[EAS]More about Teams

pjk pjk at design.eng.yale.edu
Fri Jan 17 08:48:00 EST 2003


Mail*Link¨ SMTP               More about Teams

Dear Colleagues -

You may recall the earlier mailing on managing student teams
<http://jove.eng.yale.edu/pipermail/eas-info/2002/000541.html>.
Here is a follow-up exchange of views, both with valid points.

Recall also my earlier, more ascerbic
<http://jove.eng.yale.edu/pipermail/eas-info/2002/000441.html>.

    --PJK

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Folks:

November 18, 2002 Posting #441 COPING WITH HITCHHIKERS AND COUCH 
POTATOES ON TEAMS, generated some interesting responses.  Below is 
one such response, from Sean D. Hurley, Research Assistant Professor 
in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of 
Rochester. It is followed by a rebuttal by the posting author, 
Barbara Oakley, Assistant Professor of Engineering, Oakland 
University, Rochester MI,  Both articles are reprinted with 
permission of the authors.

Rick Reis
reis at stanford.edu
UP NEXT: Conflicts of Interest and Conflicts of Commitment


			         Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning

	--------------------------------------- 1,922 words 
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FURTHER COMMENTS ON COPING WITH HITCHHIKERS AND COUCH POTATOES ON TEAMS,



November 18, 2002

Rick,

A nicely written article which points out both why students
generally dislike "team learning" (at least the brightest ones tend
to) and why team learning, at least as it is commonly implemented,
is a fundamentally flawed idea.

Team learning is flawed because it foists on students all of the
responsibility without any control. In a classroom environment,
learning is ultimately a solitary activity, yet with a team paradigm
individual assessment is made in aggregate -- thus those students
who wish to be rewarded for the learning that they have accomplished
invariably end up doing more than their fare share.

Yet the article suggests that it is up to the students to protect
themselves from freeloaders, hitchhikers, and couch potatoes.
However, while students may be responsible for the actions, or lack
of action, of their comperes, they are almost never assigned the
power, by the professor, to insure that their teammates contribute.

Ultimately, many professors defend the practice of "teams" by
pointing to the "real world", ie the business world, where teams are
routinely implemented. However, what many fail to appreciate is that
teams in the business world often have a team leader who has the
power to punish those who are not performing and reward those who
do. I do not believe it is appropriate for students to have that
type of power over each other -- often classrooms are competitive
and students are often too aware that their grades can make the
difference in where they might end up in professional school.

Thus, teams often work best, in a classroom setting, when students
have clear zones of control. If Jack, Henry, and Mary are
responsible for their own part of the final report, then it will be
quite clear to the professor who is doing the work and who isn't and
those students who work the hardest will be fairly rewarded.

To expound on a point: it is inappropriate to suggest that students
should take responsibility for the conduct of their team-mates and
assert control -- as the article suggests. When students are in a
classroom they are equal, and thus as teammates see themselves as
equals. If Jack and Henry aren't doing their fare share why is it up
to Mary and [the reader of the article] to do something about it?
They are supposed to be equals, and most students don't think it is
their place to criticize their peers. If anything this is standard
social behavior and I do not believe professors should expect
anything different.

Of course, many people in life are assigned jobs with great
responsibilities and little power. But in the "real world" they are
paid for it. Whereas in college, it is students (and their parents)
who are handing out the dole.

Best, as always,
Sean

Sean D. Hurley, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
University of Rochester Medical Center
Sean_Hurley at urmc.rochester.edu

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
		RESPONSE BY BARBARA OAKLEY  01/13/03

I appreciate the opportunity Rick Reis has given me to respond to 
Sean Hurley's letter.  And I thank Dr. Hurley himself for providing 
me with a range of issues that allow me to tell both why I wrote the
 Hitchhiker essay, and why I believe the ability to use the
techniques  described in the essay is so important.

But before I respond to Dr. Hurley's points, I'd like to establish
my  background and experience in working with teams, because it's 
relevant to the credibility of the conclusions I drew.  I happened 
into a professorship much later than the usual academician, having 
spent over twenty years working at a variety of industry-related 
positions.  My early years (after waitressing and working as a 
cleaning woman in high school) were spent in the U.S. Army, where I 
spent several years as enlisted before entering the officer ranks
and  subsequently attaining the rank of Regular Army Captain.  From
the  perspective of observing how teams work, this was a fascinating
time,  because I learned many of the tricks that enlisted men and
women used  to fool the more gullible officers, of which the
university system  turned out many.  Later, I worked as a radio
operator at the South  Pole Station in Antarctica and also spent
several seasons on Russian  trawlers working for the Soviets with
American fishermen.   Ships and  isolated Antarctic stations are
wonderful 'controlled experiment'  situations for anyone wishing to
study the mechanics of how teams do  and don't work optimally.  In
the business world, I spent a number of  years working in research
and development as an engineer in the  optics industry, and in
design/manufacturing in the automotive  industry.

In his letter, Dr. Hurley points out "Ultimately, many professors 
defend the practice of "teams" by pointing to the "real world", ie 
the business world, where teams are routinely implemented.  However,
 what many fail to appreciate is that teams in the business world 
often have a team leader who has the power to punish those who are 
not performing and reward those who do."

