AN INVESTIGATION INTO 10th GRADERS’ TEAMWORK IN PROJECT BASED LEARNING AT DAO DUY TU HIGH SCHOOL

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THU HUONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO 10th GRADERS’ TEAMWORK IN PROJECT-BASED LEARNING AT DAO DUY TU HIGH SCHOOL Field: Teaching Englis

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THU HUONG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO 10th GRADERS’ TEAMWORK IN PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

AT DAO DUY TU HIGH SCHOOL

Field: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60140111

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR: Tran Ba Tien, Ph.D

Nghe An, 2017

To the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no materialwhich has previously been submitted and accepted for any other degree in anyuniversity The thesis is my own work and based on my own research Itinvolves no material previously published or written by any other person, exceptwhere due reference is acknowledged in the paper

Nghe An, August 1 st 2017

Author’s signature

Nguyen Thu Huong

ABSTRACT

The study presents an attempt to investigate Teamwork and its impacts onthe subsequent individual presentations in Project-based Learning English forspecific purposes has been taught in high schools in Vietnam for several yearsand it partially meets student’s needs Especially, since the new pilot textbookswith compulsory project lessons were used, it has been a challenge for bothteachers and learners to find the best ways to carry out projects Besides, itseems that very little research has been implemented on applying Teamwork inProject-Based Learning in teaching and learning project lessons The objective

of this study is to investigate the attitudes of students and teachers at Dao Duy

Tu High School about applying TW in PBL Three tools of data collection whichwere employed in this study are a questionnaire for 90 tenth-grade students and

8 English teachers; ethnographic in-depth interview and classroom observation.All of the data received was analyzed in charts, tables or summarizedinterpretively The results of the study show that both students and teachers atDao Duy Tu High School think that applying TW in PBL is a fairly interesting,necessary and effective method in project lessons This suggests that the use of

TW in PBL is recommended to be further applied for English lessons

Key words: Team, Teamwork, Project-Based Learning, Project-Based

Teaching, Team Project-Based Learning.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me greatassistance in the completion of my research work.

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to mysupervisor Tran Ba Tien, Ph.D, who has provided me with insightful discussion,helpful comments, valuable support in the preparation and completion of thisthesis Had it not been for his supervision, the thesis would not have beencompleted

Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and staff ofdepartment of foreign languages of VINH UNIVERSITY for their valuablelessons and precious assistance Thanks to their lessons as well as needed helps,

I could overcome enormous obstacles during the course of study

I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my eight colleagues and 90tenth-form students at Dao Duy Tu High School in contributing to the datacollection presented in this study Without their precious support, the thesiswould not have taken shape

Last but not least, the support extended to me by the members of myfamily has been immeasurable I would like to express my thanks to my parents,

my husband and my children for their whole hearted encouragement

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

Table 2.1: The major different factors between team and group 17

Table 2.2: Characteristics of an Effective Team 24

Table 2.3: Advantages and disadvantages of team size 29

Figure 2.1: Stages of a team development 40

Figure 2.2: The teachers’ role on PBL 57

Figure 2.3: The learners’ roles on PBL 60

2.4 Research on Teamwork 66

Table 3.1: Students’ profiles 76

Table 3.2: Teachers’ profiles 77

Figure 4.1: Teachers and students’ perception towards the necessity and importance of PBL 83

Figure 4.2: Students’ attitude towards TW in PBL 85

Figure 4.3: Teachers’ attitude towards TW in PBL 85

Figure 4.4: Students’ opinion of using TW in PBL in future 86

Figure 4.5: Extent of using TW in PBL in future of the teachers 89

Figure 4.6: Students and teachers’ attitude towards the real effectiveness of TW in PBL 90

Figure 4.7: Students and teachers’ attitudes towards 91

the extent of developing individual strength of TW in PBL 91

Figure 4.8: Students’ view 92

Figure 4.9: Teachers’ views 94

Figure 4.10: Student’ difficulties in teamwork in PBL 96

Figure 4.11: Teachers and students’ solutions for doing project assignments 101

Figure 4.12: Students’ solutions for promoting individual strengths in Teamwork in

PBL 103

Figure 4.13: Teachers’ solutions for promoting individual strengths in Teamwork in PBL 104

