Abstract:

Team collaboration is the ability to work effectively and efficiently with others towards a common objective, while respecting diversity, sharing knowledge, and resolving conflicts. Team collaboration skills include communication, coordination, cooperation, trust, creativity, and problem-solving.

Students with strong collaboration skills have better employment and advancement prospects than those without. Employers highly value collaboration skills in candidates they hire as collaborative teams report higher revenue growth, welcome changes and challenges, are more innovative, feel valued, and have lower turnover rates. In HE (higher education), it has been shown that better collaboration skills are associated with higher GPA (grade point average), satisfaction, and well-being [1].

Therefore, HE institutions face a challenge in ensuring sufficient collaboration skills for graduates and preparing them for the expectations of the labor market.
Education 4.0 reimagines education as an inclusive, lifelong experience that places the responsibility for skill-building on the learner, with teachers and mentors acting as facilitators and enablers. Problem-solving, collaboration, and adaptability are the three critical skills that Education 4.0 must impart to students. [2] However, little is known about how teaching styles and methods affect their acquisition.

There has been a lot of discussion over how to develop collaboration skills most effectively. Some suggest having courses about teamwork, integrating teamwork methods in other subjects, using game-based or problem-based or project-based learning, etc. In some cases, they say that practice is the best teacher and giving enough team-based assignments will develop these skills. Others suggest designing a collaborative-learning classroom, which recommends organizing students into a myriad of different groups for a variety of tasks and projects, rotating roles among students to ensure that all students experience a range of responsibilities and interpersonal situations, and teaching students how to conduct peer evaluations that offer honest, constructive feedback [3].

In this study, we compare four different teaching methods for collaboration skills development: various team-based assignments throughout the studies, regular teamwork course with team-based assignments, project-based project management course and international intensive study week. The aim is to evaluate their effectiveness developing different subskills based on the experience in TTK University of Applied Sciences and to develop practices for teaching collaboration skills. The study consists of two parts: a retrospective self-reported questionnaire to measure the development of collaboration skills, and open-ended questions to discover various factors affecting the learning experience.

References:
[1] De Prada, E., Mareque, M. & Pino-Juste, M. Teamwork skills in higher education: is university training contributing to their mastery?. Psicol. Refl. Crít. 35, 5 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41155-022-00207-1
[2] Advani Asheesh. Education 4.0: Here are 3 skills that students will need for the jobs of the future (2023). The three critical skillsets cultivated by Education 4.0 | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
[3] Pearson. (2018). Collaboration. Executive Summary for Educators. https://www.pearson.com/

Keywords:

Collaboration skills, higher education innovation, collaborative teaching methods.