How it Works and Benefits

Program can be initiated and/or completed during orientation. If orientation is a for-fee event, this program can become a budget-neutral value for the school by simply passing on the cost to the student (less than $3). One option is to provide the educational booklet during orientation and then have the residence hall R.A. complete the DVD watching and small group discussion. This approach helps to build inclusion and sense of community within the hall. Another approach is to complete the entire program during orientation, but this would require the student to read the booklet (40-55 minutes) during orientation. Either way, students are prepared for working on team projects in their classes.

Most schools require R.A.s (student mentors) to complete six or more activities with their students over the course of the year. An emerging and important objective of R.A. programming is to build inclusion and diversity awareness on their floor(s) – a core strength of this program. In addition, the program was designed with R.A. implementation in mind. Because the movie and discussion segment is highly structured, a trained facilitator is not required. This design enables a school to broadly implement the program with relative ease. What’s more: Virtually all future R.A.s will already be partially trained in the program as this year’s freshmen become the stock from which future R.A.s are sourced. Finally, the program includes an exercise for roommates to help them build a relationship and minimize sources of tension, which is another objective addressed through this program.

If you are the Dean of Student Affairs, then you will appreciate a program that is integrative, addresses multiple objectives, and brings together your core departments to work together and build synergy. This program provides a great opportunity for your leaders within Residential Life, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, Freshman Orientation, Student Retention, Learning Communities, Student Activities, and other areas to craft a highly effective program implementation that serves multiple agendas. This program is no panacea, but it is does help you build that important foundation for a great first year experience.

If you are the leader in charge of building multicultural competency and diversity appreciation and of reducing incidents of intolerance, this program can serve as a great first step. Best of all, it equally includes and interests the dominant culture (usually Anglos) and people from minority identity groups. Its content and experiential activity can stimulate demand for your existing programming as students understand that diversity awareness and understanding can translate into greater achievement during college and beyond.

More and more professors and instructors are responding to the need for students to develop team skills. With pedagogies increasingly rooted in project work, students will be well served if they receive a primer in team skills. Exploring Teamwork Essentials provides this primer, repeat-ably and reliably across the entire freshman class if desired. And it does so quickly at the onset of the freshman year. It takes this burden off your professors and instructors.

There is no data currently to support the premise that this program improves retention. However, the Exploring Teamwork Essentials program addresses, even if in a small way, many retention-guided research conclusions drawn from the Making Excellence Inclusive© initiative, commissioned by the AAC&U. Taken verbatim: Need to enact diversity in intentional ways that enhance students' intercultural competency, cognitive complexity, and ability to work in diverse groups. Need to engage the entire campus community in conceiving of, carrying out, and assessing a comprehensive process to enact diverse learning environments. Lower perceived levels of institutional commitment to diversity are accompanied by higher perceived levels of perceived hostility and discrimination and are associated with low grades for African American students, feelings of isolation among Native American students, higher levels of alienation among all students, and lower scores on college adjustment and sense of belonging among Latino students. Conversely, higher perceived levels of institutional commitment to diversity are associated with perceptions of relatively low racial tension among African America, Chicano, and to some extent, white students. Higher perceived levels of commitment have also been shown to be associated with higher reported grade-point averages and increases in personal goals to promote racial understanding. Islands of innovation with too little influence on institutional structures - One can frequently identify educational innovations, but rarely can one detect structures that link them. Accordingly, the impact of these innovations is isolated rather than pervasive. And with so many individual diversity initiatives springing up like daffodils in the springtime, people long for coherence, cohesion, and collaboration. The disconnect between diversity and educational excellence - Although we know meaningful engagement with diversity benefits students educationally, little has been done to create a comprehensive framework for excellence that incorporates diversity at its core. The development of interracial friendship is particularly important because friendship represents the context of racial contact that is most likely to be characterized by equal status between individuals. Institutions with a student population of traditional age can minimize the impact of barriers [to racial interaction] with policies focused on first-year students, since the first year is the period when friendship selection is the dominant aspect of the student’s social life. The Exploring Teamwork Essentials program provides schools with an important step in the right direction, one that aligns with all of the above conclusions. During the freshmen year, it can improve perceptions of commitment to diversity and can improve inclusion and feelings of belonging, especially among traditionally underserved populations.

It is our general belief that the process of leadership development consists primarily of self-awareness, education, and practice. One needs to become aware of their personal style and its impacts on others as well as to gain actual experience leading. It stands to reason that without followers we have no leaders. Most schools understand this and utilize student groups, clubs, and organizations as the crucible for developing leadership skills. Through an examination of attributes that impact team performance and of differences in how team members can define respectful behavior, the Exploring Teamwork Essentials program also serves as a leadership development primer.

