Teamwork as a New Pedagogy For Teaching. Architectural Design. Dr. Ehab M. Okba and. Dr. Mona H. Soliman. Associate Prof. Of Architecture. Assistant Prof.
Teamwork as a New Pedagogy For Teaching Architectural Design Dr. Ehab M. Okba and Associate Prof. Of Architecture Cairo University (Fayoum Branch)
Dr. Mona H. Soliman Assistant Prof. Of Architecture Cairo University (Fayoum Branch)
Teamwork as a New Pedagogy For Teaching Architectural Design Abstract: A significant shift is taking place in organizations throughout the world. This shift involves increasing the emphasis on the group or teamwork. When a team is functioning well, the team dynamics and sense of belongingness and acceptance can bring out the best of the architect. Teamwork can enhance problem solving and creativity; generate understanding, acceptance, support, and commitment. This paper aims at proposing a new pedagogy for enhancing the architectural design courses at the schools of architecture through incorporating teamwork into architectural design pedagogy, as a successful mean of interaction with the future global parameters in the architectural profession, such as new open market strategies, new advanced technology revolution, new large-scale-projects with complicated design problems. The paper consists of two major parts. First, the theoretical part, highlighting: the importance of applying teamwork as a tool for obtaining a more successful design product; tools for making an effective teamwork in the design process; strategies for designing a new teamwork pedagogy for teaching architectural design (designing a syllabus, organizing, and evaluating teamwork). Second, the experimental part, based upon applying teamwork as a new proposed pedagogy for teaching architectural design. The paper examines this new proposed pedagogy on housing projects following green architecture principles. A questionnaire was conducted to test and evaluate the students’ response towards this new pedagogy to determine all its positive and negative aspects, and proposes a new guiding tool for incorporating teamwork into architectural design process. 1. Introduction A significant shift is taking place in organizations throughout the world-a shift that has important implications for the skills that will be critical to the success. This shift involves increasing the emphasis on the group or team. When a group is functioning well (whether it be a work group, a sports team, a friendship group, a chorus, a religious group, a voluntary group, etc.) the group dynamics and sense of belongingness and acceptance can bring out the "best" in us. Groups can enhance problem solving and creativity, generate understanding, acceptance, support, and commitment. A team is defined as a small number of people with complementary skills committed to a common purpose, specific performance goals, a common working approach, and mutual accountability Groups are particularly important when problems and decisions involve very uncertain, complex, and important situations and when the potential for conflict is great. In addition situations where widespread acceptance and commitment are critical will call for groups. Groups are clearly more appropriate when there is not an immediate time pressure1. 2. Meaning of Teamwork Any person can works as part of a TEAM, he must just remember the meaning of the word TEAMWORK as a guideline, and that all these should work together hand in hand from the conception of the team to the achievement of the final goal 2 . An effective group is characterized by: a sense of urgency and direction, purpose and goals; a lot of work at the start setting a tone, setting a contract, specifying a clear set of rules; clear notion of what the problem is; immediate and demanding performance oriented tasks and goals; broad sense of shared responsibility for the group process and outcomes; membership based on skill potential; use of positive feedback, recognition, rewards; effective ways of making decisions and shared leadership; high level of commitment among members; balance of satisfying individual and group needs; ability to brainstorm; confronting differences; confronts conflict; dealing with minority opinions effectively; effective communication patterns-both ideas and feelings; good listening skills among members; can be objective about reviewing its performance objectively. However, any teamwork has points of strengths and weakness as shown in table (1).
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Table (1) Strengths and weakness of groups as problem solvers Strengths of Groups as Problem Solvers
Weaknesses of Groups as Problem Solvers
Diversity of problem solving styles, skills
Pressure to conform
Individual domination; chance to "score points"
More knowledge and information
Greater understanding and commitment
Diffusion of responsibility
Diversity of views, goals, loyalties
Tends to be focused
Too quick to "solve" (not analyze) problem
Source: Ware, J., 1994 3. Team Motivation A team whose members are aligned with its purpose, feel a challenge in their task, have a strong sense of camaraderie, feel responsibility for the outcome, and experience growth as a team and in their personal lives, will tend to sustain motivation over the long haul. This is not to say that they will not have difficulties at times, or that members’ wants and needs won’t change over time. In these cases, sometimes changes will have to be made. A member who no longer feels the team is meeting his or her needs may have to leave the team to continue on their own path. But, in as much as it is possible to sustain motivation indefinitely, the factors above will tend to create the best possible environment for it3. 4. Strategies and Tools for Teaching Teamwork Students learn best when they are actively involved in the process. Researchers report that, regardless of the subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats. Students who work in collaborative groups also appear more satisfied with their classes 4. (Beckman, 1990) The suggestions below are designed to help faculty to set up formal Teamwork. If the faculty have never done group work in their classes, they might need to experiment first with two other tools, "Leading a Discussion" and "Supplements and Alternatives to Lecturing: Encouraging Student Participation"5 6. 4.1. General strategies - Plan for each stage of group work. When faculties are writing a syllabus for the course, they decide which topics, themes, or projects might lend themselves to formal teamwork. They should think about how they will organize students into teams, help teams negotiate among themselves, provide feedback to the teams, and evaluate the products of teamwork 7. - Carefully explain to the class how the teams will operate and how students will be graded. Faculty must explain the objectives of the team task and define any relevant concepts. In addition to a welldefined task, every team needs a way of getting started, a way of knowing when its task is done, and some guidance about the participation of members and how students will be graded 8. - Give students the skills they need to succeed in groups. Many students have never worked in collaborative learning groups and may need practice in such skills as active and tolerant listening, helping one another in mastering content, giving and receiving constructive criticism, and managing disagreements 9. - Consider written contracts. Some faculty give students-written contracts that list members’ obligations to their group and deadlines for tasks 10.
