Overview:

Effective teams don’t happen by accident. The way teams are formed can have a lasting impact on group dynamics, equity, and outcomes. This section outlines strategies for forming teams that maximize diversity, balance skills, and prevent common pitfalls like social clustering or tokenism.

Why It's Important:

Intentional team formation helps ensure that all students have a positive, productive experience and that teams benefit from a range of perspectives.

Recommended Formation Strategies
Approach
When to Use
Notes
Instructor-assigned formation
When diversity of perspectives is key
Prevents social clustering and inequity
Student self-selected formation
When morale and speed are important
Risk: homogenous thinking and exclusion patterns
Randomly-selected formation
Before an assignment is published
Canvas has feature for creating and randomly assigning groups, as well as the option to reassign group members if needed

 

Additional Tips

  • Research suggests forming groups of 4-6 members to ensure diverse perspectives, but not too many members that makes coordinating meetings and tasks more challenging.
  • Balance skills, personality types, GPA, schedule constraints, student demographics. Consider distributing a Team Formation Survey to gather this information for assigning groups intentionally.
  • Rotate roles (project manager, quality control, recorder, etc.) across the term to avoid dominance patterns. Avoid gendered task distribution (e.g., women taking “note-taking roles”). Include reminders so that students remember to rotate the roles.

Background Variables to Consider in Formation:

  • Work styles: planners vs improvisors
  • Introversion vs. extroversions
  • Prior coursework
  • Leadership tendencies

 

See One Drive Folder for Sample Team Formation Survey