Teambuilding: Creating a

Community of Caring and Inclusion

Christa Shier
CSS 563 Action Research Presentation

Questions:
Does team building effect group cohesion and students sense of belonging?

Do they feel comfortable sharing ideas in their field groups? Does teambuilding affect these themes in positive ways?

Literature Review
Team building had the strongest impact on affective and process outcomes. Teams that are experiencing negative affective issues, such as a lack of cohesion, can benefit from team building. Team building is an intervention designed around targeting problems that arise in teams during performance, such as a lack of cohesion or trust. (Shuffler, DiazGranados, & Salas, 2011) If we want our youth to develop teamwork, we need to provide them group activities or projects where they can experience cooperation with others. (Park, 2004)

Literature Review
The focus of a team-building exercise is often not directly related to a groups actual work, the benefits are highly relevant: teams come away with higher emotional capacity and thus a greater ability to respond to emotional challenges (Druskat & Wolff, 2001). Team members nurtured a sense of community that promoted respect and responsibility. They accomplished these successes by creating a classroom learning community that featured shared responsibility, team building and by creating a knowledge-centered environment that connected inquiry, collaboration, and real-world experiences.(Strahan & Layell, 2006)

Methods
My research was conducted over two teaching weeks and with three different schools. -Two three day programs -One five day program Each group was given a Likert Scale questionnaire with five statements. They were asked to select from a scale of Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree in response to various statements about their feelings about various themes. The themes centered around inclusion, familiarity with group members, caring, listening and comfort sharing ideas within the group.

Methods
Each group played games to get to know each other and create a positive group environment during their first day on campus. We spent 30-45 minutes doing team building activities where students needed to work together and solve problems. Other teambuilding activities were used throughout the day. Students completed an identical Post-experience questionnaire to measure changes in responses.

Analysis of Results
Numerical values to the responses of the questionnaires were assigned as follows:

Strongly Disagree -2
Disagree -1 Neutral 0 Agree +1 Strongly Agree +2
Box plots and paired sample t-tests were run to check for statistical significance.

Inclusion
I feel included in this field group
t = 0, df = 19, p-value = 1 alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0 95 percent confidence interval: -0.5474811 0.5474811

Familiarity
I feel like I know the other members of this group.
t = -0.3258, df = 19, pvalue = 0.7481 alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0 95 percent confidence interval: -0.3712136 0.2712136 sample estimates: mean of the differences -0.05

Caring
I feel like my teammates care about me
t = -0.8254, df = 19, p-value = 0.4194 alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0 95 percent confidence interval: -0.5303683 0.2303683 sample estimates: mean of the differences -0.15

I feel like the other people in this group listen to me

t = -3.5838, df = 19, p-value = 0.00198 alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0 95 percent confidence interval: -0.8712136 0.2287864 sample estimates: mean of the differences -0.55

Listening

Comfort in Sharing Ideas

I feel comfortable sharing my ideas in this group
t = -0.9251, df = 19, pvalue = 0.3665 alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0 95 percent confidence interval: -0.8156059 0.3156059 sample estimates: mean of the differences -0.25

Discussion
The only statistically significant difference in responses related to the theme of listening.
Students felt an increase in support within the group when it came to feeling listened to.

Other themes measured were not statistically significant, but tended to have more positive responses overall.

Limitations
Two of the three groups surveyed were 3 day programs, one of which was cotaught. Difference in age and mixed gender groups for the samples

Team building opportunities not equal for all groups due to time constraints (daily and weekly)
Spectrum of the study was very broad and covered many themes

Reflections
Given the limitations discussed, further research should be done in depth with specific themes mentioned here. More time to see effects of team building and more time devoted to team building activities. Are some themes more important or applicable than others at this age? How much does the instructor influence these themes?

Questions?

References
Druskat, V. U., & Wolff, S. B. (2001). Building the emotional intelligence of groups. Harvard business review, 79(3), 8090, 164. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11246926 Park, N. (2004). Character Strengths and Positive Youth Development. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 591(1), 4054. doi:10.1177/0002716203260079 Shuffler, M. L., DiazGranados, D., & Salas, E. (2011). Theres a Science for That: Team Development Interventions in Organizations. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(6), 365372. doi:10.1177/0963721411422054 Strahan, D. B., & Layell, K. (2006). Connecting Caring and Action through Responsive Teaching How One Team Accomplished Success in a Struggling Middle School, 147154.