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Abstract - Since the capability to work in teams, both flexibility as traits that depend on (inter)personal attitudes
national and international, has become a key requirement rather than viewing them as skills, although their expression
on computer science graduates, we have been exploring may well require a skill. Equally, we cannot comply to view
ways in which to support students in enhancing this communication as a skill only, since, if it is authentic, it tends
capability during their studies. In this paper we share our to reflect the inner world of values and attitudes of a person.
approach, ‘philosophy’, and learning from the preceding However, we fully comply with the ALL framework in
years regarding the development of team competence as viewing communication as the basis for more specific
part of person centered, technology enhanced, active competencies such as decision making or seeking mutually
learning courses such as “Communication and Soft Skills agreeable solutions. Having said this we highly appreciate the
in Project Management”. We provide students’ reactions ALL framework as a tractable means for deriving instruments
and the results of quantitative studies on component that help us to study significant aspects of teamwork.
competencies identified in the ALL framework such as An original idea in our approach to developing team
group decision making, adaptability/flexibility, competencies is to build upon the Person Centered Approach
interpersonal relations, and communication. We hope that [3, 4-8] and to promote person centered attitudes, namely
our findings can throw some light on the potentialities, congruence/genuineness, acceptance or respect, and empathic
limitations, preconditions, options, and effects of understanding. It has been proved in several studies that
promoting aspects of team competence in academic person centered attitudes form the basis for constructive
settings. communication and mutually supportive interpersonal
relationships [3, 9-12]. Our hypothesis is that they also
Index Terms - teamwork, team competencies, communication, constitute the baseline for (transnational) team competence.
Person Centered Learning This appears to be consistent with the ALL teamwork
framework in so far as ALL considers communication and
INTRODUCTION interpersonal relationships as component skills. We view these
Unlike team building that aims to create a good team from a skills as expressions of respective attitudes that are held/ lived
number of given team members, the development of team by the facilitator/educator and thus can be experienced and
competence in each single person or student is much more acquired by students. Consequently, person centered attitudes
generic. It is referred to as team competence at the individual can be seen to flow into or influence aspects of team
level [1]. The goal of this paper is to trace the effects that ancompetence as identified in the ALL framework.
active learning course on Communication and Soft Skills in The next section introduces Person Centered Learning
Project Management had on the participants’ development of and illustrates it by tracing four technology enhanced, active
team competence at the individual level. In order to learning scenarios that provide space for facilitators and
complement and to some degree ‘objectify’ the students’ students to live and express person centered attitudes.
unstructured, written reactions, we build on the ALL (Adult Students’ reactions are included to illustrate some effects of
Literacy and Lifeskills) [2] teamwork framework that views the scenarios from the recipients’ points of view. Section three
team competence as being composed of component summarizes the ALL teamwork framework, and section four
competencies. These lie on the level of knowledge (about describes the study and discusses the results of quantitative
teams and team processes), skills such as effective studies on component competencies identified in the ALL
communication and decision making, and attitudes towards framework such as group decision making, adaptability/
teamwork. While we find the component competencies as flexibility, interpersonal relations, and aspects of team
identified in the ALL teamwork framework highly relevant communication. The paper aims to illustrate, to inspire, and to
and appropriate to be used in studies, we differ in the study a way of significant learning that has the potential to
categorization of component competencies under the labels of increase students’ generic capabilities to work in teams.
skills and attitudes. For example, we’d consider openness and Furthermore we discuss the influence of person centered
1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI
37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference
F2G-15
Session F2G
attitudes on teamwork and other influence factors that, in our Promoting active listening
experience, appeared to affect the development of specific
Students are asked to read a brief article on active listening
team skills held at the individual level.
that we provide as an online resource [15]. The subsequent
PERSON CENTERED LEARNING: BASELINE AND active listening exercise is intended to raise knowledge and
ILLUSTRATIVE SCENARIOS skills in good listening and, most importantly, influence the
participants’ attitudes towards listening. In the spirit of
Person Centered Learning builds upon humanistic educational experiential learning, students are asked to form teams of three
principles. It has been developed by the American persons, in which one shares some personally meaningful
psychologist Carl Rogers [3, 4] as an application of Rogers’s experience, another person listens and the third person
Person Centered Approach (PCA). Person Centered Learning observes the communication. Then the ‘roles’ are switched
is an experiential, significant kind of learning that “combines such that each person gets a turn as speaker, listener and
the logical and the intuitive, the intellect and the feelings, the observer. Participants then share their experiences and insights
concept and the experience, the idea and the meaning. When in class and the facilitator actively listens to each voice.
