Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
Computing education increasingly relies on collaborative project-based learning to prepare students for professional practice. However, educators lack frameworks for understanding how student teams’ value orientations (beliefs about teamwork, communication styles, and authority structures) and technical expertise disparities independently and jointly influence collaboration effectiveness. This mixed-methods case study examines four interdisciplinary graduate teams completing semester-long biomedical modeling projects to address two questions: How do value orientations influence communication patterns and conflict resolution? How do technical expertise disparities affect role distribution and knowledge sharing? Using Team Dynamics Theory as framework, data includes interviews, observations, and validated surveys analyzed through thematic analysis and descriptive statistics. Preliminary findings reveal that balanced or collectivist teams develop strong cohesion and implicit coordination, while individualism-dominant teams maintain distant professional relationships. Technical expertise gaps become complementary strengths when paired with collectivist orientations but create isolating silos in individualist contexts. Communication directness facilitates knowledge transfer across expertise gaps. This work provides computing educators with evidence that team composition fundamentally shapes collaborative outcomes beyond technical skill balance alone. By demonstrating how value-expertise configurations produce distinct collaboration patterns, this research establishes that effective team formation and health diagnosis require assessing both compositional factors. These insights enable instructors to identify at-risk teams early, understand root causes of collaboration breakdowns, and design intentional formation strategies. The findings inform pedagogical approaches that create inclusive learning environments while better preparing students for professional collaboration.
Parth Joshi is a Masters in Computer Information Technology student at Purdue University with a passion for project management and teamwork, especially in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence contexts. His work on topics like Ethical AI education, optimizing team health, and Scaffolded team-based computational modeling contribute to the broader field of improving education within computational contexts. His extensive research in this field as well as industry applications of this work, make him a valuable collaborator who bridges academic rigor with practical solutions.