Several research conclusions and recommendations were born out of this initiative, commissioned by the AAC&U, including (verbatim): Need to enact diversity in intentional ways that enhance students' intercultural competency, cognitive complexity, and ability to work in diverse groups. Need to engage the entire campus community in conceiving of, carrying out, and assessing a comprehensive process to enact diverse learning environments. Lower perceived levels of institutional commitment to diversity are accompanied by higher perceived levels of perceived hostility and discrimination and are associated with low grades for African American students, feelings of isolation among Native American students, higher levels of alienation among all students, and lower scores on college adjustment and sense of belonging among Latino students. Conversely, higher perceived levels of institutional commitment to diversity are associated with perceptions of relatively low racial tension among African America, Chicano, and to some extent, white students. Higher perceived levels of commitment have also been shown to be associated with higher reported grade-point averages and increases in personal goals to promote racial understanding. Islands of innovation with too little influence on institutional structures - One can frequently identify educational innovations, but rarely can one detect structures that link them. Accordingly, the impact of these innovations is isolated rather than pervasive. And with so many individual diversity initiatives springing up like daffodils in the springtime, people long for coherence, cohesion, and collaboration. The disconnect between diversity and educational excellence - Although we know meaningful engagement with diversity benefits students educationally, little has been done to create a comprehensive framework for excellence that incorporates diversity at its core. The development of interracial friendship is particularly important because friendship represents the context of racial contact that is most likely to be characterized by equal status between individuals. Institutions with a student population of traditional age can minimize the impact of barriers [to racial interaction] with policies focused on first-year students, since the first year is the period when friendship selection is the dominant aspect of the student’s social life. The Exploring Teamwork Essentials program provides schools with an important step in the right direction, one that aligns with all of the above conclusions. In the freshmen year, it can improve perceptions of commitment to diversity, and can improve feelings of belonging, especially among traditionally underserved populations.

The appendix of the student booklet contains an activity for roommates. Its purpose is to begin the process of building a friendship and forging understanding of respectful and disrespectful behavior. One intended outcome is fewer squabbles which require R.A. intervention or which create negative energy in general. The activity first surfaces positivity: 1) Describe your closest friend growing up. Why are you so close? and 2) Describe a perfect day. What are you doing? It then safely moves into danger zones (What are your top 2-3 pet peeves, the little behaviors that irk you most) before steering toward specific topics (borrowing clothes, food, quiet time, etc). It concludes with questions that can surface common ground (favorite music, websites, foods, things they find scary, etc.).

The Policy Center’s Foundations of Excellence® program utilizes nine Foundational Dimensions® in formulating a model “that provides institutions with a means to evaluate and improve the first year of college.” Their Diversity dimension defined: “Foundations Institutions ensure that all first-year students experience diverse ideas, worldviews, and cultures as a means of enhancing their learning and preparing them to become members of pluralistic communities.” For institutions which aspire to its realization, the Exploring Teamwork Essentials program engages students in dialogue to surface varying perspectives to relevant questions such as, “Why is there poverty and suffering in the world?”, “What is the greatest human quality?”, “What is the meaning to life?” The conversations are structured specifically to honor all viewpoints and perspectives. Note: This program is not endorsed by the Policy Center

Since these structured learning experiences seek to prepare freshmen for first year success, they likely include the development of team skills and diversity understanding in the curriculum. As an alternative to implementing within residence halls, incorporating the Exploring Teamwork Essentials program into the curriculum could be achieved by devoting two class periods – one for the movie and debrief and the second for the small group activity.

If learning communities are based on the premise that quasi-teams of students sharing classes and living quarters will achieve a stronger education, then the Exploring Teamwork Essentials program is a great first step toward making these communities highly functional. Participants will gain team skills, diversity understanding and appreciation, and more inclusive attitudes - simultaneously and together.

Inclusion can mean two things. First, there’s inclusion of voice in the carrying out of the institution’s mission. To be inclusive is to live participative practices and democratic ideals. Second, there’s inclusion of all people within a community, a residence hall, a campus. No one feels left out, shunned. Exploring Teamwork Essentials builds the latter. Differences are less prone to be a magnet for rejection. Differences in capabilities, personal styles and preferences become neutral, if not a regarded as a potential source of strength.

Foreign students are likely to possess greater anxiety than their American counterparts. Culture shock and language barriers can add to the stress of assimilating into campus life. This program provides insight into Western (Anglo) communication norms (with reference to a great website), which may prove especially helpful as they learn to adapt. Conversely, American students may become more inclusive as a result of the program and more readily form friendships with foreign students.