Acquisition of teamwork competence in a hardware course: Perceptions and co-regulation of computer engineering students

In work environments, it is essential for engineers to have a high level of teamwork competence. Therefore, engineering educationprograms aim to provide an environment where students can experience working in teams. In this study, perceptions and co-regulation of computer engineering students regarding teamwork were examined in a hardware course. A teamwork orientedapproach based on individual and group reflections of students was designed and applied during an 8 week project study with theparticipation of 56 sophomore students of a public university in Turkey. In order to analyze different aspects of the teamworkacquisition process, convergent parallel mixed-methods design was utilized by using both quantitative and qualitative data.Quantitative data were collected by co-regulated learning questionnaire which was applied as pretest and posttest, and teamworkevaluation form that was used for self and peer assessment. Qualitative data were gathered by reflections and focus groupinterviews. The findings indicated that teamwork oriented approach had significantly increased co-regulation skills of students andthey gained positive perceptions towards teamwork. Since most of the teamwork studies in computer engineering programs havebeen conducted in software engineering courses, applying a teamwork oriented approach in a hardware course provides a valuablecontribution to the literature.