Overview

Students rarely arrive with fully developed collaboration skills. This section emphasizes the need to explicitly teach teamwork skills, rather than assuming students will “figure it out” on their own or that they have learned these skills somewhere else along the way.

Why It's Important:

Teaching teamwork skills helps students communicate effectively, resolve conflicts, and hold each other accountable - skills that are essential in both academic and professional settings.

Core Skills to Teach

  • Listening and turn-taking protocols
  • Conflict navigation and recovery
  • Giving and receiving constructive feedback
  • Project management including planning work, managing deadlines, and dividing up tasks

Psychological Safety Practices

Team success strongly correlates with psychological safety. Add:

  • Opportunities to normalize speaking up
  • Team norms around respect
  • "No interrupting" rules
  • Rotating facilitators to ensure all voices are heard