"...Additionally, since many business school
educators make use of student teams in some type of group learning format [e.g.,
Michaelsen, 1992; Michaelsen, Jones, & Watson, 1993], this exercise
prepares the students to understand the nature of team member input and the
group interactions which occur in the context of learning the subject
matter. The total time
required for this exercise is 20-30 minutes (5 minutes for set-up, 5-10 minutes
to complete the exercise, and 10-15 minutes for the guided
discussion).
To
begin the exercise, randomly assign the students to teams (5-7 student members
per team) using a round-robin, count-off procedure (Fran, use this procedure
if you have not formed learning teams yet). Give the students a few moments to
gather with their new team members and get acquainted. Once the students have settled down,
distribute, face-down, one copy per student, the worksheet included as Appendix
2. Take care to instruct the
students to leave the worksheets FACE DOWN on their desks until instructed to
turn their sheets over. This is
important; the students must not look at the ten items until instructed to do
so.
Once
the students have their worksheets in front of them, read the story included as
Appendix 1. Read the story quickly,
but clearly, and loud enough so that the students can hear you. Once you have completed reading the
story, instruct the students to turn their worksheets over and answer the ten
questions as quickly as they can.
Instruct them to remain silent.
They may not ask questions.
Instruct them to turn their worksheets face down again to signal that
they are done.
Once
everyone has answered the ten questions individually, instruct them to get
together with their (new) teammates and come up with team answers to the ten
questions. Instruct one member of
each team to record the team answers.
Instruct the teams to discuss the ten questions as quietly as possible,
so as not to tip off the other teams.
Once the teams have completed their task, instruct them to put the
materials aside...
This is where I talk in class about the nature of the
contemporary work environment blah blah blah and how team work is like "real"
work...and how heterogeneous (diverse), permanent work teams produce "better"
results...
...return to the exercise answer sheets, which the students
completed previously. Proceed
through the questions asking for student responses, and provide the “correct”
answers to the ten questions.
Instruct the students to score their individual answers to the ten
questions. The answer must be
completely correct to receive credit (no partial credit is allowed). Instruct the team member who kept the
team answer sheet to score that sheet, as well. Instruct the students to total the
number correct (individually and as a team).
