Howto...? Student teamwork

• Greater learning success!
  Learning success can be greater than when learning alone (Täschner, Diery & CHU Research Group, 2022).
• Explanation and exchange promotes learning:
  When working in a group, there is (in the best case) an intensive exchange with the learning material, which promotes a sustainable anchoring of what has been learned (Ebbert, 2019, p.256f.). It also allows you to uncover gaps in your own knowledge, which can be discussed and closed together in the group.
• Stay motivated with required meetings/tasks (Ebbert, 2019, p.256)!
• Save time by sharing tasks (Ebbert, 2019, p.256)!
• Dealing with different perspectives means that greater knowledge can be built up together than alone (Ebbert, 2019, p.256)
• Team skills can be tested (Ebbert, 2019, p.257).

A group is defined as 3 or more people. From 6 people onwards, phenomena such as "social loafing" occur more frequently. "Social loafing" means that group members reduce their willingness to perform and show less commitment in the group than they would on their own. This happens particularly often when one's own performance can no longer be easily identified.

We therefore recommend group sizes of 3 to 5 people (Ebbert, 2019, p. 257; Täschner, Diery & CHU Research Group, 2022, p.5).

Group members may have different knowledge of the topic to be worked on or different expectations of the group's performance. For some, the grade may be less important than for others. For various reasons, one or more group members might unconsciously ("social loafing") or consciously ("free-riding") reduce their own willingness to perform. However, nobody wants to be the "sucker" and do the work for everyone: That's why it's called the "sucker effect" when the person shouldering the work also loses motivation (Ebbert, 2019, p. 263, Redaktion Personalwirtschaft, 2018).

We recommend:

Defining the group goal

• What is the goal of our group (learning group, working on a defined task as part of a course)?
• When working on tasks as part of a course, the specified framework conditions should be known to everyone or explicitly requested from the lecturer (e.g. form of performance such as presentation; assessment criteria; involvement of lecturers in case of difficulties) (Wolf, 2020, p.50).
• An exchange about the respective commitment can help to address different expectations from the outset and prevent conflicts if necessary (Wolf, 2020, p. 50).

Distribute team roles

• Who coordinates the meetings?
• Who moderates the meetings?
• Who writes the minutes?
• Who keeps an eye on the time?
• Who sets the agenda?

Team roles can also rotate in the various meetings.

Define framework conditions

• When and where / how often do we meet? It is helpful to set a fixed day with a certain rhythm so that this does not have to be renegotiated again and again (Ebbert, 2019, p. 258).
• How do we communicate with each other?
• Is there a shared file storage option?
  Tip: Coming soon - the External link opens in a new window:Project tool in FELIX!
• How are cancellations made?
• Establish the rules of the game
• What rules apply to our meetings (e.g. cell phone stays in your pocket)?
• What happens if someone does not complete their tasks? At what point does the supervising teacher get involved (Maier et al., 2011, p.155)?

Develop a timetable with milestones right from the start

• Who does what by when?
• Allow sufficient buffer time before submission (e.g. for layout, review, etc.).
• Celebrate milestones according to the motto "Winning teams celebrate" (Welch & Welch, 2011).

Effective meetings

• Meetings without an agenda can be inefficient and unstructured. An agenda helps to avoid distracting each other too much and to focus on the essentials.
• Take some time for small talk at the beginning and then move on to the main focus of the meeting (Ebbert, 2019, p. 259f.).
• The defined team roles come into play. Take advantage of the opportunities offered by teamwork! It often makes sense to divide up tasks. However, if you only send your finished PowerPoint slides or Word files to each other without checking them, discussing or presenting them in meetings and coordinating them with a common thread, you will not benefit from the added value of joint work (Wolf, 2020, p.51f)!

• Ebbert, B. (2019). Effektiver Lernen für Dummies (2. Auflage 2019). Wiley, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
• Maier, P., Barney, A., Price, G., & Pahlkötter, U. (2011). Survival-Guide für Erstis: Von Studenten für Studenten. Pearson Studium.
• Redaktion Personalwirtschaft (07.02.2018). Ich Team, du Work?https://www.personalwirtschaft.de/news/hr-organisation/teamwork-fuehrt-zu-social-loafing-103564/ (abgerufen am 22.11.2023)
• Täschner, J, Diery, A. & CHU Research Group (2022). Allein, zu zweit oder in Gruppen – Wie lernen SchülerInnen am besten? www.clearinghouse-unterricht.de, Kurzreview 31.
• Welch, J., & Welch, S. (Jul 11, 2011). How to Build a Winning Team. https://www.newsweek.com/how-build-winning-team-68401 (abgerufen am 22.11.2023)
• Wolf, J. (2020). Erste Hilfe bei Gruppenarbeiten—Möglichkeiten der Studierenden zur erfolgreichen Gestaltung dieser Arbeitsform. WiSt - Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium, 49(1), 50–53. doi.org/10.15358/0340-1650-2020-1-50