APPENDIX 3 15

APPENDIX 4 20

APPENDIX 6 27

APPENDIX 7 28

APPENDIX 8 29

APPENDIX 9 30

APPENDIX 10 35

APPENDIX 11 36

APPENDIX 12 38

APPENDIX 13 41

APPENDIX 14 44

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

DDT (High School): Dao Duy Tu (High School)

LIST OF TABLE

ABSTRACT ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

Table 2.1: The major different factors between team and group 17

Table 2.2: Characteristics of an Effective Team 24

Table 2.3: Advantages and disadvantages of team size 29

Table 3.1: Students’ profiles 76

Table 3.2: Teachers’ profiles 77

APPENDIX 3 15

APPENDIX 4 20

APPENDIX 6 27

APPENDIX 7 28

APPENDIX 8 29

APPENDIX 9 30

APPENDIX 10 35

APPENDIX 11 36

APPENDIX 12 38

APPENDIX 13 41

APPENDIX 14 44

LIST OF FIGURES

ABSTRACT ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

Figure 2.1: Stages of a team development 40

Figure 2.2: The teachers’ role on PBL 57

Figure 2.3: The learners’ roles on PBL 60

Figure 4.1: Teachers and students’ perception towards the necessity and importance of PBL 83

Figure 4.2: Students’ attitude towards TW in PBL 85

Figure 4.3: Teachers’ attitude towards TW in PBL 85

Figure 4.4: Students’ opinion of using TW in PBL in future 86

Figure 4.5: Extent of using TW in PBL in future of the teachers 89

Figure 4.6: Students and teachers’ attitude towards the real effectiveness of TW in PBL 90

Figure 4.7: Students and teachers’ attitudes towards 91

the extent of developing individual strength of TW in PBL 91

Figure 4.8: Students’ view 92

Figure 4.9: Teachers’ views 94

Figure 4.10: Student’ difficulties in teamwork in PBL 96

Figure 4.11: Teachers and students’ solutions for doing project assignments 101 Figure 4.12: Students’ solutions for promoting individual strengths in Teamwork in PBL 103

Figure 4.13: Teachers’ solutions for promoting individual strengths in Teamwork

in PBL 104

APPENDIX 3 15

APPENDIX 4 20

APPENDIX 6 27

APPENDIX 7 28

APPENDIX 8 29

APPENDIX 9 30

APPENDIX 10 35

APPENDIX 11 36

APPENDIX 12 38

APPENDIX 13 41

APPENDIX 14 44

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Language has long been considered as a means of communication amongpeople It has not only been viewed as a means of thinking but also as a means

of transferring culture from one country to another as well as from onegeneration to another Therefore, many countries focus on teaching languagesmore than teaching the native language to its citizens Speaking at a conference,Deputy Minister of Education and Training, Nguyen Vinh Hien, (2011)confirmed that National Foreign Language Project 2020 (usually called Project2020) aimed: By 2020, the majority of young people graduating from Vietnamsecondary schools, colleges and universities will have had the capacity to uselanguage independently; confidence in communicating and learning to work in

an environment of integration, multi-lingual, and multi-cultural Languageexperts have noted positive changes in teaching and learning foreign languages

in recent times, especially English Students learn English more naturally,interestingly and dynamically

At present, English is an international language In the trend ofglobalization, the importance of English can not be denied and ignored because

it is widely used all over the world Along with the development of science,technology, and education, English plays the most important role in all fields.English has become more dominant around the world In some countries it isused as the mother tongue and other countries learn it as second language intheir schools This makes English widespread In addition, many reasons whichcontributed to rising of English spreading, for example, use it forcommunication between people around the world, as well as, it is language ofmodern times There is no doubt that English is the language of communicationbetween the people with different cultures Therefore, English has become amajor foreign language in most countries which do not use English as theirmother tongue or second language, including Vietnam

Identifying the importance of English in global integration, English hasbeen taught in education system for a long time and it has been identified as acore subject that is used in all important exams such as final exams, entranceexams to high school, college or university Nowadays, it has become widelyaccepted that “communicative competence should be the goal of languageeducation, central to good classroom practice” (Savignon, 1997) Thus, in theirresearch on factors that contribute to success in English teaching, Davies andPearse (2000) stated, “The main test for real success in teaching and learningshould be whether or not the learners can communicate at all in English” Withthis trend, according to the Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam,contemporary education needs to emphasize student-centered teaching In thiscase, teachers play the roles of instructors, organizers, observers, assistants andadvisers who help students develop their sense of creativity, problem-solvingskills, and self-studying during the process of learning Students are learning in

an active and creative way and have the opportunity to promote bothindependent ability and interactive ability well

