Contextualizing teamwork in a professional communication course for engineering students

• Autores: Tharwat El Sakran, David Prescott, Mujo Mesanovic
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 29, no. Extra 2, 2013, págs. 439-449
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The paper outlines evidence from studies concerning the importance of professional communication for engineering students. Thisis followed by description of syllabus change at the American University of Sharjah to address a perceived need for professionalcommunication skills. The paper then reports the procedures employed to contextualize these skills through engineeringmultidisciplinary projects (EMDPs). Discussion of the use of the Belbin Get-Set Self Perception Inventory (SPI) to develop team-role behavior is considered. The paper outlines an investigation of the perception that student understanding of team-role behavioris positively influenced by self-awareness and the contextualized work undertaken in EMDPs. The data used in this investigationwere the preference scores obtained from two administrations of the Belbin Get-Set Self Perception Inventory (SPI) with threecohorts of students (n = 56), at the commencement and completion of Spring Semester, 2011. Values from the two administrationsof the Belbin SPI were tested to establish whether there was statistically significant improvement. Findings indicate positive changein students’ understandings of the significance of team-role behavior. At ten per cent (10%) of significance strong evidence ofsignificant improvement in four categories was recorded for individual results and in three categories for team results.