Designing student learning teams improving team performance in a college biology laboratory by designing learning teams based on student's intra-team function.

摘要

Cooperative learning is likely the most utilized form of classroom management in college science laboratory courses. Time restrictions, equipment availability and physical space limitations promote use of cooperation if for no other reason than convenience and necessity. In college laboratory courses, students are often assigned to learning teams the first day of class. Student placement in these learning teams is usually a task for the instructor in charge and may depend on student preference, proximity, or random assignment according to an arbitrary character such as the student's last name. Regardless of placement method, learning teams often experience negative outcomes due to friction between team members. This study addresses the possibility that friction is caused by intra team competition and that intra team competition can be eliminated through team design using the Intra-Team Function Assay (ITFA) (English 2001). Eight hundred and ninety one college students, in 62 sections of an introductory biology laboratory course, participated in the ITFA study during the Fall 2001, Spring 2002, and Summer 2002 semesters. Using a Latin Square all laboratory sections were assigned to one of the following groups: control, Hawthorne, or experimental. Students in the control and Hawthorne sections were assigned to student teams randomly without regard for the ITFA results, while students in the experimental group were assigned to teams dependent on their identified intra-team function. In seven out of ten grade assessments, students in the experimental group earned significantly higher grades than did students in the control group; with no significant difference in the remaining three measures. Student grades in the experimental group where significantly higher than student grades in the Hawthorne group on all team assessments with the exception of the final examination. Students in the experimental group also earned higher semester grades than did students in either the control or Hawthorne groups.