Argumentos económicos que avalan la constitución de un

Including certain key skills in the teaching curriculum has been recommended by government bodies since the 1950’s, in the guise of “core skills”, “key skills” or “general skills”, aimed at preparing people for the world of work. These include

literacy, numeracy and information technology, and are enshrined in compulsory education (Hyland and Johnson 1998), but other skills such as “working with others”, “presentation”, “problem solving” and “managing own learning”, were added after the Dearing review of post-compulsory education in 1996. Hyland and Johnson (1998) argue that these latter skills are context specific and so cannot be taught as generalised or transferable skills, but that opportunities or experiences are the best way to help learners to acquire abilities to act in an acceptable manner towards others in certain circumstances. Any definition of acceptable behaviour in team working is outside the scope of this research.

The reflective nature of personal development planning (PDP) is of increasing importance in higher education, but based on feedback from graduate employers, Edwards (2005) suggests in terms of the process rather than the resulting portfolio of evidence. So an ability to reflect on the experience of the learning activity is just as important as the actual product, and this can be adopted for student team working, to provide for greater learning of individuals engaged in team projects.

Higher education institutions are being encouraged to play their part in preparing students for work, by teaching skills associated with employability, such as team working (Yorke and Knight 2003; Prichard et al. 2006; Dacre Pool and Sewell 2007). Hordyk (2007) suggests the benefits for the employer of teaching employability skills include competitive edge, performance and profitability, but acknowledges that team working in the student context is different to in the work environment. Over the past few years, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education has produced “benchmark statements” for bachelor’s degrees with honours, which describe the nature and characteristics of these programmes (http://www.qaa.ac.uk/ academicinfrastructure/benchmark/honours/default.asp). The computing, general business and management and librarianship and information management subject areas all include elements of team working, for example, from computing:

“the ability to work as a member of a development team, recognising the different roles within a team and different ways of organising teams.” (Education 2007);

“effective performance, within a team environment, including leadership, team building, influencing and project management skills” (Education 2007); and from librarianship and information management:

“Work in groups or teams as a leader or participate in a way that contributes effectively to the group’s tasks” (Education 2000)

Using Hyland and Johnson’s mantra (1998), these benchmark statements provide the context within which team working skills should be enabled. For example in the computing domain, an experience of working as a member of a team developing software is to be provided. Individual reflection will then form the basis of encouraging students to think about the ways in which they operated in this experience, and how successful it was, in order to be able to articulate about the experience later (Edwards 2005). A team project in the computing or information systems context encompasses certain practical skills as well as the softer skills of team working, such as negotiation and compromise. QAA and BCS cite team working skills as learning outcomes, but Joy (2005) suggests that only skills such as programming in a particular language or web site design can be assessed as learning skills against given criteria, the softer skills cannot be readily measured.

A trial by Dunne and Rawlins (2000) of a series of modules to promote team working skills at university, in conjunction with the company BP, has shown that structured training in team skills provides a “safe” learning environment, and as students become responsible for their own learning through team working, they are better prepared for lifelong learning. Skills for co-located team working are well documented, e.g. (Johnson and Johnson 1997; Beranek et al. 2005), but more recently consideration of the essential skills for virtual team working have dominated the literature, and there is acknowledgment that the skills required are different, and need to be learned by virtual team workers (Maznevski and DiStefano 2000).

Graduate employability is a term than encompasses several elements, such as knowledge and skills and personal self-esteem. Generic skills also known as transferable skills have varying listings, but most commonly used lists include for example: working in a team, creativity, planning and communication (Dacre Pool and

Sewell 2007). An example list of skills that a team needs to exhibit to be successful is that provided online by Canterbury, Christ Church University:

• Be well led and managed;

• Communicate well;

• Make best use of its resources - most importantly the skills of the team members;

• Establish the means to evaluate how the team is performing.

The flip side of this list is the skills individuals should acquire for successful participation in a team:

• Exercise leadership skills, if necessary;

• Negotiate;

• Be assertive, to put over your points without aggression;

• Manage people and resources;

• Understand how others feel or might act (Canterbury 2003).

All of these are typically expected to be developed to a greater or lesser extent in team project working. Dacre Pool and Sewell (2007) also use the term “emotional intelligence”, which links together an awareness of others with personal reflection as a factor of employability and also suggest that work experience or projects for clients will play a part in developing employability skills. However, Hyland and Johnson (1998) argue that transferable, generic, core, key skills cannot exist outside of a context, but should be replaced by talk of curriculum experiences. Any suggestion of a general skill should be closely related to the context with its associated body of knowledge.

Team skills are clearly regarded as important for team working, so it could be argued that experience in team working, where skills can be developed should form a part of the preparation for team working. There are many sources of guidance for students to help them to learn team working on campus, e.g. (Fellers 1996; O'Sullivan et al. 1996; Drew and Bingham 1997).

The desire of employers for graduates with transferable skills in team working has driven much of the curriculum development in the past 20 years, but defining skills

and how they can be learned is problematical. In the context of information systems or computing, team working encompasses various practical skills, such as programming, design, analysis and project management, as well as softer skills such as people management, negotiation, listening and communication. Providing the opportunity to gain experience of team working, and practice these skills is the primary purpose of student team project working.

In the next section there is a discussion of student team projects as a learning activity to develop team working skills alongside practical skills.