we learn in that way, we are whole." [3] A student commented in his reaction sheet: “The listening
Person Centered Learning is characterized by active exercise was astonishing. I had the evidently rare feeing that
participation of students in all aspects of a course, including someone had really been listening. This had the effect that I
setting learner-centered goals, evaluation, and decision experienced a perceivable relaxation in one aspect of my
making on aspects that are not preset by the curriculum. We problem.”
view the open, inclusive, empowering, self-responsible, and „I tried intentionally not to give any advice or propose
yet relationship-focused tendencies inherent in the PCA as solutions to my partner. Only when taking care about that I
smoothly complementing the open spaces and free contacts realized how hard it was and to what extent I usually reacted
enabled by current web-based environments. that way.”
Research in the PCA showed [3, 9, 13, 14] that students “As an observer I found it difficult just to observe and not
enrich and deepen their learning with personal growth if they to say anything. As listener, it was an insightful experience not
learn in an atmosphere in which the facilitator (instructor, to drive the conversation into a particular direction, not to give
teacher, etc.) communicates three core attitudinal conditions hints, and not to drive the focus onto oneself.”
that students can perceive at least to some degree [4]. These
core conditions are: Reaction Sheets
• Realness, with synonyms such as congruence, openness, Online reaction sheets serve to capture and subsequently to
transparency, genuineness, or authenticity; share any kind of reflections, comments or reactions students
• Acceptance, else referred to as respect, unconditional have in response to a course unit. The reactions are written
positive regard, caring attitude, concern for the individual; within a few days after a course unit and are intended to be
• Empathic understanding, a deep form of understanding of shared, read, and discussed in the forthcoming unit. In our
the meanings as well as feelings of the learner. experience, reaction sheets are simple and effective means to
engage students as whole persons, or in other words, at all
Person Centered Learning derives its motivational forces levels of learning. The concept is almost trivial and
from living person centered attitudes and expressing them in technologically simple to implement. Despite or perhaps as a
all facets of the course. For example, acceptance or respect is consequence of this simplicity it can be applied for improving
expressed by including students in as many decisions the quality of a course under two essential conditions. Firstly,
regarding the course as possible. Due to their participatory students are willing to openly share themselves. Secondly,
mode, person centered courses bear in themselves the educators are – and, due to sufficient space provided by the
unexpected, the chance to learn or grow from situations and curriculum, can be – sufficiently open to students’
interpersonal relationships in the “here and now”. As will be perceptions. With reaction sheets the real challenge lies in the
illustrated below, person centered education requires a large interpersonal handling of the reactions and acting upon the
amount of internal flexibility as well as trust in both facilitator expressed feelings, meanings, observation, suggestions of
and students. Consequently, personal resourcefulness of the students.
facilitator and his or her relationship with students has There exist multiple issues that keep motivating us to use
significant influence on the students’ learning. This, along reaction sheets in several courses. Primarily we wish to
with the insight that facilitators equally learn in the facilitation inspire/cause students to consciously reflect on a course unit,
experience, causes us to prefer the term “person centered” to find inner meanings and support us in shaping the course
rather than “student centered” or “learner centered”. The according to the needs of all participants. Students are
current paper shares four generic scenarios that provide space encouraged to participate in a group effort to bring the course
for the core conditions to be expressed at least to some degree. onto a track that unanimously satisfies the needs of the group
Furthermore, we illustrate the effects of the course on team viewed as a whole. Furthermore, students are intended to
competences held at the individual level following the ALL practice giving open, yet constructive feedback and to
framework. experience how their feedback/reaction is perceived by others.