Unfortunately, the reality in the business world is that a team 
leader or supervisor is too busy with their own work to be concerned
 with petty interpersonal issues-even if those issues don't seem so 
petty to the person(s) concerned.  If you have to go complain to the
 boss every time someone takes advantage of you in the workplace, 
you've got a problem.  And, as the Hitchhiker paper suggests, it is 
easy to fool a gullible team leader into believing that a
problematic  team member is actually the one least at fault.  Team
leaders are  generally far from omniscient father figures who come
to the rescue  when a problem arises-in fact, they are sometimes
part of the problem. As explained in the full version of the
Hitchhiker paper ("It Takes  Two to Tango," Journal of Student
Centered Learning, Volume 1, Issues  1, 2003, pg 19-28), I have
found that students working in industry  are often the most
appreciative of the tools the Hitchhiker paper  provides.  It is in
industry, after all, that the easy life of being  able to switch
classmates and professors at the end of the semester  is not an
option.  Quoting again from Dr. Hurley "Šwhile students may  be
responsible for the actions, or lack of action, of their comperes, 
they are almost never assigned the power, by the professor, to
insure  (sic) that their teammates contribute."  I might append:
ditto for  workers out in industry.  That's why it's important to
learn to take  active control of one's interactions with one's
colleagues, whether  in the academic or the professional world.

Dr. Hurley states: "I do not believe it is appropriate for students 
to have that type of power over each other-often classrooms are 
competitive and students are often too aware that their grades can 
make the difference in where they might end up in professional 
school."  The implication here is that the academic environment is 
more competitive and somehow more important than the environment out
 in the "real world."  The reality is exactly the opposite. 
Speaking  from experience, I can assure you that the corporate
world, the  entrepreneurial world, and even the military world is at
least as  competitive, and often far more so, than the typical
academic  environment. And ultimately, making the final cut to
executive rank  is far more important-and competitive-for a
corporate worker than the  triviality of whether he or she earned a
3.8 instead of a 3.2 grade  in Calculus I.

In his letter, Dr. Hurley asserts:  "When students are in the 
classroom, they are equal, and thus as teammates see themselves as 
equals."  I've had enough experience with humanity to know that 
everyone is not equal, inside or outside the classroom (outside of 
the legal realm, equality rarely exists).  I have also seen
precisely  how such notions of equality can be used for manipulative
purposes by  individuals with malign intent, as described in the
Hitchhiker essay. Dr. Hurley also states "In the classroom
environment, learning is  ultimately a solitary activity."  Not in
my classroom, and not in  any of the many classrooms that use
cooperative learning techniques  throughout the country.  There are
many different learning styles.  (See Rich Felder and Barbara
Soloman's excellent paper, "Learning  Styles and Strategies," at 
http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm)
 Those individuals who ultimately receive doctorates are often 
reflective learners who like to learn on a solitary basis, as
opposed  to active learners, who enjoy bouncing ideas off each
other. As the  old bromide goes-the A students end up becoming
professors, while the  B students end up working for the C students.
 There are many  different pathways to learning-and to success.

About five years ago I heard a surprising comment during an
interview  with the president of an optics company.  He revealed
that he never  liked to hire graduating engineering students to work
on electronics  design in his company-instead, he retrained physics
graduates.  His  reason?  Engineers at that time were used to
learning, and working,  as a solitary activity.  They had too many
difficulties adjusting  their work habits upon leaving school to be
able to function  effectively in teams.  The patterns set in the
classroom followed the  students out into the workplace.

In his letter, Dr. Hurley goes on to say:  "[Students] are supposed 
to be equals, and most students don't think it is their place to 
criticize their peers."  In reality, it is indeed uncomfortable for 
many students to be assertive enough to stop others from taking 
advantage of them.  But that does not obviate the need for students 
to learn this important life skill.  As the Hitchhiker essay 
suggests, without constructive criticism, hitchhikers and couch 
potatoes will never be able to learn that their actions are 
detrimental to others.

Dr. Hurley states that:  "It is inappropriate to suggest that 
students should take responsibility for the conduct of their 
team-mates and assert control.  If Jack and Henry aren't doing
their  fare [sic] share, why is it up to Mary and [the reader of the
article] to do something about it?"
Of course it's up to Mary and the reader of the article to do 
something about it!  Who else is going to?  The professor?  He or
she  wouldn't know there's a problem unless Mary and the reader
brought it  to the professor's attention, which already means that
Mary and the  reader are doing something about it.  And as the
article pointed out,  when Mary, Henry, and the reader brought the
problem to the  professor's attention, it worsened the situation. 
This is a  realistic scenario, and one I have seen time after time
in my own  team-related experiences.
To expand on an important final point, if it is inappropriate to 
suggest that students take responsibility for the conduct of their 
team-mates, then in real-life human terms, that means their 
team-mates can do anything and get away with it.  Setting an early 
pattern in university years of telling a student it is inappropriate
 to take responsibility for their colleagues' conduct means that 
later, out in industry, a former student would be more prone to 
turning a blind eye to unproductive and even unethical practices. 
After all, it would not be their responsibility.  Is that really
what  we want?

Once again, I thank Rick Reis for allowing me the forum to respond
to  Dr. Hurley's letter.  Although Dr. Hurley and I obviously have 
substantial disagreements in the area of teamwork, we are very much 
in agreement on the post-doctoral experience, about which he has 
written an excellent previous posting (#264: Making Chances in the 
Post-Doctoral Experience).

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