Teamwork, the pending subject of Spanish students
The teamwork It is one of the most necessary skills of the human being. The social aspect and the advantages of synergy in these cases mean that the skills to reach objectives jointly should be encouraged, in a group where each member contributes his or her bit. A task that should be encouraged from the school and throughout the years.
However, according to the latest data from the PISA report, it seems that Spanish students suspend in the teamwork. The numbers offered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, the students of this country are behind the European average as far as this capacity is concerned. Although it should be noted that some communities approve in this regard.
Team work in Spain
The PISA report data has taken into account the numbers of 32 countries that make up the OECD and 20 others that do not. On average, this study calculates the teamwork capacity of the students who have integrated this work in 500 points. In this case, Spain moves away, although not by much, from this weighting to obtain a score of 496 points.
Of course, not all the autonomous communities that make up Spain suspend. The Community of Madrid is positioned as the territory where the students most dominates this skill after obtaining a total of 519 points, followed by Castilla y León with 517. The third place is shared by Navarra and Catalonia with 505 points.
Estremadura it is the community that is the furthest away from the average of the PISA report with 474 basis points. Andalusia is positioned as the second Spanish territory where the students least dominate teamwork after having obtained 483 points. This podium closes the Canary Islands with 484. Note that except for the communities mentioned in the previous paragraph, no other reaches the 500 points of the OECD.
Going outside, Singapore it is the country that best notes presents in this study with an average of 561 points. In second place also appears an Asian nation, Japan with 552 points and in the third place Hong Kong is presented with 541. As for the territories in which less is committed to teamwork, Tunisia has the lowest score: 382 , Brazil appears as penultimate with 412 and Montenegro closes this podium of the tail with 416.
Benefits of teamwork
Andreas Schleicher, responsible for the PISA report highlights the need for the education system of all these nations to bet on teamwork within the classrooms. The data of this work reveal that only 8% of the participating students would be able to solve a problem where a group dynamics was required. "Even in the country with the best score, Singapore, only one in five students achieves this goal," concludes Schleicher.
Teamwork can also be taught, as the University of Vic, entity that offers a series of tips to inculcate these skills:
- Students must be clear about the objectives and encourage them to discover what each one of them can contribute to conquer the goals. In this way, debate and communication will be encouraged, discovering what can be offered to the group to make it better and stronger.
- Definition of roles. Once the qualities that each one of them has been identified, the work will have to be divided into different roles, which, although they are responsible for different tasks, will also have to encourage communication and synergies.
- Change of dynamics. Do not let students work only with these partners. They must learn to manage themselves in different dynamics and also foster the ability to adapt to other groups. In this way they will also know what they can contribute in each situation.
Damián Montero