To meet the trends and new teaching requirements, along the years, manydifferent active teaching methods have been applied and developed but wewonder whether they face students’ needs or match the requirement of a newadministration Direct method, task-based language teaching, content-basedinstruction, audio-lingual method, total physical response are all claimed to bethe active options to teach English (Stryker and Leaver, 1993; Brown, 1994;

Willis, 1996; Singh, 2001) Since the new set of textbooks from Tiếng Anh 3 to Tiếng Anh 12 were designed and used in school education system, Project-Based

Method is being attracted the teachers and students’ attention because the format

of this new textbook is completely different from the old one The mostremarkable feature in this new textbook is the “Projects” section It is designed

to apply the Project-Based Learning approach which is learner-centered.Significant role of students is selecting the content areas and nature of theprojects that they do It means that students understand what they are doing, why

it is important, and how they will be assessed Indeed, students may help to setsome of the goals which they will be assessed on, and understand how they will

be assessed over these goals All of these learner-centered characteristics ofProject-Based Learning (PBL) contribute to learners’ motivation and activeengagement

In fact, when teaching both present textbooks and new pilot textbooks, theauthor identifies that it is not easy for students to carry out “Projects” and most

of the teachers have difficulties in implementing the new teaching method Theproblem here may be due to three main reasons Firstly, most of the teachers arestill familiar with their traditional methods of teaching, according to which theorganizing teamwork and giving students the autonomy in doing their dutiesmake teachers worried or even think that students cannot achieve their learninggoals Moreover, some teachers doubt on the effectiveness of theimplementation of PBL, especially the development of skills, independence andcreativity of students They said that teamwork in projects only focuses on thestrong and active students Weak students will increasingly lack attempts inlearning As a matter of fact, some of the students may lack motivation andinterest when doing projects Secondly, most of the projects are performed underteamwork or groupwork forms but not all the students have the same capacitylevel and different students have different purposes of learning English Theoutcome of each group or team is affected by many different reasons, includingobjective and subjective reasons The consequence seen from that is somegroups or teams have effective work while some others do not Thirdly, the keyproblem that the author is paying attention to is that there is no clear distinctionbetween team and group activities This leads to the consequence that manyteachers do not organize team activities well, which makes the implementation

of the project bring students many difficulties In literature review, there are fewstudies about the attitudes of students toward teamwork Therefore, the author

has always taken the grave concern about these questions “How are teachers and students aware of the importance of PBL?”, “How much does Teamwork (TW) have affect on PBL?”, and “How can teachers develop the students’ individual strength by taking TW in PBL?”

In literature review, a large number of educators and researchers haveperformed numerous studies on PBL However, most of them only focus onanalyzing the advantages, limitations and features as well as application of PBLmethod in teaching to improve the quality of training The teachers who havebeen applying PBL in teaching all understand that there are many ways toimplement PBL such as individual activities, group activities, team activities orcommunity activities Even so, many teachers do not understand about theimportant features of teamwork as well as the importance of organizing TW inPBL, which affects the activity effectiveness of students The author found thatfew studies on TW in PBL have been carried out Besides, in some researches,Gardner and Korth (1998) and Scarafiotti and Klein (1994) found that eventhough the results were not statically significant, students’ attitudes changedpositively after their participation in teams Meanwhile, according to Porter(1993), McCorkle et al (1999) and Buckmaster (1994), students’ experiencewith teamwork made them frustrated In spite of the students’ perception towardteamwork is improved, some still prefer to work individually or are less active inteamwork.

For the above-mentioned reasons, the author of this paper would like to

conduct the research entitled “An investigation into 10 th graders’ Teamwork

in Project-Based Learning at Dao Duy Tu High School” with the ambition

that this will bring certain benefits of using teamwork to increase students’motivation in carrying out projects in learning English Also, it is the author’swish that this short and limited study will be of some help to those who arereally interested in Project-based Language Teaching (PBLT), and it will make acontribution to the process of teaching and learning English in the Project 2020

1.2 Aims of the study

In this paper, the author intends to study the attitude, awareness andperception of teachers and students toward Project-Based Learning, especiallythe application of Teamwork in Project-Based Learning.

