Chronicle of Higher Education Highlights Lafayette Guide

When a climate study in the Mechanical Engineering Department revealed that students experienced challenges around teamwork, the faculty took action. ME Professors participated in CITLS Inclusive Instructors Academy, attending meetings to learn and discuss strategies for inclusive teaching, setting and implementing goals to foster inclusion, collaborating with colleagues and student partners for feedback.

The outcome? The “Effective Teaming Student Resource Guide”—a collaborative effort led by Dr. Wendy Hill, director of the Hanson Center, and Dr. Tracie Addy, former CITLS director, with support from eight CITLS Student Fellows. The guide is designed to empower students with actionable recommendations for creating successful and inclusive team experiences—both in the classroom and beyond.

Recently highlighted by the The Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching Newsletter, the initiative exemplifies the transformative impact of teamwork on education:
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“Lafayette College’s mechanical-engineering department wanted to make equitable and inclusive teamwork a hallmark of its curriculum. So last year, its professors worked with Tracie Addy, then the head of the college’s teaching center (she is now the founding director of the center at Rutgers University New Brunswick), and Wendy Hill, director of its Center for Inclusive STEM Education. A group of engineering professors were each paired with a student consultant who had been trained to observe and provide feedback on teamwork.

Group work is an important part of a college education. But it can be hard to get right, and many students are primed to dislike it. Recognizing that both the promise and challenges of teamwork extend far beyond one department, Addy and Hill also worked with a group of undergraduates to write a student-facing guide to group work and a related instructor manual. The student guide is free to download with the completion of a brief survey to collect data on its use.”