Introducing teamworking workshops to enhance the effectiveness of interdisciplinary design education

Donald Norman (2010), in his article titled Why Design Education Must Change, advocated an interdisciplinary approach in design pedagogy that allows us to nurture “[…] new kinds of designers, people who can work across disciplines […].” In order for designers to function effectively in the increasingly complex society we live in, it is imperative that they operate in interdisciplinary teams, to collaborate and coordinate with experts from different fields. This implies that designers will need to be equipped with project management and teamwork skills. In the case of the Faculty of Design in LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore, the push for interdisciplinarity manifested itself in an initiative in the Bachelor’s programme termed Clusters. Students from different design programmes worked in interdisciplinary groups on briefs that were designed to harness the strengths of the various disciplines. Teamworking challenges were observed and reported during the inaugural run of Clusters. It is commonly assumed that students will develop teamworking skills organically in the process to overcome these challenges (Larson, et al., 2015). However, without equipping students with these skills, issues are bound to surface that can affect the success of such interdisciplinary projects. The paper focuses on the teamwork-oriented approach of the second cycle of Clusters, during which workshops were introduced to prevent and circumvent teamwork problems identified. Tucker’s (2016) “Input-Process-Output Framework of Effectiveness in Student Design Teams” was adapted to develop a model that categorises various tools and exercises aimed at addressing challenges during the different processes of a teamworking experience. This paper concludes with the insights gathered from the teaching of teamwork skills. The model, tools and exercises presented are of value to design educators and curriculum managers who seek to improve students’ perception of teamwork and development of teamwork skills.