Engineering Student Experiences of Group Work
Soft skills are a crucial component for success in today’s workplace as employers increasingly value work that is collaborative and encompasses diverse perspectives. Despite this, most engineering programs fail to explicitly teach students transferable skills, including the best practices of group w...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/5/288 |
| _version_ | 1797500366578778112 |
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| author | Amin Reza Rajabzadeh Jennifer Long Guneet Saini Melec Zeadin |
| author_facet | Amin Reza Rajabzadeh Jennifer Long Guneet Saini Melec Zeadin |
| author_sort | Amin Reza Rajabzadeh |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Soft skills are a crucial component for success in today’s workplace as employers increasingly value work that is collaborative and encompasses diverse perspectives. Despite this, most engineering programs fail to explicitly teach students transferable skills, including the best practices of group work. This research sought to explore how undergraduate experiences of group work change over time. This research also investigated what reflecting on cooperative education (co-op) experiences tells us about teaching group work in academic settings. Despite frequently noting the influence of group work in developing their communication skills and brainstorming ideas over time, students become somewhat more frustrated over time with their experiences of group work, mainly due to conflicting personalities and ideas among team members and/or a “slacker” student. However, our findings also show that students become more confident working in teams over time, as upper-year students were more likely to assume a leadership role and self-reported higher past performance as a group member. This study offers insights into the changing group work experiences of undergraduate engineering students as they progress through coursework and engage in experiential learning and work-integrated learning opportunities, such as co-op placements. The findings of this study can inform educators on how to best incorporate methods for teaching transferable soft skills. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:00:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-53c105fe37ee4bc98b160954b80234b2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-7102 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:00:49Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-53c105fe37ee4bc98b160954b80234b22023-11-23T10:44:57ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022022-04-0112528810.3390/educsci12050288Engineering Student Experiences of Group WorkAmin Reza Rajabzadeh0Jennifer Long1Guneet Saini2Melec Zeadin3W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 0A3, CanadaDepartment of Anthropology, Economics and Political Science, MacEwan University, Edmonton, AB T5J 4S2, CanadaW Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 0A3, CanadaMacPherson Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, CanadaSoft skills are a crucial component for success in today’s workplace as employers increasingly value work that is collaborative and encompasses diverse perspectives. Despite this, most engineering programs fail to explicitly teach students transferable skills, including the best practices of group work. This research sought to explore how undergraduate experiences of group work change over time. This research also investigated what reflecting on cooperative education (co-op) experiences tells us about teaching group work in academic settings. Despite frequently noting the influence of group work in developing their communication skills and brainstorming ideas over time, students become somewhat more frustrated over time with their experiences of group work, mainly due to conflicting personalities and ideas among team members and/or a “slacker” student. However, our findings also show that students become more confident working in teams over time, as upper-year students were more likely to assume a leadership role and self-reported higher past performance as a group member. This study offers insights into the changing group work experiences of undergraduate engineering students as they progress through coursework and engage in experiential learning and work-integrated learning opportunities, such as co-op placements. The findings of this study can inform educators on how to best incorporate methods for teaching transferable soft skills.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/5/288group workengineering educationcooperative education (co-op)work-integrated learningsoft skillsengineering curriculum |
| spellingShingle | Amin Reza Rajabzadeh Jennifer Long Guneet Saini Melec Zeadin Engineering Student Experiences of Group Work Education Sciences group work engineering education cooperative education (co-op) work-integrated learning soft skills engineering curriculum |
| title | Engineering Student Experiences of Group Work |
| title_full | Engineering Student Experiences of Group Work |
| title_fullStr | Engineering Student Experiences of Group Work |
| title_full_unstemmed | Engineering Student Experiences of Group Work |
| title_short | Engineering Student Experiences of Group Work |
| title_sort | engineering student experiences of group work |
| topic | group work engineering education cooperative education (co-op) work-integrated learning soft skills engineering curriculum |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/5/288 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT aminrezarajabzadeh engineeringstudentexperiencesofgroupwork AT jenniferlong engineeringstudentexperiencesofgroupwork AT guneetsaini engineeringstudentexperiencesofgroupwork AT meleczeadin engineeringstudentexperiencesofgroupwork |