Suggested Reading

Using Student Teams in the Classroom: A Faculty Guide

Two Authors Make a Case for Using Student Teams in the Classroom as a Way of Strengthening an Appreciation of Cultural Diversity

By ELIZABETH GREENE

Using Student Teams in the Classroom: A Faculty Guide (Anker, 2000), by Ruth Federman Stein and Sandra Hurd. $24.95.

At a time when both academe and the work world are increasingly concerned about ensuring sensitivity to diverse cultures, these authors, both from Syracuse University, put forth the use of student teams as one tool for developing a crucial understanding of cultural differences.

They go on to explain exactly how professors can devise and manage diverse groups of students. "If we want students to be prepared to work in a multicultural, diverse workplace, to live in neighborhoods that cross ethnic and racial boundaries, then we must make sure that not only what we teach but how we teach affirms the importance of learning to work together," they write.

Ms. Stein is a project manager at the Center for Support of Teaching and Learning; Ms. Hurd is chair of the law-and-public-policy department in the School of Management, and faculty coordinator of the Learning Communities program, which places students and faculty members with complementary interests together.

Teams can also be useful in actively engaging students in the material they are studying, the authors argue. Just placing students in teams is not enough, however. Instead, Ms. Stein and Ms. Hurd write, instructors must consider a range of issues -- from what happens when one person tries to dominate the group to how to handle students who refuse to get involved.

The book begins with theories about teamwork in support of the premise that group work helps students to function in a democratic society. The authors offer criteria for successful teamwork, some basic configurations of teams, and ways to integrate team exercises with other course work.

The second part of the book, on building effective teams, looks at ways to incorporate technology into the process -- for example: "If students can meet electronically, they never need to arrange a plan to meet outside the classroom" -- and ways to manage conflict and evaluate teams. The authors also outline specific exercises to strengthen teams.

In the third section, faculty members in 18 disciplines at Syracuse describe in individual essays how they have incorporated student teams into their courses. Architecture students, in teams of six, design and construct a bridge; a sociology professor calls on a team of students to collaborate with him on a research project analyzing the local economy; students in a writing class are divided into groups of three and read each other's papers aloud. In the latter exercise, the two other students in each team can stop the reader to ask questions about grammar, spelling, and other points -- the goal being to encourage the writers to take more responsibility for such issues themselves.