Equally, to experience that what they leave unsaid is either
1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI
37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference
F2G-16
Session F2G
voiced by another student (and they may explore, “So why moderated by the facilitator who applies various moderation
have I not written/said this?”), or not addressed explicitly. elements such as elaborating topics in small teams, group
Students and educators can enter an open dialogue, however, discussion, moderation card sequences. The subsequent
not completely from scratch but by being previously informed workshops are then moderated by teams of three to four
about perceptions and issues that have had some time to students who get access to a knowledge base with soft skills
mature before being brought up in the group. An advantage of topics. Once they elaborate a concept for their 2.5 – 3 hour
submitting reactions online is that every student, even the active learning workshop they meet with the facilitator for a
more shy or quiet one, has equal “voice” and can “speak up” consultation session to align the workshop topics, activities
to become better known to the group. The subsequent dialogue and discuss the proposed exercises and their interpretation.
in class can be joined by anybody and is intended to share The richness of learning possibilities that arise from the
what meaning the collective feedback had on individual moderated workshops and their careful reflection is hard to be
persons. put into words. Successful and equally less successful
For example, a student reflected on the practice of having elements and processes offer almost unconstrained sources for
reaction sheets: “I liked the fact that we discussed the reaction learning from experience, mistakes, feelings, meanings,
sheets in the beginning of the course unit. This way it was insights, the group process, feedback, reflection, etc. Recently,
possible to have a smooth transition into the next course unit.” a student described her experience from moderating a course
Another student noted: “In the beginning of the unit we unit with the following words: “The design of a workshop unit
discussed the reactions. I found this quite good, because on turned out to be a challenging task. It was not easy to decide
this basis one can see that they are being considered seriously which materials to include. It requires considerable time to get
and are respected.” an overview over the theme and once this is accomplished
Summarizing, the web-enhanced reaction sheet scenario everything appears necessary to capture the whole context.
offers feedback potentials that optimally complement The next really challenging issue was to moderate the
discussion and dialogue in class. The educator’s way of workshop over a considerable time period which I had never
introducing and employing reaction sheets (as well as, to a practiced before. But it turned out to be an insightful and
lesser degree, the students’ talents of expressing themselves) useful experience. […]. With such a major task I experienced
largely determines the degree to which this simple but the process of integrating myself into the team and realized
powerful concept turns out to be effective in contributing to how we resolved problems within our team. In my view, our
significant learning. team really grew together in the preparation phase of our unit.
[…] I also considered the constructive criticism after our
Shared Responsibility in the Choice of Topics
workshop more than appropriate to learn/grow from it.”
Group dialogue and decision making are promoted and
practiced along an authentic topic, namely the choice of more TEAM WORK COMPETENCIES AND THE ALL TEAMWORK
specific ‘themes’ in the very broad realm of communication FRAMEWORK AS A BASIS FOR STUDYING TEAMWORK
and soft skills. First we elaborate and discuss the concept of In literature formerly a strong focus lied on identifying generic
soft skills by collecting what students consider to be soft teamwork skills within most teams, but more recently there
skills. Then the facilitator provides some expert opinions and was a shift to identify specific competency requirements of
students are asked to identify the soft competencies they team members [2]. Team competencies are the characteristics
consider most relevant/interesting for themselves. We gather a team member has to have to engage successfully in
and cluster the themes on a flipchart such that any number teamwork [16]. The understanding of the necessary
(say 5-10) of focal topics arises. The facilitator arranges them competencies underlying teamwork is important for selection
in a list and every participant is asked to distribute three bars of personnel, creating and leading team trainings and assessing
among the topics according to his or her preferences. Finally, team performance [1].
we view the results as a starting point of forming small teams According to Cannon-Bower et al. there are three
around the most wanted topics. A student reflects on this important types of team competencies [1]: Knowledge
group decision process: “I was fascinated by the way of Competencies, Attitude Competencies and Skill
building teams. Some persons embodied topics they were Competencies. Knowledge Competencies include e.g. to know
most attracted to and the yet undecided students could move about appropriate team behaviours, roles in a team or the
between the topics until they found the topic of their choice.” team’s goals. Regarding Attitude Competencies positive
In this way nobody needed to be assigned to a topic by the attitudes towards teamwork are important for effective
instructor and everybody could participate in a team project of teamwork or for example mutual trust among members of a
their choice. team. Figure 1 shows the ALL Model for Understanding
Team Moderates Unit Teamwork that refines the Skill Competencies in the form of
behavioural examples.
It is impressive how creative student teams turn out to be
when provided with a resourceful environment and sufficient
free space for action. In the course on Project Management
Communication and Soft Skills, the first three units are
FIGURE 1
ALL MODEL FOR UNDERSTANDING TEAMWORK [2]
FIGURE 5
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS COMPETENCIES OF STUDENTS, N=19
FIGURE 2
TEAMWORK COMPETENCIES OF STUDENTS, N=19 Open sharing and asking of questions was encouraged and
practiced throughout the course. In addition, active and
effective listening was practiced in a specific exercise and