Professionalism and Student Teamwork

1
Professionalism and Student Teamwork

• David Dodson
• Dept. of Computing, City University, London
• June 2006

2
TL about Professional Issues (PI)

• Important for informatics degree accreditation
• Includes legal and ethical aspects of work in IT
• Unclear what else should be included
  (professionalism?)
• Student engagement/feedback can be problematic

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Professionalism

• My HoD said it was about not showing stress
• That's a convenient view for managers, I thought.
  
• But many people expect it of professionals
• Formal qualifications offer no exemption

4
Keeping up appearances

• Maintaining an aura
• Not only of technical competence and ethics
• Also of dignity, poise, unflappability,
  reliability and assurance of such qualities.
• I.E. composure?

5
Composure

• Neglected by the engineering profession(s)?
• Maybe that reflects potential for misuse e.g. to
  aid deception?
• Debate on professionalism in engineering didn't
  dispute need for it

6
Generalising

• How do other professions treat this area?
• What sorts of learning objectives, e.g. skill,
  attitudes?
• More generally, do professionals need Emotional
  Intelligence (EI)?

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Teaching PI at Part II

• PBL design and CitySpace materials developed by
  Ginny Williams
• Students choose and study a problem scenario in
  teams of c. five
• Each student responsible for a specialist area
• Teams must keep minutes, and give reports and
  presentations
• Must identify issues, relevant laws/codes/theories
  , and give advice
• Lots of study materials to prepare and maintain

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Results

• More opportunity for them to make and learn from
  mistakes
• Student engagement has seemed very positive
• Their presentations tend to demonstrate
  impressive composure
• Little initial contact needed - intro lectures
  briefing tutorials
• More opportunity for students to motivate and
  teach each other

9
Student-selected teams

• in response to earlier feedback
• Firm, detailed rules about team formation and
  incremental change
• 1 week deadline, then random allocation
• Emphasizes student responsibility for team
  organization
• Peer assessment peer pressure effects?
  (e.g. minuted absence)
• Staff involvement easily avoided beyond tactful
  help over stragglers
• Little difficulty experienced allocating marks
  within teams

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Initial briefing materials

• Publicly available
• http//www.soi.city.ac.uk/dcd/rpi

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Have Students Changed?

• Since the 1970s, have students become more
  mature and composed?
• I think so, and assume it reflects progress in
  many areas, not few
• E.G. more experience at school of teamwork and
  oral presentations?
• Do students now need less help over composure and
  EI?

12
Conclusions

• Composure and Emotional Intelligence are expected
  of professionals
• Group work, group presentations and PBL seem to
  help
• Self-selected teams given clear expectations do
  not need much facilitatory staff contact
• Task focus on law and professional codes of
  responsibility can foster other areas of
  professionalism.