Date of Award
May 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Psychology
Committee Member
Marissa Shuffler
Abstract
The ability to work effectively in teams is one of the most highly sought-after capabilities in organizations today. The Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) now requires colleges and universities develop teamwork skills in graduates. Evidence indicates that students and instructors view the teamwork graduate attribute as important for career success. However, despite the push from accreditation boards to increase the focus on teamwork skill development, industry continues to express that there is a gap in student capability. In an attempt to address this need, instructors are increasingly organizing course work around teamwork activities. However, students and faculty often lack evidence-based, scientifically derived tools, training, and technology to shape these teamwork skills. This research assesses the effectiveness of a teamwork training program design on building individual student competencies associated with team effectiveness to better enable engineering programs to meet the teamwork objective required for ABET accreditation. Additionally, this research assesses if the delivery of the content in terms of timing (i.e., all at once vs. spread out in smaller chunks of time) impacts training effectiveness. The students reacted favorably to the training, the training increased individual team role knowledge by 10 percent, the training did not impact individual behavior, and the impact on team behavior was inconclusive. Furthermore, completing the training all at once or completing the training over multiple sessions did not have an impact on training effectiveness.
Recommended Citation
Powers, Jonathan, "Teamwork Training for Engineering Students" (2020). All Theses. 3335.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3335