Mutual Gains from Team Learning: A Guided Design Classroom Exercise

Proponents of classroom- and team-based exercises argue that structured group problem-solving activities enhance student learning. A team-based, guided design exercise conducted annually from 1985 to 2002 supports the claim that teams are much more likely to reach superior decisions than individual students left to their own knowledge. However, a very small percentage of teams were not successful reaching a learning goal and an equally small number of highly competent individuals found themselves worse off, in terms of a team versus individual solution, after a team exercise. Nevertheless, the overall evidence validates the team-based approach to problem solving as a useful active learning strategy in the classroom.