ERIC Number: EJ1254489
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Oct
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1069-4730
EISSN: N/A
The Role of Robotics Teams' Collaboration Quality on Team Performance in a Robotics Tournament
Menekse, Muhsin; Higashi, Ross; Schunn, Christian D.; Baehr, Emily
Journal of Engineering Education, v106 n4 p564-584 Oct 2017
Background: Working effectively in teams is an important 21st century skill as well as a fundamental component of the ABET professional competencies. However, successful teamwork is challenging, and empirical studies with adolescents concerning how the collaboration quality of team members is related to team performance are limited. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study investigated the relationship between team collaboration quality and team performance in a robotics competition using multiple measures of team performance, including both objective task performance and expert judge evaluations, on a diverse set of supporting performance dimensions. Design/Method: Data included Table Score, Robot Design, Research Project, Core Values, and Collaboration Quality scores for 366 youths on 61 K-8 robotics teams that participated in a FIRST LEGO League Championship. Regression and mediation analyses were conducted to explore the relation between effective team collaboration and team performance. Furthermore, analysis of variance was conducted to explore the relationship between Collaboration Quality and team experience. Results: Collaboration Quality was a good predictor of robotics team performance across all measures (with R[superscript 2] = 0.50 and p < 0.001). Mediation analysis revealed that the Robot Design acted as a full mediator for the predictive effect of Collaboration Quality on the Table Score. In addition, the cumulative amount of team experience was significantly related to Collaboration Quality. Conclusions: Overall, this study using collaboration performance assessments and actual competition data with a large number of teams confirms the importance of high-quality teamwork in producing superior products with students engaged in authentic engineering tasks.
Descriptors: Elementary School Students, Middle School Students, Robotics, Cooperative Learning, Teamwork, Competition, Predictor Variables, Engineering
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A