Abstract:

The educational reforms that have been underway in our country for some years now have been based on, among other principles, the procedures, values and attitudes that influence both the curriculum and the educational roles assigned to teachers and students. Within this context, aspects such as group work, the formation of learning teams, the development of cooperative attitudes, etc., are an important variable of basic training in higher education, which will allow for a better integration of graduates into the labour market.

The aim of this work is to analyse the influence that the similarities or differences between team members has on performance by examining the different attributes that determine the content of diversity within teams, such as gender and personality. To this end, the differences and similarities between two universities located in two different countries, the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) in Spain and the Universidade de Brasilia (UnB) in Brazil, will be analysed in two subjects: Introduction to Business Administration, taught in the Economics, Business Administration, and Finance and Accounting degrees at the UJI, and Introduction to Administration, given at the UnB.

Many studies have been conducted with the aim of finding a relationship between the composition of working teams in the classroom and their individual and collective performance (Tziner, 1985). Some theories argue that group homogeneity yields better performance due to a mutual attraction shared by similar demographic characteristics. Other studies claim that group homogeneity minimises the inherent tensions within the group itself. However, still other research suggests that team performance is reinforced by the "tension" among individuals within a group that results from greater comparison with other members of the group, thereby increasing competitiveness. Several different options are available when it comes to forming teams. Specifically, we intend to use personality, measured through the Belbin roles that occur in different groups within the classroom. The other variable that we believe can influence the results is gender. Most of the literature has shown significant differences at the group level and defends the advisability of mixed versus same-gender groups (Wood, 1987).

Finally, the results will allow us to propose a better model for team formation as they point to a number of differences and/or similarities in the model between universities in different countries. The ultimate aim of this work is to bring the importance of cooperative learning to our students' attention in the classroom and to show them how the different variables of the model can influence their academic performance.

Keywords:

Homogeneity, heterogeneity, team, performance, Spain, Brazil.