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4.2. Designing teamwork - Create team tasks that require interdependence. Strategies for promoting interdependence include specifying common rewards for the group, encouraging students to divide up the labor, and formulating tasks that compel students to reach a consensus 11. - Make the teamwork relevant. Students must perceive the team tasks as integral to the course objectives, not just busywork. Some faculty believes that teams succeed best with tasks involving judgment12. - Create assignments that fit the students' skills and abilities. Early in the term, assign relatively easy tasks. As students become more knowledgeable, faculty should increase the difficulty level. At the end of the term, each team prepares a proposal for a research project and submits it to another team for evaluation13. - Assign team tasks that allow for a fair division of labor. Try to structure the tasks so that each team member can make an equal contribution14. - Set up "competitions" among teams. A faculty member turns laboratory exercises into competitions. Prizes are awarded to the teams in various categories: best predictions of behavior, most efficient structure, best aesthetics 15. - Consider offering team test taking. On a team test, either an in-class or take-home exam, each student receives the score of the group, in addition to his individual score16. 4.3. Organizing teamwork - Decide how the teams will be formed. Some faculty prefers randomly assigning students to teams to maximize their heterogeneity17. Some faculty let students choose with whom they want to work. Other faculty, try to sprinkle the more able students evenly among the teams 18. - Be conscious of team size. In general, teams of four or five members work best. Larger teams decrease each member’s opportunity to participate actively19. - Keep teams together. When a team is not working well, avoid breaking it up, even if the team requests it20. - Help teams plan how to proceed. Ask each team to devise a plan of action: who will be doing what and when. Review the teams’ plans or meet with each team to discuss its plan. - Regularly check in with the teams. If the task spans several weeks, faculty should establish checkpoints with the teams, ask them to turn in outlines or to meet with you. - Provide mechanisms for groups to deal with uncooperative members. Telling the class that after the team task is completed, each student will submit to the instructor an anonymous assessment of the participation of the other team members. If several people indicate that an individual did less than a fair share, that person could receive a lower grade than the rest of the team21. Perhaps the best way to assure comparable effort among all team members is to design activities in which there is a clear division of labor 22. 4.4. Evaluating teamwork - Ensure that individual student performance is assessed and that the teams know how their members are doing. Teams need to know who needs more assistance in completing the assignment, and members need to know they cannot let others do all the work while they sit back. Ways to ensure that students are held accountable include giving spot quizzes to be completed individually and calling on individual students to present their team’s progress 23. - Give students an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of their team. Once or twice during the teamwork task, ask team members to discuss two questions: What action has each member taken that been helpful for the team? What action could each member take to make the team even better? At the end of the project, ask students to complete a brief evaluation form on the effectiveness of the group and its members. The form could include items about the team’s overall accomplishments; the student’s own role, and suggestions for changes in future teamwork 24. - Decide how to grade members of the team. Some faculties assign all students in the team the same grade on the team task. Grading students individually, they argue, inevitably leads to competition within the team and thus subverts the benefits of teamwork. Other faculties grade the contribution of
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each student on the basis of individual test or the team’s evaluation of each member’s work. If you assign the same grade to the entire team, the grade should not account for more than a small part of a student’s grade in the class25. 5. The Experimental Study: Applying Teamwork as a New Pedagogy for Teaching Architectural Design An experimental study was performed to examine incorporating concept and principles of teamwork in the design process as a new pedagogy for teaching architecture design for the 3 rd year architecture students at the faculty of engineering, Cairo university (Fayoum branch). This experimental study aims at determining the positive and negative aspects of teamwork performance when applied at the Egyptian schools of architecture. This study also determined required requirements and considerations that should be considered while designing and implementing each stage of the design process performed through teamwork. 5.1. Setting teaching teamwork strategy in the design process This strategy began by setting a syllabus for the course. A housing project was chosen as a theme for this experiment since housing problems in all areas (rural – urban – touristic) in Egypt represent common problem that are well perceived by most of the students. This chosen theme could enable all the students to deal with it through teamwork and determine common solutions for it. The objectives of this project and the incorporation of teamwork concept and principles were clearly explained to the students. The educators highlighted to their students the problems of different types of housing, and how this project needs cooperative efforts through new ideas and unprecedented solutions, which necessitate the work of a team. The incorporation of teamwork concept and principles with the individual work into all phases of the design process (including: The primary research, setting the design concept and ideas, development of the design concept and ideas, the final presentation of the projects, the evaluation process), were clearly explained to the students as follows: Phase (1): The primary research - Formation of teamwork groups (4-6 students). - Selection of housing type. - Group Studies of site alternatives and principles of the adopted architectural approach (green architecture concept). Phase (2): Setting the design concept and ideas - Setting the first site plan with respect to green architecture concept in-group work. - Setting the first mass plan of the design models for dwellings in-group work. Phase (3): Development of the design concept and ideas - Individual development of the design models for dwellings according to the group main concept. - Self-criticism - staff criticism – group criticism (Fig.1). - Lectures and discussions - Criticism of society through individually conducted questionnaire. - Teamwork evaluation according to special criteria and selection of optimum solutions. - Teamwork development of the optimum solutions according to the previous evaluation and criticism. Phase (4): The final presentation of the projects - Dividing work into tasks and skills. - Submission of the final product (Fig.2). - Submission of final report for team member’s performance. Phase (5): The evaluation process - Individual scores - Group scores - Evaluation of the experimental study A time-schedule for all design process phases was set. The grading system for individual and teamwork for each student was also declared by the educators at the beginning of the experiment. Students were taught and trained to participate in teams by practicing the following skills:
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- Cooperating in decision-making. - Listening to each other while explaining their ideas. - Following interactive discussion and constructive criticism. - Managing their disagreement. The job description for the tasks and role of each member was submitted by each team to the educators at the beginning, during, and at the end of the experiment.
