understand the ways that teams are incorporated into organizations today.

Think about Max Weber's bureaucratic approach to management versus what Tom Peters proposes in his chaos view of management. On one end of the spectrum, you have a highly- controlled, traditional organization, and on the other, you have a very flexible, unstructured organization.

On one end, Weber's end, of the spectrum, there is high management control, and on the chaos end, that's less so. Peters recommended we do away with the rigidity of the hierarchical structure to increase flexibility and focus on delivering to customers. So . . . is his suggestion a more team-based organization, with high employee involvement and control? Maybe.

Today's organizations tend to be more middle-of-the-road in their use of teams. They've kept some of their managerial control and traditional structure, and use teams to accomplish work on specific tasks.

As organizations move to more team-based structures, the control shifts from management to employees. Upper management still sets the general direction, vision, mission, goals and objectives. But then employees, with that understanding, make decisions and control their own activities. If an organization is going to see a team succeed, they need to:

Provide a clear standard of high performance expectations. Management can set expectations-preferably challenging expectations, as we learned earlier-and then teams decide how to accomplish those goals on their own.

Provide organizational support. The organization's structure and culture must support the success of the team. Organizations that forego an all-individual reward system and remove other cultural barriers are more likely to see their teams succeed.

Adjust internal and external leadership. Team leaders should guide groups but not necessarily dictate what has to be done.

Researchers like Taylor, Weber and Fayol never got to the point where they could conceive of a team in a working environment. But those concepts that still exist in management principles studied today certainly don't exclude the use of teams, do they? Teams undoubtedly look for the most efficient way to perform, they reward their members based on achievement and experience, they understand the importance of management decision makers and resource managers in their numbers. Those principles are still at work every day.

Consider the structural elements of an organization as they conceived them and how they change (but don't disappear) in a team-based organization.

Traditional Organization

Team-Based Organization

In spite of all those traditional organizational elements being in place for team-based organizations, there are a lot of growing pains and changes needed if an organization is going to go from a traditional one to one based on teams. What would make an organization do that?

Organizations like Goldman Sachs, American Airlines and Kellogg's do fine with a traditional organizational structure, with teams used to tackle particular tasks and issues. But some organizations, like Lucent Technologies, have adopted a team-based structure throughout several of their areas.

SEI Investments

SEI Investments in Pennsylvania adopted a team-based organizational structure when its CEO realized that the company lacked competitive advantage. SEI declared their new strategy: Become more responsive to customers than other firms in the industry. The decision to restructure as a team-based organization was the result of that strategy.

SEI decided to form teams specifically to handle a client problem. Once that problem was handled, the team disbanded, and then another one was created to address the next client. As a result, SEI became more profitable, realizing their strategy of becoming more responsive to customers than other companies in the industry.

SEI's teams were tied to their strategy, and organizations that don't get specific in attaching team goals to strategy are setting themselves up for failure. When teams aren't clear on how they're furthering organizational strategy, they lose focus and motivation. In most cases, those teams won't live up to expectations. Jon Katzenbach, director at McKinney & Co and team-based organizational expert, points out that it's not about the numbers for teams. "Teams aren't motivated by numbers-even big numbers," he explained. "They're motivated by something to do in the marketplace, like beating a competitor.

Pre-industrial revolution, our economy was based on the textile merchant, the grocer, and all the individual business owners that made their towns go. But once the industrial revolution found its way to the United States, managers were suddenly faced with the task of managing many workers and ensuring that they reached some level of productivity. Science and research improved efficiency, and as the world changed, new views emerged to help managers adapt.

Teams and team-based organizations are not an entirely new concept, but as we continue to innovate and realize what teams can do to help organizations realize their goals, we will continue to use these management approaches to help us move forward.

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Organizational Behavior / Human Relations

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We talked at some length about self-managed teams. They're often high-performing, but found only in certain situations within organizations. They're not that common. More often than not, leaders are called upon to lead their groups and teams to goal fulfillment. How is that done?

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Theories or Methodologies Regarding Working Together

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Theories or Methodologies Regarding Working Together

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1. Bruce Tuckman's Model of Team Stages
The Bruce Tuckman theory was created in 1965, and has been applied in countless organizations and scenarios. With four main stages titled forming, storming, norming, and performing; this theory is commonly referred to as the origin for successful team building.

2. Belbin's Theory of team roles
Belbin created a list of nine roles that every team should have. These roles are Plant, Resource investigator, Coordinator, Shaper, Monitor Evaluator, Team Worker, Implementer, Completer-Finisher, and Specialist.

3. Hierarchy of Needs theory by Abraham Maslow
Maslow created a pyramid of the motivation in humans. The bottom starts off with Physiological items like food. The next section is Safety like the security of health. The third section is Love/belonging and an example would be family. The fourth is Esteem, meaning something like respect by others. The final section is Self-actualization and an example of this is morality.

4. Isabel Briggs-Myers and her MBTI theory
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality test that perceives how people perceive the world. This is good for teamwork because it can help the team understand each other better.

5. John Adair's Leadership theory
This theory is a perfect model for what leadership and management should look like.

6. Carl Jung's Color theory
Jung's theory is about how color is a determinant of human behavior. By understanding this, you can better understand why people in your team do what they do.

7. Tajfel's theory on Social Identity
This theory presented the idea of social identity as a great way to describe inter-group behavior.

8. X and Y theory developed by Douglas McGregor
The X and Y theory is a description of how humans are motivated. This is also one of the most important theories that managers and employees should be familiar with.

9. Strength Theory
This idea is that if for the best teamwork you have to continually work at it and become strong, like a muscle.

10. Team Analysis Theory
This theory is that eventually your team will fall apart, so you will need to re-evaluate the situation and analyze what went wrong.

By a keen understanding of these teamwork theories, you will be able to get the most out of a group of people. Whether this is for a manager trying to create team unity, or a sports team looking for teamwork, these theories are perfect for your objective.

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The Different Theories About Teamwork And Teambuilding

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1. Bruce Tuckman's Model of Team Stages The Bruce Tuckman theory was created in 1965, and has been applied in countless organizations and scenarios. With four main stages titled forming, storming, norming, and performing; this theory is commonly referred to as the origin for successful team building. 2.