Abstract:

New teaching initiatives had been employed in higher education to better engage the students. Learning and working in teams is an arrangement that had been introduced to students in higher education. This arrangement is coupled with project-based or problem- based learning methods in a classroom or studio setting, with the aim of better engaging our students in the learning process. The advantages of engaging student teams in project-based learning (i.e. or problem-based learning) are well documented. However, there is a lack of comprehensive study done previously to understand students’ attitudes and perceptions towards learning and working in teams, before introducing the strategies to manage and train the team members. In this paper, a cross-sectional study is conducted on a total of 124 undergraduate students (i.e., from Year 1 to Year 4 of their study in National University of Singapore (NUS) engineering). This study provides important insights on our students’ attitudes and perceptions towards learning and working in teams. A primer is developed as template for students to understand how effective they are working and learning in a team.

Keywords:

Student teams, learning and working in teams, effective learning.