Industrial models of teamwork: lessons for education

The introduction of the National Curriculum has called for more collaborative group work within education, for example the Design and Technology report of June 1989 (1) makes several mentions of group work. This article intends to contrast the developments in group work in education with the development of group work in industry. The terminology of this area is confusing, for example it is difficult to distinguish between terms such as collaborative group work, cooperative team work and self directed group work. Hence for the purpose of consistency and clarity within this article, group work and teamwork will be used synonymously, and will be defined according to the definition of teamwork provided by Douglas (2), as 'a number of individuals, held in dynamic and functional relationships over short periods of time by agreement to their mutual and combined benefit'.