Impact of Work Experience on Engineering Graduate Students' Teamwork Skills, Knowledge, and Terminology Usage

Many studies seek to understand teamwork skill development, and teamwork is a core concept in engineering education. Whether teamwork skills are effectively developed in the classroom or whether additional training is needed, however, is not always clear. This study seeks to answer this question by examining the understanding and implementation of teamwork skills by two groups of engineering master's degree students. The first group is defined as Returners, individuals who spent five or more years in industry before returning to university to obtain a master's degree. The second group is defined as Direct Pathway students, who spent less than five years between degrees. Several comments in the data collected in a study comparing Returners and Direct Pathway students indicated a potential difference in how the two groups work in teams. Thus, this work sought to determine whether work experience has an impact on how teamwork skills are developed. A survey was completed by approximately 300 engineering master's degree students at multiple universities throughout the United States, and 41 students were interviewed. Fixed choice survey questions asked participants to rank their confidence in various team-and group-related activities. Free-response questions and interviews were used for further insight on teamwork skills and knowledge. Returners were more confident in their skills for every teamwork -related activity. Returners were also more likely to use the word "team "in survey responses, as opposed to Direct Pathway students who largely used "group. "Interviews showed that group work is common in academia, whereas teamwork is a central concept of engineering in industry. Academic institutions should develop programs that better prepare students for teamwork in industry. Current programs focus primarily on group work, rather than teamwork. Significant differences exist in terminology used to describe multi-person collaboration depending on work experience levels and the collaborative context.