Enhancing and assessing group and team learning in architecture and related design contexts

Teamwork skills are essential in the design industry where practitioners negotiate oftenconflicting design options in multi-disciplinary teams. Indeed, many of the bodies that accredit design courses explicitly list teamwork skills as essential attributes of design graduates e.g., the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) of the United States and the Institution of Engineers, Australia (IEAust). In addition to the need to meet the demands of the accrediting bodies, there are many reasons for the ubiquitous use of teamwork assignments in design schools. For instance, teamwork learning is seen as being representative of work in practice where design is nearly always a collaborative activity. This report is in eight sections. After this introduction is a summary of the (2) Project Aims and then (3) Objectives; including our major research questions, approach, methodology and expected outcomes. We then turn to the key (4) Actual Outputs and Outcomes and how these align with the project aims, research questions and projected outcomes. Next, considered is the (5) Use and Advance of Existing Knowledge through the review of literature and two national teaching symposiums. Next addressed are the (6) Project Dissemination strategies, before finishing with a summary of the (7) Project evaluation & selected factors influencing outcomes, and finally a brief (8) Conclusion.