This study is undertaken to find out the difficulties that students at grade

10 of Dao Duy Tu High School (DDT High School) are facing when applying

TW in PBL in English classes; find the best ways to minimize the students’difficulties in taking TW in PBL

The study, furthermore, aims at helping the author know whether theapplication of TPBL in English classes can arouse students’ interest ormotivation in learning English Through the survey, the most effective andappropriate solutions to raise the students’ individual strength in Team Project-based Learning will be mentioned

To find the answers to the three above-mentioned research questions, theexperiment has been carried out among ninety 10th-form students in classes10D1 and 10D2 in Dao Duy Tu high school The most characteristic of thesestudents is that their age group ranges from 15 to 16 Almost all students herehave been learning English since at least grade 3 Therefore, their knowledge ofEnglish is fairly good This helps them easily to finish their projects on time andpresent their final products in a persuasive way

Besides, this study also conducted a survey on the attitudes and awareness

of eight English teachers who are teaching at DDT High School about the roleand effectiveness of the PBL as well as their evaluation on TW in PBL Theresults of the evaluation on this issue will help many other English teachers get

an objective view of PBLT Also thereby, researchers and educationaladministrators can have more appropriate measures to promote the development

of language learning and teaching

1.5 Research methods

Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to carry out thestudy That is, the data serving the research analysis and discussion werecollected by means of:

- Classroom observation

- Questionnaires

- Ethnographic in-depth interview

Besides, reviewing the related document is also a method to establish thetheoretical background of the study, which mainly focuses on Teamwork,Project-based Learning and Team Project-based Learning

1.6 Design of the study

The study consists of five chapters:

- Chapter 1: Introduction gives out the fundamental reason why I choose

topic and it contains rationales, aims, methods, scope and design of the study

- Chapter 2: Literature Review establishes the basic theoretical

backgrounds from the literature on classes, teaching techniques which are focus

on the theoretical background of three issues:

The first issue is about teamwork, types of teamwork, advantages anddisadvantages of teamwork, successful teamwork as well as its implication inEnglish language teaching

The second issue is about PBL in which definition, strengths, challengesand its procedure are mentioned

The third issue is about Teamwork and PBL in Foreign LanguageTeaching (FLT) with some effective strategies

- Chapter 3: Methodology describes the overall picture of how the

research was carried out from the fist step of determining the research design tothe last step of gathering the results This is composed of the subjects orparticipants and data collection method This chapter ends with the procedure ofthe research

- Chapter 4: Findings and discussions reveals the findings drawn through

analyzing the collected data and opinions Based on this analysis, the discussion

of the research questions was conducted

- Chapter 5: Conclusion summarizes the key findings made from the

study, practical implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for furtherresearch

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEWS

This chapter consists of three sections Section one (1) concerns keyconcepts related to the study of Teamwork as well as identifying the differencebetween team and group It shows the advantages and disadvantages of usingTeamwork and highlights the crucial elements of successful teamwork Sectiontwo (2) gives some issues of the definition of project and Project-BasedLearning Section three (3) introduces some effective ways to apply TW inPBLT or PBL, which is suitable for English classes

2.1 Teamwork

2.1.1 The difference between team and group

2.1.1.1 The definition of team

Many different definitions of teams have been mentioned in the studies ofresearchers and educators However, the definition of a team commonly involves

an alliance of three or more individuals who collaborate and workinterdependently to achieve a mutual goal or objective over the course of a givenproject, focus, or agenda (Fritz, 2014, p1)

In a more functionalistic sense, teams are defined as follows: they “arecomposed of individuals who work together in close proximity with each otherand who interact with other teams in the workplace.” (Ingram, et al, 1997, p125)Teams are affected by environmental issues and changes including economy,organization and needs of customers (Ingram, et al, 1997; Stevens & Campion,1999) According to Belbin (1993), teams are characterized by a limited size, acrucial selection and leadership which is shared or rotated Furthermore, teamsare following a role spread and coordinated style as well as a spirit of dynamicinteraction (Belbin, 1976; Belbin, 1993¸ Salas, et al, 2000, Mullin, 2002) Teamsare seen as an open system which interacts between inputs and outputs toaccomplish a given task (Ingram, et al, 1997; Plovnick, Fry & Rubin, 1975)

On the other hand, a team is a group of individuals working towardscommon goals (Beckhard, et.al 1977) In addition, a team is a complex entitywith an identity and a culture Teams, who are the most effective in achieving agoal, commit to a constant process of team building and developingcohesiveness (Briggs, 1997).

