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Teamwork has been identified as one of the essential professional skills for the 21st century. Business, industries, and corporates require their employees to work in teams on various projects. Therefore, it is crucial to introduce and train undergraduate students on teamwork skills. Working in teams is not easy as one needs to collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds, skillsets, and opinions. The disagreement among the team members may lead to conflict and chaos that jeopardizes the team's harmony. Therefore, just creating teams and assigning a group project is insufficient to help undergraduate students develop teamwork skills. Instructors need to help students become cognizant of their teamwork skills, such as conflict resolution, scrum values, and cultural self-awareness. In this research paper, we intend to understand the perception of students enrolled in a sophomore-level system's course regarding conflict resolution skills, scrum values, and cultural self-awareness. We also want to understand how the perception of these values is related to one another. In the light of this study, we want to answer the following research questions (1) How do students' reported conflict management skills relate to their reported scrum values? (2) How do students' cultural self-awareness relate to their conflict management skills? (3) How do students' cultural self-awareness relate to their reported scrum values? A course on system analysis and design followed a project-based cooperative learning approach. The students were required to work in teams and complete the course deliverables, including the final course project. The team projects followed a scrum approach that helped students identify the project requirements, perform modeling and develop a prototype. Since students worked on scrum- driven projects in a cooperative learning environment, the students were required to participate in a survey study that allowed the instructional team to develop an understanding of the students' perception of conflict management, scrum values, and cultural self-awareness. The responses of the students were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results suggest that students found themselves competent in managing conflict, adhering to scrum values, and demonstrating a high-level cultural self-awareness.
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Information Technology Undergraduate Students’ Intercultural Value Orientations and Their Beliefs about the Influence of Such Orientations on Teamwork Interactions
Companies and their executives are concluding that to accomplish their complex tasks and all-encompassing missions and goals, they must step outside the traditional realms of teamwork and partnership and engage in cross-cultural and multinational alliances. One of the principal areas affecting teamwork today, especially in diverse workplaces, is the variety of cultural value orientations that the members relate to. To better prepare students for joining global enterprises, it is necessary to understand their cultural orientations and how those may influence their teamwork interactions. This study used a mixed methods design to characterize computer and information technology undergraduate students’ cultural orientations and their cultural awareness in the context of teamwork experiences. The data for the study was collected in the form of a reflection assignment that was implemented during the first week of classes as a way to promote students’ cultural awareness and how that may play out in their teamwork interactions. The reflection assignment had two parts: (i) a survey and (ii) reflection questions. The study used descriptive statistics and t-tests to analyze the survey (quantitative data), and thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the reflection questions (qualitative data). Our analysis of the quantitative data revealed that students identified the following core values they are Individualism, Equality, Monochronic, Meritocracy, Informality, Personal Efficacy, and Directness, and these values resonated with most of the students in class. Corresponding qualitative themes that emerged regarding students’ beliefs of how those values may play out in their teamwork experience were (a) Treating everyone equally and understanding others, (b) Increasing temporal Awareness, (c) Enacting effective communication, (d) Monitoring the progress of team members and (e) Establishing rules and boundaries.
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- PAR ID:
- 10444359
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Trends in Higher Education
- Volume:
- 2
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2813-4346
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 270 to 282
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Teamwork has been identified as one of the essential professional skills for the 21st century. Business, industries, and corporates require their employees to work in teams on various projects. Therefore, it is crucial to introduce and train undergraduate students on teamwork skills. Working in teams is not easy as one needs to collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds, skillsets, and opinions. The disagreement among the team members may lead to conflict and chaos that jeopardizes the team's harmony. Therefore, just creating teams and assigning a group project is insufficient to help undergraduate students develop teamwork skills. Instructors need to help students become cognizant of their teamwork skills, such as conflict resolution, scrum values, and cultural self-awareness. In this research paper, we intend to understand the perception of students enrolled in a sophomore-level system's course regarding conflict resolution skills, scrum values, and cultural self-awareness. We also want to understand how the perception of these values is related to one another. In the light of this study, we want to answer the following research questions (1) How do students' reported conflict management skills relate to their reported scrum values? (2) How do students' cultural self-awareness relate to their conflict management skills? (3) How do students' cultural self-awareness relate to their reported scrum values? A course on system analysis and design followed a project-based cooperative learning approach. The students were required to work in teams and complete the course deliverables, including the final course project. The team projects followed a scrum approach that helped students identify the project requirements, perform modeling and develop a prototype. Since students worked on scrum- driven projects in a cooperative learning environment, the students were required to participate in a survey study that allowed the instructional team to develop an understanding of the students' perception of conflict management, scrum values, and cultural self-awareness. The responses of the students were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results suggest that students found themselves competent in managing conflict, adhering to scrum values, and demonstrating a high-level cultural self-awareness.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/higheredu2020014
