Karl Smith gave an invited talk at the 2015 Summer Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers at their meeting in College Park, Maryland on July 28, 2015.

The Session was Research on Teamwork, and his talk with titled Teamwork: Insights from 40 Years of Research and Practice.

Systematic research on teamwork (or groupwork as it is referred to by many researchers) has been conducted for well over 40 years. I started experimenting with cooperative learning in my engineering classes in the early 70s. Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning. High performance teamwork is at the heart of effective use of cooperative learning. I’ll summarize key findings of the research that informed the implementation of cooperative learning as well as the development of Teamwork and project management, now in its 4th edition. As physics instruction shifts to an increasing use of challenge-based learning (e.g., problem based, SCALE-UP, inquiry based, etc.) understanding and implementing effective teamwork is essential.