Teams in education.

Reflections based on article “Teams in different situations” by Richard Harris

The faster a company introduces a change the more likely it is to dominate the market. Teams have been recognized as a potentially effective strategy to generate innovation, but not all teams are as successful. There are three types of teams.

-       Work teams. We see them often in manufacturing process such as car factories, but now we see them appearing more and more in services.

-       Managing teams. Teams of directors, directing. Often not very efficient.

-       Project-based teams. They are created to solve a specific problem such as film production. In this type of teams we often choose team members. It is the most effective type of team from the point of view of innovation.

Applications of these types of teams in the educational world are numerous. Students learn from interaction with others, so any forum facilitating interaction will enhance long-term performance. Project-based teams are a model to follow: students can be given a specific task to solve and be given some choices of when, where, how and who they work with. That way they will internalize the consequences of their choices.

As a mathematics teacher, I have personally used these ideas. I designed a project in which my students could show and improve their mathematics skills in peer-reviewed video-recorded presentations. Students could view and comment any of their peers' presentations and by doing this, they interacted with each other, sharing ideas and this all enhanced their learning. A full report on this project can be downloaded here.