AC 2011-772: THE EFFECT OF PREVIOUS TEAM EXPERIENCES ON STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF INTERDISCIPLINARY ENGINEERING PROBLEMS

With a growing number of interdisciplinary engineering programs and courses, researchers are beginning to characterize interdisciplinary learning objectives, student development in these programs and courses, and the dynamics of interdisciplinary engineering teamwork. Focusing on students at the very beginning of the major coursework, this study examined second-year students‟ perceptions of interdisciplinary engineering project teams. In addition, the study attempted to define the conditions which give rise to those perceptions. Focus groups provided a setting for students to discuss the composition, the advantages, and the disadvantages of interdisciplinary engineering teams in the context of a real-world engineering problem. Followup interviews allowed the researcher to clarify comments made within the focus groups and address potential factors, which could have influenced students‟ responses during the focus groups. Qualitative analysis was used to identify emergent themes or categories within the discussions. Results from this analysis indicate that students acknowledge the importance of communication, trust, and mutual respect when working on an interdisciplinary engineering project. Overall, students focused on the components of team dynamics when discussing the major advantages and disadvantages of interdisciplinary team projects. In addition, students‟ previous experiences on team projects were shown to directly affect their responses to the questions throughout both stages of the study.