To sum up, a team consists of two or more individuals It is set up toaccomplish a goal and existed for certain purposes A team usually has a teamleader who will give ideas and make plan for the team Team leader will assigntasks to each person in the team to match the capabilities and speed of each teammember In a team, all members have to interact with each other and make unitywith each other

2.1.1.2 The definition of group

There have been a variety of ways to define a group because groups are afundamental part of social life In classes, group can be understood as a number

of people or things that are together or in the same place; a number of peoplewho are connected by some shared activity, interest, or quality; a number ofthings that are related in some way However, while there are some verydifferent ways of defining groups – often depending upon which aspect of themthat commentators and researchers want to focus upon – it is worthwhile looking

to a definition that takes things back to basics Donelson R Forsyth (2006)defined of a group as “two or more individuals who are connected to oneanother by social relationships” This definition has the merit of bringingtogether three elements: the number of individuals involved, connection, andrelationship

A group, in theory, represents three or more individuals who, althoughaligned according to similar objectives or a similar unit assignment, work andperform independently of each other to achieve organizational goals (Fritz,2014) A group consists of two or more individuals who share common interests

or characteristics and whose members identify with each other due to similartraits Accordingly, we can understand that the Group is group of people,animals or objects that are gathered together randomly or intentionally They can

be under certain criteria, such as age, gender, preferences

As researchers turned to the systematic exploration of group life, differentfoci for attention emerged In a famous piece, Lewin wrote, “it is not similarity

or dissimilarity of individuals that constitutes a group, but interdependence offate” (op cit.: 165) In other words, groups come about in a psychological sensebecause people realize they are “in the same boat” (Brown 1988, p28) However,even more significant than this for group process, Lewin argued, is someinterdependence in the goals of group members To get something done it isoften necessary to cooperate with others

2.1.1.3 The major different factors between team and group

All teams or groups vary to some extent along the five dimensions, andthere is no specifiable point at which a “group” becomes a “team” (Morgeson,Lindoerfer, and Loring, 2010) Differences tend largely to be of degree ratherthan of nature (Guzzo and Dickson, 1996) and in many ways the terms can beused interchangeably However, as be mentioned above, “A team is a smallgroup of people with complementary skills and abilities who are committed to acommon goal and approach for which they hold each other accountable” Inteams, members share roles and responsibilities and constantly develop newskills to improve the team’s performance Most importantly, teams hold theirmembers accountable When they experience conflict with a member, they speak

to that member directly rather than to a supervisor When a member is notperforming to the level required, the team addresses the performance problem

Completely different in considering a group functions, a group can bedefined as a small group of people with complementary skills and abilities whoare committed to a leader’s goal and approach and are willing to be heldaccountable by the leader A group supports the leader’s goals and the leader-dominated approach to goal attainment A group drives individual accountabilityrather than shared accountability Leadership is predominantly held by oneperson rather than the shared, fluid leadership on a team In a group, thedominant viewpoint is represented; in a team, multiple, diverse viewpoints arerepresented Decisions in a group are made by voting or implied agreement;decisions on a team are typically made by consensus

For these above elements, it is easy to see that teams and groups differ in

five key ways: task orientation, purpose, interdependence, formal structure, and familiarity among members They can be considered for the following

major different factors:

First: A leader dominates and controls a work group, while in a team, theleader is a facilitator In a work group, a leader usually dictates how the workgroup should run and function All direct reports will look to the leader fordirection and decisions In a team however, a leader facilitates the discussionswith the team members Each member’s input is taken into consideration andmade part of the final decision.

Second: The goal of a work group is often set by the leader or the head ofthe organization, while in a team; the members usually set the goals Anorganization often has pre-determined goals that the work group adopts as a part

of their plan, but a team comes together to decide on their shared goals andobjectives

Third: In a work group, the leader is obvious and he conducts the meeting;while in a team, the members are often actively participating in the discussions

In a work group, members often just give “yes” or “no” answers to the leader inthe meeting or at most some minor suggestions because the meetings are usually

a relay of information In a team, members are often actively participating anddiscussing about the issues at hand, offering their input spontaneously Thisoften creates a synergistic solution for many problems as the issue is seen fromdifferent perspectives

Fourth: In a work group, the leader assigns work to the members, while in

a team, everyone decides together on the work assignments Work is usuallydecided from the top-down in a work group; roles and responsibilities are clearlydefined and each individual knows what their function is In a team, the work isusually decided collectively, and then the work is distributed accordingly to eachindividual strengths, abilities and competence areas

One of the first things that an instructor must recognize is the differencebetween an individual working as part of a group and an individual working aspart of a team Below is a list of the differences that exist between thesecategories After reading through the following list, it should be clear what thedifference between a team and a group is and which one would be ideal in FLT.

