Team projects in engineering are critical sites for professional and personal development as students interact with peers and faculty on projects designed to simulate engineering work. These projects allow students to try on professional roles and establish a sense of identity within their field, which in turn influences their retention through college and into engineering careers. However, team projects can present challenges specific to students from underrepresented populations. While research on women's team experiences is strong, few researchers have studied African-Americans. To fill this gap, the current study explores the experiences of African-American males on multiracial student teams and the impact of those teams on these students' identities. This qualitative study employed a phenomenological approach, using a three-interview sequence with eight African-American male engineering students as they worked on team projects at a predominantly white institution (PWI). The interviews gathered background information about each participant, explored the team functionality during the project, and enabled participants to reflect on the team experience. Two theoretical frameworks were considered during the study design: 1) intergroup contact theory provided a lens to explore interracial interactions, and 2) multiple identities provided a lens to analyze the impact of team dynamics on students' intersecting identities. The findings provide a rich understanding of the team experiences of African-American male students that can enhance project-based teaching within engineering to more explicitly attend to team dynamics, including interracial interactions for students of color. Both positive and negative impacts on African-American males in engineering emerged from the intergroup contact within the team environment. Specifically, the results indicate that these participants enjoyed their multiracial student teaming experiences, supported by informal social interactions among team members and generally positive professional interactions. However, the study participants also entered their team experiences fully aware of the negative stereotypes about African-Americans in engineering and proactively worked to dispel those stereotypes. / Ph. D.

This study investigated perceptions of social loafing in undergraduate student teams at a South African university. Student participants, randomly assigned to teams, received coursework instruction about team dynamics (including social loafing) and worked together for 12 weeks on a team assignment that was graded at the end of the semester. Students (n = 243) wrote individual reflections on the reasons for social loafing in student teams. Some (n = 24) also participated in an experiential social loafing exercise. These two sources of qualitative data were used in the development of a survey questionnaire, which was completed by 229 students. Fifty-four percent of the student participants (n = 229) perceived social loafing to have occurred in their teams. Four components of perceived social loafing behaviour were identified using factor analysis: unavailability, poor work quality, tech loafing and discussion non-contribution. Loafer apathy (a general lack of care or interest) predicted significant variance in each of the four loafing behaviours and social compensation. Team performance (assignment grades) was not related to the perceived presence social loafing in a team. Rather than reducing effort in response to perceived social loafing (the sucker effect), a social compensation effect occurred in the perceived presence of poor work quality. Effective leadership moderated the relationship between loafer apathy and tech loafing as well as loafer apathy and social compensation. Practical implications and recommendations for future research are presented.

Traditional engineering and science teaching methodology has been to train like-minded students within the discipline of their respective majors. Curriculum time constraints, however, limit the number and nature of out of discipline elective courses. As a result, students are well trained within their respective fields of study but lack the breadth of experience in interacting with other diverse disciplines. Industry, particularly technology-based companies, has observed that solutions to problems have a greater probability of success when all interested parties (purchasing, innovation, marketing, sales, manufacturing, etc.) have input in developing a plan to achieve a desired corporate outcome. It is through this collective action of diverse disciplines that unique solutions are conceived. Many times breakthroughs in innovation and product development occur not through the actions of companies in direct competition but through new entrant companies by modifying technology currently residing in different markets and applications. The breakthrough occurs because the new entrants are not bound by the technology paradigms constraining innovation in their particular market arena. Our goal is to take the diversity lessons gleaned from industry and incorporate them into coursework that creates diverse cross-functional teams such that students learn the benefits of cross-discipline diversity. The College of Business and Technology at ETSU is itself a diverse blend of disciplines (Engineering Technology, Entrepreneurship, Human Nutrition, Marketing, Digital Media, etc) and several graduate and undergraduate courses residing in different departments within the college have intentional programs that encourage cross-discipline enrollment. This action is further facilitated through dual course listings between departments for the same course. Examples of diverse discipline teams will be discussed with attention to outcomes and challenges. Through this diverse cooperative program, students from the technology, business, applied human sciences and digital media disciplines gain a perspective for each other’s expertise and learn to develop teams with diverse skills to meet the increasing challenges for managing business and technology.

The purpose of this study was to compare Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) with Traditional Pedagogy for the effects on third-grade students with respect to math achievement, problem solving ability, math learning motivation, learning satisfaction, and interest in math learning. The quasi-experimental design was utilized for this study. The study data were collected through questionnaire survey and interviews. The subjects of the study were 61 third-grade students from two classes of an elementary school in the Kaohsiung City. One class was chosen as the experimental group in which STAD was employed in the experimental instruction and the other was chosen as the control group in which traditional pedagogy was adopted. Data were collected during the period of experimental instruction and were analyzed afterwards. The main results are presented as follows: 1. The math achievement of students who received STAD method was significantly higher after the experimental instruction than before. As for the improvement at posttest from pretest in math achievement, students in STAD group performed better than students in traditional pedagogy group did, but the difference did not reach the significant level. 2. The problem solving ability of students who received STAD method were significantly higher after the experimental instruction than before. As for the improvement at posttest from pretest in problem solving ability, students in STAD group performed significantly better than students in traditional pedagogy group did, which meant the STAD group made much more improvement than the traditional pedagogy group did after the experimental instruction. 3. After the experimental instruction, students who received STAD method performed better in math problem solving interview than those who received traditional pedagogy did. Students who received STAD method were more capable of understanding the questions without interviewer¡¦s explanations. Compared with the control group, the STAD group gave correct solutions more frequently, and was able to provide more reasonable explanations to their solutions. Besides, the STAD group was willing to try various ways to solve the same problem. 4. After the experimental instruction, students who received STAD method had significantly higher math learning motivation than did before; as for the improvement at posttest from pretest in math learning motivation, students in STAD group also performed better than students in traditional pedagogy group. 5. After the experimental instruction, students who received STAD method had significantly higher math learning interests than did before; as for the improvement at posttest from pretest in math learning interests, students in STAD group also performed better than students in traditional pedagogy group. Finally, the researcher proposed several suggestions for the ducational application in classroom teaching and future studies.