Fig. (1) Development of design concept through team and staff criticism Source: Authors, 2004
Sample (a) of students’ final product
Sample (b) of students’ final product Fig. (2) Samples of the students’ final design product generated by teamwork Source: Authors, 2004
5.2. Designing the teamwork: Positives and negatives Many positives were generated and appeared during the design process as a result of the teamwork, such as: - The appearance of the spirit of competition among teams through the competitive improvement of the quality and quantity of their work submitted every week. - Each team proposed to have a name as a real office representing their future office after graduation. - Hot and objective interactive discussions and criticism among teams motivated them to improve their works. However, some negatives were also remarked such as: - Some stages of the design process need a very high level of agreement and understanding and also a very good trust among the team-members such as setting the design concept of the project, and choosing between different design alternatives.
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- The complication of the design process that sometimes cannot be divided into separate tasks. - The difficult formation of teamwork to contain: imaginative skills; variable skills; leadership; members with highly performance. 5.3. Organizing the teamwork: Positives and negatives Many positives were generated and appeared during the organizing process of the teamwork such as: - Practicing the skill of working in teams, and making their own decisions. - Learning how to divide a project into tasks, and managing their time-schedule for their project. - Choosing their own mechanism to develop their work and achieve their aims. - Solving their problems. - Practicing self-criticism, and making reports about their individual efforts, However, some negatives were also remarked such as: -Letting the students choose with whom they want to work, lacked the needed skills for different stages of the design process. - Some problems appeared related to the Egyptian culture such as: working of females with males, the complements of some groups to their friends in the criticism process. - Lack of imaginative skills and other variables skills, lack of leadership, modest performance of some team members, un-fulfillment of responsibilities, are all continuous problems that were facing the teamwork. - Over-dependence of team members on highly skilled colleagues. - Misdistribution of tasks between team members according to their skills. - Problems of take-home tasks such as work places, responsibility fulfillment, gender problems. 5.4. Evaluating the teamwork: Positives and negatives There were many positives marked in this stage such as: - Learning how to assess the others. - Practicing self-criticism - Perceiving how projects are graded and how the individual work affects the team score. But the following negatives were marked during the experimental study: - The grading and evaluation weights for team performance and individual performance, can not be accurate unless it can measure the cooperation of every member in the team while making sure that each team has the same skills that needed for the design process. - The complementary evaluation of teams for each other. - The disagreements in team members’ evaluation for each member performance. 6. Conclusion and Recommendations Currently, the incorporation of teamwork into the design process became a very important approach in enhancing the architectural design courses in the schools of Architecture, as this approach formulates a very beneficial means of interaction with the global challenges in the architectural profession. Teaching teamwork skills in the architectural education pedagogy will help students for better learning and will have many positives in developing the students’ potentials and skills that are needed for confronting the present and future challenges of the architectural profession. The methodology of incorporating teamwork into architectural design pedagogy is based on major strategies including: setting general teaching strategies; designing teamwork; organizing teamwork; and evaluating teamwork. It is important to notes that, there are some negatives generated during the teamwork that may decrease the efficiency of the final architectural product and that need to be managed and solved. These negatives have different impacts that vary through each phase of the design process. These impacts could be classified as high impact; medium impact; and low impact. The research proposes a tool for confronting and solving these negatives that could be used by the design educators to achieve the optimum architectural product in the design studio (Fig. 3). This new proposed guiding tool, is recommended to be used by Egyptian faculties as a means for managing a successful teamwork in architectural design education.
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Fig. (3) Proposed Guiding tool for incorporating teamwork into architectural design process Source: Authors, 2004
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