Engineering Education Commons^™

Integrate A Conflict Resolution Session Into The Freshman Engineering Problem Solving Course To Improve Students’ Ability To Solve Interpersonal Team Conflicts, Xinyu Zhang, Jeremy G. Roberts

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The project-based freshman engineering course entitled “Engineering Problem Solving I” in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program (FEP) at West Virginia University (WVU) requires students to work in teams to complete engineering design projects. Many students are lacking in their team dynamics, particularly in handling inter-team conflicts, which can seriously hinder their learning and future coping with conflict. When a conflict happened within a team, students hesitated to enforce their team charters, which defines the project parameters and the team’s standard of conduct. Some students avoided confronting the difficult team members, some waited for the instructor to handle the issues for …