Groups Teams

Members work independently and

they often are not working

towards the same goal

Members work interdependently andwork towards both personal and teamgoals, and they understand these goalsare accomplished best by mutual support.Members focus mostly on

themselves because they are not

involved in the planning of their

group’s objectives and goals

Members feel a sense of ownershiptowards their role in the group becausethey committed themselves to goals theyhelped create

Members are given their tasks or

told what their duty/job is, and

suggestions are rarely welcomed

Members collaborate together and usetheir talent and experience to contribute

to the success of the team’s objectives.Members are very cautious about

what they say and are afraid to

ask questions They may not fully

understand what is taking place in

their group

Members base their success on trust andencourage all members to express theiropinions, varying views, and questions

Members do not trust each other’s

motives because they do not fully

understand the role each member

plays in their group

Members make a conscious effort to behonest, respectful, and listen to everyperson’s point of view

Members may have a lot to

contribute but are held back

because of a closed relationship

with each member

Members are encouraged to offer theirskills and knowledge, and in turn eachmember is able contribute to the group’ssuccess

Members are bothered by

disagreements because they

consider it a threat There is not

group support to help resolve

Members may or may not

participate in group

decision-making, and conformity is valued

more than positive results

Members participate equally in making, but each member understandsthat the leader might need to make thefinal decision if the team cannot come to

decision-a consensus decision-agreement

Table 2.1: The major different factors between team and group

(Adapted from: ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Teamwork.htm)

https://www.nde-2.1.1.4 Characteristics of effective teams

Teams work in an organization to improve quality, complete projects andchange processes A team must have some components to ensure the success ofthe project or objective Each member of the team brings a talent and skill to thetable, which contributes to the overall success of the group An effective teammust have communication among all members of the group Effective teamsconduct frequent meetings to evaluate the work completed and discuss the status

of tasks in process All members of a team must participate in team meetings orreceive updates on how the project stands Furthermore, clearly defined, goalsare essential for an effective team A goal provides all team members with anunderstanding of what the team is attempting to achieve An effective teamneeds to have a strong team leader Team leader assigns tasks to team membersand guides the group through the project The leadership in an organization canmotivate, facilitate communication and evaluate the results of a team project.Team leader organizes team meetings During meetings, the leader can makesure that all members have an opportunity to participate Meetings are anopportunity to evaluate the performance of the team A performance reviewprovides the team with the opportunity to correct errors Teams benefit fromsimilarities in background among members, which can reduce conflict andmiscommunication Having fewer differences can also reduce the amount oftime a team takes to become an effective working group since there is less need

to adjust individual work styles On the other hand, more diversity in skills andexperience brings broader perspectives and different approaches to the team’swork Having members with different skill sets also reduces redundancies andallows for the more efficient assignment of people to various teams Luca &Tarricone (2001) stated that successful teamwork relies upon synergism existingbetween all team members creating an environment where they are all willing tocontribute and participate in order to promote and nurture a positive, effective

team environment Team members must be flexible enough to adapt tocooperative working environments where goals are achieved throughcollaboration and social interdependence rather than individualized, competitivegoals Larson and LaFasto (1989), identify eight characteristics of effectiveteams as follows:

1 The team must have a clear goal Avoid fuzzy, motherhood

statements Team goals should call for a specific performance objective,expressed so concisely that everyone knows when the objective has been met

2 The team must have a results-driven structure The team should be

allowed to operate in a manner that produces results It is often best to allow theteam to develop the structure

3 The team must have competent team members In the education

setting this can be taken to mean that the problem given to the team should beone that the members can tackle given their level of knowledge

4 The team must have unified commitment This doesn't mean that

team members must agree on everything It means that all individuals must bedirecting their efforts towards the goal If an individual’s effort is going purelytowards personal goals, then the team will confront this and resolve the problem

5 The team must have a collaborative climate It is a climate of trust

produced by honest, open, consistent and respectful behavior With this climate,teams perform well Without it, they fail

