Short Description

Work in teams describes a group of people engaged in coping with a common task to reach a common goal. It is the work-sharing processing of tasks by several people, who organise their cooperation independently to a great extent. Ideally, a team consists of people whose skills complement each other.

Tools

Can be digital and non-digital. For digital, e.g. WiKi, Etherpad.

Scenario

Work in teams or teamwork is widely used in all kinds of scenarios, from simple to very complex. One very common scenario is project based learning, e.g. organizing a conference to present their theses for the specific course at the end of the BA/Master programme: the students have to divide themselves into groups according to the different tasks they set for successfully organizing such an event, e.g. “programme planning”, “invitation”, “financial aid” etc. They then do their work and time management in their respective groups while regularly being on exchange with the other groups. At the end, all groups come together to hold the conference.

Assessment

Besides the direct assessment, mostly in the form of feedback within the team, different methods can be chosen, e.g.:

• (formal/digitally supported) Peer-review
• Checklists
• Rubrics

Additional Resources

Tsay, M., & Brady, M. (2010). A case study of cooperative learning and communication pedagogy: Does working in teams make a difference?. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 78-89.
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/download/1747/1745

Thematic Dossier on Work in Teams (in French)

Connection with other methods

Think-Pair-Share
Group discussion
Collaborative learning
Project-based learning