Belbin team roles to enhance students’ engagementto project based learning in chemical engineering

• A. Aranzabal ^[2] ; E. Epelde ^[1] ; M. Artetxe ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

     Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

     Leioa, España

     
  2. [2] Universidad de País Vasco
• Localización: Ikaskuntza-irakaskuntza akademikoaren eremu berriak arakatzen / Universidad del País Vasco - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (aut.), 2019, ISBN 978-84-1319-033-4, págs. 214-221
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro (pdf)
• Resumen

  • There is a longstanding recognition of the need to incorporate group work projects in higher educationcurricula. However, learning teams are often dysfunctional leading to disappointing learningexperiences. There are several reasons: different motivation, expectations or commitment, personalityclashes, dominant and passive members, etc. Cooperative learning is not about simply putting studentstogether in groups, but about providing good facilitation. Well versed in this issue, the instructorsof the subject process and product engineering in chemical engineering degree at the university of thebasque country UPV/EHU, introduced an education intervention to enhance student engagement inproject based team-learning: constructing student groups using belbin’s role theory for the task to designan industrial chemical process. Belbin categorized individual behaviour within the team into nineroles, grouped into 3 categories: mental roles (plant-monitor evaluator-specialist), social roles (resourceresearcher-coordinator-teamworker) and action roles (sharper-implementator-finisher). The centralclaim of the belbin’s role theory is that a ‘balanced’ team, build up by selecting individuals that coversall nine roles, has a greater propensity to perform highly. An individual’s natural team role preferencesare rapidly identified through the belbin self-perception index and 4-6 observers’ assessments. This personalinformation will allow reinforcing each student’s self-concept, as they recognize the natural teamworkingskills they can bring to the team, which is key for the complementarity in team-working, independentlyof their previous academic grades. Beforehand, it is crucial to perform experiential sessionsto glimpse the high number of non-technical and innate abilities that allow to successfully reaching ateam challenge. After the intervention, the students have shown (through a questionnaire) an increasein their motivation, which is also reflected in a better functioning of the teams analysed through the individualaccountability factor and the enhancement of their academic grades.