Mastering Teamwork in Multidisciplinary Student Teams

Abstract

In many university programs, students lack sufficient training in teamwork competences to work in multidisciplinary student teams (MSTs) and these higher education programs voice the need for sound and research-informed MST teamwork teaching and learning. Therefore, the following research question was formulated: how can insights into the functioning of MSTs and current MST teamwork teaching and learning inform future MST teamwork teaching and learning? In order to answer the research question, five studies were conducted. To understand current MST functioning, students’ actual teamwork behavior in MSTs was studied ethnographically. This study found that students struggle to have structured meetings in which they work together on one task, to have in-depth integrative discussions and to reach quality decisions. They shy away from addressing suboptimal team processes and interpersonal frustrations, but spend much time on task division, planning, uncertainty reduction, and distractions during meetings. Secondly, students’ conceptualizations of MST teamwork were studied using a concept mapping method. The study found that students identify four distinct clusters: the ‘interaction’ cluster, the ‘trust’ cluster, the ‘conflict/divergence’ cluster, and the ‘innovation’ cluster. To gain insight into current MST teamwork teaching and learning, a systematic review on current teamwork teaching and learning used for MST teamwork was conducted, which concluded that there is a lack of agreed-upon frameworks of MST teamwork competences and intended learning outcomes, and a lack of constructive alignment within MST teamwork teaching and learning between intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessment. A fourth study analyzed students’ needs with regard to MST teamwork teaching and learning using focus groups. Students identify six MST teamwork competences that they want to learn: (a) self-knowledge and self-confidence, (b) understanding and bridging differences between people, (c) creating a positive attitude, motivation, and shared responsibility, (d) taking on different roles with associated competences, (e) discussing main teamwork aspects at the start, and (f) addressing and solving problems within the team. Students stated that they need explicit teamwork teaching and time to learn, practice, and reflect on MST teamwork competences and to build interpersonal relationships within the team. The fifth study quasi-experimentally tested a theoretically promising team reflection on teamwork teaching intervention, but results showed that team reflection did not significantly improve teamwork competence, quality of teamwork processes, team emergent states, team viability, and team member satisfaction, and team reflection had a negative effect on task output in MSTs. The effects of being in a specific team, with specific team dynamics, did have significant effect on relationship conflict, task conflict, cohesion, trust, and team viability, but not on the other dependent variables. This thesis contributes to how future MST teamwork teaching and learning may be improved by taking stock of current MST teamwork teaching and learning and competence frameworks, by adding more insights into MST dynamics and students’ behaviors in MSTs, their conceptualizations of MST teamwork, students’ needs when it comes to MST teamwork teaching and learning, and by empirically testing a theoretically promising team reflection on teamwork teaching intervention.