This single-class activity augments the popular desert island activity to include a secret insider who aims to influence their group covertly. The motivation for this augmented activity is twofold: (1) to highlight and dispel notions of invulnerability to groupthink and (2) to provide an opportunity to engage in small-group decision making. To…

Groupwork provides opportunities to learn important communication and collaboration skills, but how can we ensure all students are participating equitably while also engaging with the academic content when working in groups? Group-worthy tasks provide participation structures needed for students to engage with the content as well as develop and…

This conceptual article examines the role of team-building in outdoor learning, reviews group development theory in relation to teamwork, and outlines the Behaviour Analysis model as a tool to facilitate team-building. Working with this foundation, the theory and model are combined with discussion about team, leader, and facilitator behaviours at…

Three staples of management and organizational behavior classes are units on creativity, problem solving, and group decision making. This article presents an experiential exercise in creative problem solving in which the participants attempt to create a cartoon caption both individually and in small groups. The cartoons all come from "The New…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are becoming increasingly commonplace in America's schools. As part of the school community, physical educators are positioned to add and receive value within PLCs. Given that school-based PLCs are driven by collaborative teams, reaching high performing status requires external supportive school structures…

Courses Leadership, Strategic Communication, and courses within communication that include a complex group assignment. Objectives The Zombie Apocalypse (ZA) learning activity is part of a second-year course in an international master's program. The course introduces students to key concepts in strategic communication and leadership and encourages…

This article describes a developmental framework for the application of role-playing games (RPGs) in leadership learning. RPGs relate to leadership learning on a range of levels from individual development, to team building, to parallel group processes. The variety and depth of learning and development potential in RPGs is very exciting,…

Inclusivity and diversity are critical to maximizing team performance. This activity incorporates a popular party game that connects students with the learning objectives, demonstrating the vital roles inclusion and diversity play in the success of a business and the importance of building skills for maximizing teamwork. With little instruction to…

Development of team skills is vital to becoming a successful and productive engineer. To prepare students for successful team-based work, they need a basic understanding of the organizational psychology underpinning teamwork and an introduction to tools and techniques to develop and sustain team effectiveness. The goal of this paper is to…

Growth in collaborative research raises difficulties for those tasked with research evaluation, particularly in situations where outcomes are slow to emerge. This article presents the 'Diversity Approach to Research Evaluation' (DARE) as a novel way to assess how researchers engaged in knowledge creation and application work together as teams.…

Purpose: This paper aims to understand the effects of team power asymmetry (hierarchy) on team learning. Design/methodology/approach: Literature suggests that power asymmetry can hurt team learning due to unequal interactions. The authors integrate the situated focus theory of power and the theory of adversarial growth to propose that…

Courses: Campaigns, Account Planning, Public Relations (PR), and any other strategic communication course where groups are assigned. Objectives: The purpose of this single-class escape-room activity is to increase students' ability to work in time-demanding group settings while utilizing unconventional methods to reinforce material covered in…

This chapter describes best practices for the peer evaluation process in online team-based learning (TBL). Formative peer evaluation is an essential element of effective course delivery for online TBL classes, and when done well, shapes a group of individuals with a shared set of tasks into an interdependent team of learners. More generally,…

Design Thinking (DT) has recently been adopted in some higher education disciplines as an effective pedagogical approach to enable students to acquire the skills needed for solving real world problems. As a human-centered, iterative process, design thinking is characterized by working with others to understand, define and solve problems using…

Although teamwork is essential in design, interior design education can be competitive and individualistic. The role of design educators is to structure projects seeking to promote inclusive group dynamics and democratic participation among team members. Navigating the challenges of group work should not rest solely on the shoulders of students.…