Main problems in team work and solving methods: Cooperative Learning as a challenge in the training of future teachers

Abstract

The objective of this research has been to analyze which are the main problems of university students of Education, as well as to know what have been their main means of solving these problems. For this purpose, a total of 203 opinions of future teachers were collected, who were asked about their problems in team work, as well as the solution they carried out to solve them. The results point to a series of problems in team work, mainly highlighting the low involvement of some members of the group, poor management and organization of time, difficulties in agreeing on schedules, complications in equitably distributing the parts of the work, as well as the lack of communication. Likewise, as the main modes of conflict-solving, students highlight some active modes such as calm dialogue, attempts to improve coordination and communication through various channels, talking with the teacher, being more forceful in dialogue or showing disagreement with decisions made; and some passive modes such as assuming the parts of others so as not to suffer the consequences of not doing the task, or doing nothing to solve the problem. After a correspondence analysis, a significant association was observed between certain problems and their respective intervention guidelines, and these can be divided into 2 groups: problems related to work performance, and problems related to the connection of the members. For each group, the main intervention guidelines for action were observed. Finally, these results have important implications in the training of university teachers, as well as in the initial training of teachers.