Interprofessional collaboration in healthcare is vital to the nation’s health and interprofessional education is of significant interest in the current academic climate and practice environment. Remote Area Medical is a non-profit healthcare organization that partners with community hosts to provide dental, vision, and medical services to medically underserved patients in remote areas of the United States and abroad. RAM mobile clinics have served over 785,000 people since their founding in 1985, providing vital healthcare services free of charge through the volunteer services of healthcare professionals. RAM mobile clinics provide an excellent opportunity for interprofessional collaboration and interprofessional education as learners partner with volunteer professionals to serve the community. The RAM mobile clinic in Gray, Tennessee was first established in 2017 and implemented the innovate utilization of undergraduate and graduate health professional students from the East Tennessee State University Academic Health Sciences Center in student teams. Interprofessional student teams along with precepting faculty are flexible in location and services offered to best serve the needs of the mobile clinic at any given time. Interprofessional student teams work to improve patient utilization of services offered at the event and assist with medication histories and health screens while growing student interprofessional patient care skills in the process. The objective of this research is to describe the impact of interprofessional student teams on patient care at the Gray, Tennessee RAM mobile clinic during the first two years. Data was collected from the years 2017 and 2018 by the student volunteer coordinator then analyzed by student researchers. The interprofessional student teams consisted of 87 student volunteers that were training in Clinical and Rehabilitative Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, or Pharmacy over the course of the three-day mobile clinic in 2017 and 109 different student volunteers in 2018. Student teams were precepted by interprofessional faculty and logged 2,332 interventions in 2017 and 1,130 interventions in 2018. The top two interventions in 2017 were Medication Histories and Blood Glucose Screens while the top two interventions in 2018 were Medication Histories and Health Screens. Variation in number of interventions logged and type of interventions logged can be explained by event characteristics that differed between the two years. Student participants commented positively on their engagement with one another and discussions they had to better understand each other’s professions between patient encounters. This research attempts to demonstrate that the impact of interprofessional student teams at a RAM mobile clinic is worth the investment of faculty resources in planning and execution to engage student learning while benefitting the patient population being served. This research also provided a hypothesis for additional research to be conducted around the 2019 Gray, Tennessee RAM mobile clinic.

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Several studies and reports have indicated that grade 09 learners are underperforming in science. The underperformance of learners in science is very concerning and has evoked research interests into teaching strategies that can be used to improve the performance of learners in science. This study investigated the impact of student teams achievement divisions (STAD) cooperative instructional strategy on the performance of grade 09 learners in science. A mixed method approach specifically quasi-experimental design and interviews were used to collect data. The population for the study composed of grade 09 learners from Baltimore circuit in Limpopo. The sample consisted of sixty learners from two purposively selected secondary schools. The dependent samples t-test was used to analyze the data collected. The results revealed that student teams achievement divisions (STAD) cooperative instructional strategy resulted in better performance of learners in science than traditional teaching method. In addition, learners expressed an increased interest, motivation and self-efficacy after exposure to cooperative learning. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

Several studies and reports have indicated that grade 09 learners are underperforming in science. The underperformance of learners in science is very concerning and has evoked research interests into teaching strategies that can be used to improve the performance of learners in science. This study investigated the impact of student teams achievement divisions (STAD) cooperative instructional strategy on the performance of grade 09 learners in science. A mixed method approach specifically quasi-experimental design and interviews were used to collect data. The population for the study composed of grade 09 learners from Baltimore circuit in Limpopo. The sample consisted of sixty learners from two purposively selected secondary schools. The dependent samples t-test was used to analyze the data collected. The results revealed that student teams achievement divisions (STAD) cooperative instructional strategy resulted in better performance of learners in science than traditional teaching method. In addition, learners expressed an increased interest, motivation and self-efficacy after exposure to cooperative learning. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

The paradigm shift in teaching from the teacher-centred approach to the learner-centred approach in recent years has impacted on the way teachers go about their duties in the classroom. This paradigm shift necessitated this research with the aim of investigating how the Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) technique can be used as a cooperative learning technique to teach EFAL in Kwazulu-Natal. The purpose of this study was to design a framework for the implementation of STAD as a cooperative teaching strategy for EFAL teachers by gleaning literature on teaching and learning, cooperative learning and STAD in chapters two to four of this study. Empirical research, by way of a survey and focus group discussions were also conducted in four out of the twelve districts in the Kwazulu-Natal Province to help solidify the framework designed in this study. In striving to get in-depth insight into this study, the post-positivist-constructivist paradigm, which calls for the mixed methods research design was employed for the collection and analysis of data. Specifically, the Likert scale survey questionnaire and focus group discussions were used to collect data, through the sequential mixed methods design for the quantitative and qualitative phases of this study respectively, from a sample of 220 respondents and twelve participants. The findings of this research indicated that the time spent in training teachers towards the implementation of the STAD technique was not adequate. That notwithstanding, it was indicative that teachers make efforts to implement the strategy in their teaching and the results proved to be very positive as the technique continues to help improve upon learners’ performances and builds in them qualities such as critical thinking skills, good discussion skills and positive collaborative learning. In the nutshell, the literature study, the findings of the empirical research and the recommendation of this study forms the basis for designing the framework for the implementation of STAD as a teaching strategy for EFAL teachers. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)