What makes this design of Teamwork novel but also powerful is the emphasis on the psychic/ interpersonal infrastructure of your permanent semester-long teams.  Extensive research correlates higher performance outcomes with the level of trust and psychological safely created within a team.  The more trust a student has in their teammates, the more likely they are to reach out for help as needed but also to be there and provide help for their classmates. This level of trust takes time to build.  Hence the designing of permanent, semester-long teams.

                                                   YOUR FIRST DAY!

      1.Organizing permanent semester-long teams:  

We suggest organizing teams – permanent, semester long teams – of 6 or 7 students. Students can be organized alphabetically by last name (easier for grading purposes) or based on their schedules (practical because it privileges “availability” and can ease communication within the team).  Importantly, these teams are permanent (semester long) which is indeed the point of this program:  the nurturing of deep trust within a team over the course of a full semester. This creates deep support in the cracks where support would normally go missing.  Teams include a rotating Team Leader and a Chief Technology Officer

2. Syllabus:  

It is critical to include language about teamwork as course requirement n your syllabus. Feel free to lift any such language from our teaching materials. Indicate the percentage of your grade that toward which teamwork will count. 

       3. Chats / Social Media / Zoom: 

Let students get together on the first or second day of class to create their communication vehicles:  chats, social media, zoom, or other social media video meeting platform.  They are free to select platform sof their choice.  It is through their chats and zooms that they share ideas, ask one another questions, work on assignments, prepare for exams, and, importantly, bond.  They can get together In person (if this is an in-person class) or in breakout rooms (if the class is synchronous and online) or on their own self-created zooms or similar social media video platforms if the class is completely online.

          4. Sitting in Teams!  

In the classroom, teams sit in small circles with their teammates.  They do not face the teacher – they face one another.  On zoom, one can use breakout rooms where students work as a team on a question, assignment, or project.   Classwork done within teams powerfully reinforces the “team” structure of the class and thus energizes the level of support that will happen within a team. It allows for more freedom among students in their sharing of ideas and thus, their metacognitive development over the semester.

     5. Team Name:    

This is a wonderful ice breaker the first days of class.  Teams are asked to create a team name just like any professional baseball, soccer or football team has a team name.  Our students have created names like:  The Giraffes, Black Jesus, Elite Team, A Team, Crown Jewels

        6. Team Leaders:   

Team Leaders rotate weekly and usually it is easiest if they just rotate alphabetically within their teams.  The Team Leader submits their “Possibility” to you on the Monday or first day of the week of their leadership. The idea here is that they create – in a few sentences – two intentions for their week of leadership, one academic and one for the purpose of team bonding:

1.  The” possibility” for academic support could be: “we will ask one another questions about something we don’t understand for a homework assignment” or, “we will create a zoom to prepare for an exam together.”

2. The second “possibility” for deepening team bonding could mean sharing about holiday plans, or about hobbies and interests, hopes and desires – anything that brings in a personal dimension allowing  team members to get to know one another separately from their academic shared work. 

At the close of the week of leadership, the Team Leader submits their “Outgoing Team Leader Report” in which they write about two things: (1.) they assess the strengths and weaknesses of their team and (2) they write about their own creative contributions to their team.  The report need only be a couple of paragraphs. At the same time, it is an invaluable and eye-opening back door view into what is really going on in the class that is not visible to teachers is the usual design of the classroom.

One student shared with his instructor that as a pre-law student, his experiences as a Team Leader were helping him prepare for his profession.  Others commented, “I have never been a leader before.”  See on this website:  “Teamwork Possibility” and “Teamwork – Outgoing Team Leader Report.”

        7. Chief Technology Officer:  

Teams will negotiate, nominate or volunteer one person to be the “Chief Technology Officer” for the semester and, of course, that person should be adept with tech.  The Chief Technology Officer is the go-to person who is there for team members who may struggle to submit something online or have another tech issue. This will save the instructor and the struggling student much angina. We found that students took pride in the title.  If the idea does not go over that well, the position could be given extra credit.

       8. Grading:  how to acknowledge effort and consistency in teamwork

Included in your syllabus is your decision about how to factor teamwork into your grading system.  Teamwork is often weighted as 30%. of a final grade.  Grades can include consistency of team effort (Leader possibilities and outgoing Team Leader reports that demonstrate thoughtfulness; team quizzes, exams and/or projects graded separately from individual tests and presentations.)

       9. INTRODUCING ‘TAS ‘TO YOUR STUDENTS

            It is important to educate students into the “why” of this form of teamwork. Ask students to read either Have them read either Charles Duhigg’s “What Google Learned From its Quest to Build the Perfect Team” (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html) or Amy Gallo’s online piece, ”What is Psychological Safety” (https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety). One student commented after reading the Duhigg article, “Oh, now I understand why you put us in teams!”   Below are some useful questions that will open student up to the ideas behind TAS and to their experiences of “psychological safety.”   The question below will be enlightening to your students and can be used for class discussion, team discussions or for reflective writing that is shared with the team or with the class.  Here goes!

                                              Class (or Team) Discussion Questions:

1. How does fear interfere with your partici8pation, attention and willingness to share your ideas? 
2. Have you ever not shared an idea in class because you feared being wrong or how you might sound to others? 
3. Are you more comfortable sharing your thoughts in some classes more than others? Why?” 
4. How does your sense of  ‘safety’ affect your participation, attention and willingness to share your ideas?   How does your sense of ‘safety’ affect

Note:

We have created an exam on the Duhigg article you can find on this website. Students can take this individually, as a team or as a homework assignment after reading the Duhigg article.