Contextualizing Teamwork in a Professional Communication Engineering Course

Well-developed professional communication skills, collaborative work practices, effective self-management and a clear understanding of social responsibility and ethical practices are essential for the new engineer who hopes to contribute to the profession and build a career. These attributes, in addition to the traditional sound knowledge of engineering theory and practices, are essential requisites for success in the workplace.

This seminar will briefly outline syllabus change in ENG207 made to address the skills and practices referred to above and to develop the students' self-regulation of their learning. The procedures employed to contextualize these skills through engineering multidisciplinary projects will be explained, including the use of the Belbin® Get-Set Self Perception Inventory (SPI) used to develop team-role behavior.

Tharwat El-Sakran, David Prescott and Mujo Mesanovic will outline a recent investigation of the perception that student understanding of team-role behavior is positively influenced by self-awareness and the contextualized work undertaken in engineering multidisciplinary projects. The study results indicate positive change in students' understandings of the significance of team-role behavior. The seminar will conclude with brief discussion of the results and their implications.

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