6 The team must have high standards that are understood by all Team members must know what is expected of them individually and

collectively Vague statements such as “positive attitude” and “demonstratedeffort” are not good enough

7 The team must receive external support and encouragement

Encouragement and praise works just as well in motivating teams as it does withindividuals

8 The team must have principled leadership Teams usually need

someone to lead the effort Team members must know that the team leader hasthe position because they have good leadership skills and are working for thegood of the team The team members will be less supportive if they feel that theteam leader is putting him/her above the team, achieving personal recognition orotherwise benefiting from the position

Literature emphasizes that one of the essential elements of a team is itsfocus toward a common goal and a clear purpose (Fisher, Hunter, andMacrosson, 1997; Johnson & Johnson, 1995, 1999, Parker, 1990, Harris &Harris, 1996) Teams are an integral part of many organizations and should beincorporated as part of providing high-level units Obviously, in order to have aneffective team, a number of neccessary factors need to be taken intoconsideration Nurtured and facilitated by the organization, teams have a muchgreater chance of being successful The team’s purpose needs to be consistentwith the organization’s strategy Similarly, the level of participation andautonomy needed for teams to be successful requires an organizational culturethat values those processes Team members also need appropriate technologicaltools and training The table below contains a list of characteristics of successfulteams

1 Clear

purpose

The vision, mission, goal, or task of the team has beendefined and is now accepted by everyone There is anaction plan

2 Informality

The climate tends to be informal, comfortable, andrelaxed There are no obvious tensions or signs ofboredom

3 Participation There is much discussion, and everyone is encouraged to

participate

4 Listening

The members use effective listening techniques such asquestioning, paraphrasing, and summarizing to get outideas

5 Civilized

disagreement

There is disagreement, but the team is comfortable withthis and shows no signs of avoiding, smoothing over, orsuppressing conflict

6 Consensus

decisions

For important decisions, the goal is substantial but notnecessarily unanimous agreement through opendiscussion of everyone’s ideas, avoidance of formalvoting, or easy compromises

7 Open

communication

Team members feel free to express their feelings on thetasks as well as on the group’s operation There are fewhidden agendas Communication takes place outside ofmeetings

leadership

While the team has a formal leader, leadership functionsshift from time to time depending on the circumstances,the needs of the group, and the skills of the members The

formal leader models the appropriate behaviour and helpsestablish positive norms.

10 External

relations

The team spends time developing key outsiderelationships, mobilizing resources, and buildingcredibility with important players in other parts of theorganization

diversity

The team has a broad spectrum of team-player typesincluding members who emphasize attention to task, goalsetting, focus on process, and questions about how theteam is functioning

Self-assessment

Periodically, the team stops to examine how well it isfunctioning and what may be interfering with itseffectiveness

Table 2.2: Characteristics of an Effective Team

(Parker, M (1990) Team players and teamwork: the new competitive

business strategy San Francisco: Jossey-Bass) 2.1.1.5 Turning groups into effective teams

A group of students coming together to work on an assignment is not thesame thing as a well-functioning team The students in any given group maysometimes work together, but they may also be inclined to work independently,simply pooling their work with no discussion, and they may spend a greatdeal of time in conflict over work-related or personal issues In contrast,members of an effective team always work together sometimes physicallytogether and sometimes apart, but constantly aware of who is doing what Theytake different roles and responsibilities, help one another to the greatestpossible extent, resolve disagreements amicably, and keep personal issues(which may occur when any collection of people work together) frominterfering with the team functioning With a group, the whole is often equal

to or less than the sum of its parts; with a team, the whole is always greater

Turning a group of individuals into an effective team is like closing thefingers of a hand to make a fist, because teamwork greatly magnifies theeffectiveness of individual efforts To build a team, teachers need anunderstanding of individual and group psychology, and they must engage thegroup in activities that will force students to work together and strengthen thebonds among them These activities may or may not be related to the work thegroup will perform as a team

In order to convert a group into an effective team, the following issuesneed to be especially cared for:

1) Establishing expectations

Two important first steps in turning groups into effective teams are to setout a clear set of guidelines for team functioning and to have the membersformulate a common set of expectations of one another All team members need

to be informed the team objectives The policy statement should be given toprovide guidance on effective team functioning, outlining different team rolesand the responsibilities that go with each role, procedures for working on andsubmitting assignments, and strategies for dealing with uncooperative teammembers The Team Expectations Agreement must be formed to unite the teamwith a common set of realistic expectations that the members generate and agree

to honor, and it also serves as a “document” to prevent students from makinginvalid claims about what they were supposed to do Research has shown thatcommitments made in public are less likely to be violated (Salacik & Pfeffer,1978)

Another measure that helps build team coherence early is to have themembers agree on a team name perhaps one that reflects their common interests(Millis & Cottell, 1998) Both the students and you will enjoy some of thecreativity that this task frequently inspires You may or may not tell them thatthe name has to be within the bounds of good taste, depending on how you feelabout undergraduate humor

2) Preliminary instruction on effective team practices

Students are not born knowing how to work in teams, and new assignment

or project groups frequently make common mistakes that limit theireffectiveness While some instructors begin classes with extensive instruction onteaming skills and team-building exercises, the preference is to provide a fewprecautionary notes initially and then to provide guidance on dealing withproblems once the problems have begun to surface, when the guidance is likely

to have a much greater impact Several things such as ignoring assigned tasks;parceling out different parts of the assignment to complete them individually,and then stapling the different parts together sould be told students early in thecourse in an effort to keep them from making some of the most commonteaming mistakes

3) Dealing with problem team members

It is a rare student team that doesn’t eventually run into problems with one

or more of its members The most common problems involve team memberswho refuse to do their share of the work but try to get the same grades as theirmore responsible teammates; domineering team members who try to coerce theothers into doing everything their way; resistant team members who resenthaving to work in a team and refuse to participate or in other ways try tosabotage the team effort; and team members with widely divergent goals Tosolve these problems, the students should be told that if a team member is notinvolved substantively in the work; his or her name should not go on thecompleted assignment Teachers also empower the students by allowing them tofire a non-participating team member, and allow students who are repeatedlyforced to do most of the work themselves to switch to a different team (Strong &Anderson, 1999)

2.1.1.6 Team size

Team processes and outcomes are actually affected by team size Theoptimal size and composition of teams depends on the scope of the team’s goals.With too few people, a team will not have the resources and skills it needs tocomplete its tasks Too many members can make communication andcoordination difficult and lead to poor team performance.

Research shows that teams perform best with between five and ninemembers Dr Meredith Belbin did extensive research on teams prior to 1990 inthe UK that suggested that the optimum team size is eight roles plus a specialist

as needed Fewer than five members resulted in decreased perspectives anddiminished creativity Membership in excess of twelve resulted in increasedconflictand greater potential of subgroups forming that can disrupt teamcohesion

Team size Advantages Disadvantages

- More assignments tomark compared to use oflarger team size

Large

teams

- More ideas may be generated

- Members contribute a widerrange of perspectives andbackground knowledge

- There are fewer teams in theclass, therefore more time can bedevoted to each team’s process andoutput

- Student presentations are lesslikely to be repetitive

- More complex and sizeable taskscan be addressed

- The bigger the team thegreater the opportunityfor free-riders

- Conflict can dividelarger teams

- Meetings can bedifficult to arrange

Table 2.3: Advantages and disadvantages of team size

(Adapted from Nelson et al 2007, p 10)The combination of knowledge and expertise within a team is alsoimportant Individuals should be appropriately selected for a team so that thewhole team has all the expertise needed to reach its goal Thus, teams with largenumber of members will fit when it is responsible for the complex tasks.Similarly, teams with few members should be applied when having less difficultassignments

With the above analysis, we wonder how many members of a team aresuitable Evan Wittenberg, director of the Wharton Graduate Leadership Program,notes that team size is “not necessarily an issue people think about immediately, but

it is important” According to Wittenberg, while the research on optimal teamnumbers is “not conclusive, it does tend to fall into the five to 12 range, though somesay five to nine is best, and the number six has come up a few times” But having agood team depends on more than optimal size, Wittenberg adds All the researchesand life reality show that team size has both advantages and disadvantages.Organizing small or large teams should be based on the tasks designed

In brief, there are certain sizes that work best when it comes to team work.The number of people will affect how easily they are able to communicate andhow clearly roles and responsibilities are defined Keep a team size balanced tohelp maintain effective teamwork

• The ideal size for a team is between two to five members

• A five to ten-member team is possible However it may prove difficult

to manage

• Any teams larger than ten members will likely need to be divided intosmaller sub-teams