#team-based learning

Education is evolving beyond textbooks and tests. Today, the focus is on developing curious, confident, and collaborative thinkers. At Tapas Education, we believe collaborative learning is the key to nurturing these essential traits in children. By learning together, students build not only knowledge but also empathy, leadership, and teamwork—skills that will define their success in a changing world.

In traditional classrooms, students often work individually. But in collaborative or team-based learning, the classroom transforms into a space where children share ideas, solve problems together, and take ownership of their learning. This process mirrors how the real world operates. No professional task today happens in isolation—success depends on cooperation, adaptability, and creativity.

Our approach integrates real-world education through meaningful projects. For example, children might work together to design a mini-community garden, research renewable energy, or plan a school recycling initiative. As they work through challenges, they learn science, math, and communication in context. Every activity reinforces core soft skills for kids such as critical thinking, active listening, and self-expression.

This method also builds self-confidence. When children contribute their ideas to a group project, they realize their voice matters. Whether it’s leading a discussion or presenting findings, these small acts of participation foster leadership from within. Learning becomes a shared adventure rather than a solitary task.

At Tapas, our future-ready curriculum ensures that each collaborative project connects to real-life skills. The goal isn’t just academic excellence but personal growth—helping each child discover their strengths, take initiative, and contribute meaningfully to their community.

Parents can extend this at home by encouraging children to take part in joint problem-solving—like planning a family activity, cooking together, or building something creative. These daily opportunities reinforce the power of teamwork and decision-making.

In a world shifting faster than ever, the classroom can’t wait to catch up. At Tapas Education, we believe that collaborative learning isn’t just another teaching method—it’s a fundamental part of how children will thrive in tomorrow’s workplace. Today’s learners need more than facts; they need connection, communication and the ability to adapt. This is exactly where an education built around real-world education, team-based learning, and soft skills for kids comes into play.

What Is Collaborative Learning?

Collaborative learning refers to students working in groups to explore a problem, complete a project or share insights together. Unlike traditional individual-driven work, collaborative tasks invite children to engage, reflect and act together. This mirror’s real life: workplaces, communities and creative teams rarely operate in isolation. What we’re building is a future-ready curriculum that mirrors the world outside the school walls.

Why It Matters Now

The jobs of tomorrow won’t just ask for technical know-how—they’ll demand collaboration, communication, empathy and creative problem-solving. Employers emphasise how well someone can lead a team, adapt when things change, and learn with others. Studies show that collaborative learning boosts these very skills: children develop stronger listening, presentation and peer interaction capabilities.

By embedding collaborative learning early, we aren’t just teaching content—we’re equipping students for a world where teamwork and flexibility matter as much as knowledge.

Key Benefits of Team-Based Learning for Kids

Soft skills for kids grow naturally. When learners take on roles, lead discussions or share responsibility in a team, they practise empathy, accountability and active listening. Brain Rize+1

Deeper retention and understanding. Group discussions, peer teaching and collaborative problem-solving help embed concepts more strongly than once-only lectures. sampoernaacademy.sch.id+1

Creativity and innovation flourish. Diverse viewpoints, shared brainstorming and mutual reflection make learning dynamic and vibrant.

Preparation for real-world education. Project teams, community tasks and interdisciplinary work mirror the challenges of future workplaces.

How Tapas Education Builds Collaboration into the Curriculum

At Tapas, the philosophy is simple: learning becomes meaningful when children solve real challenges together. For instance, students might work in teams to design eco-friendly solutions for the local community or plan a multimedia story about climate change. By combining subject knowledge with collaboration, creativity and real-world context, we bring our future-ready curriculum to life.

We structure learning so that every child has a voice, works with peers, reflects on group outcomes and presents or shares their thinking. This is team-based learning at its best—anchored in purpose and connection.

Putting It Into Practice

Set meaningful group goals: Whether it’s a class project or community initiative, children understand they’re working together for a shared outcome.

Define roles & accountability: Every child has a role—researcher, presenter, reflection-leader—so the team moves forward together.

Reflect and iterate: After each group project, children debrief—what worked? What didn’t? How will we improve next time?

Link to the real world: Whenever possible, tasks connect to local context, global issues or student-driven inquiry—feeding into our real-world education promise.

Conclusion

The era of isolated learning is fading. In its place emerges a model of education rooted in connection, shared growth and adaptability. Through collaborative learning, team-based tasks and a future-ready curriculum, children at Tapas Education are not just learning—they’re preparing. They’re becoming thinkers, communicators and collaborators ready for whatever the changing world brings.

Digitally-enabled team peer assessment: a fast, fly-past

In situations of group work, how do we 

Raise group members’ employability competencies

Minimise free-riding

Identify dysfunctional team behaviour

Calculate a fair grade or bonus based on contribution, leadership, and teamwork?

We propose that conducting at least two peer assessments, one formative then one summative is the best practice solution for raising individual results, team performance, employability, and minimizing risks (Mellalieu & Dodd, 2019).

The video presents a fast, fly-by of a digitally-enabled solution addressing these issues when they arise from group work in higher education, such as team-based learning (TBL).

An effective solution provides a flexible and comprehensive platform for team coaches and teachers to manage the group-based peer assessment and peer feedback processes. These processes contribute to several positive feedback loops that improve team effectiveness, academic results and employability (Mellalieu, 2019).

Decision criteria

What factors are relevant to making a choice about a preferred platform for managing peer feedback and peer assessment in teams? 

Amongst the criteria we suggest are

Result preview, publication, and update

Speed to deploy

Team and individual dysfunction alerts

Personal result calculation

Teamset management - ability to adjust the composition of one or more teams during the progress of a peer assessment

Standardised qualitative and qualitative rating rubrics

Automated deployment and notifications to team members and teachers

The video illustrates the relevance and importance of these features from the perspective of both a teacher and team member.

Learn more: Best practice in academic team assignments

View our experience-based best practices for peer assessment preparation, diagnosing team health, and team feedback in our recorded webinar

Improving Group Assignments through Peer Feedback and Peer Assessment. 

References

The turbocharging effect of peer feedback on team effectiveness, academic performance and employability in student teams

Teamwork is often used in academic settings to help improve students’ academic performance whilst developing valued career-ready competencies such as teamwork, communications, project management and leadership. These academic and employability benefits do not arise spontaneously just because students are working on a group project. In contrast, the teacher should take steps to encourage these benefits’ development through initiating peer assessment and peer feedback as part of the academic programme. We justified these steps in our three-stage model of the team peer feedback process. Here we examine more closely the mechanism through which these benefits are delivered. Specifically, our Causal Loop Diagram illustrates the reinforcing effects of peer assessment on individual motivation, team performance, and, ultimately, employability (Maani & Cavana, 2000).

Social loafing and the team effectiveness loop

One risk that can arise with student team projects is social loafing or freeloading. The risk of social loafing is first reduced when students know that peer assessment will be used to determine their personal result, a result that may be materially above or below the result awarded to the team by the teacher, the team result (Gibbs, in Sprague, Wilson, & McKenzie, 2019, p. 2). Reducing the risk of social loafing both raises students’ feeling of fairness in the conduct of the teamwork, and raises all team members’ motivation and contribution to the team’s objectives and ultimate academic result. 

Peer feedback, team training and the team effectiveness loop

The quality of peer feedback is also important in raising both students’ motivation and capacity to contribute effort to the team and the development of the competencies needed to work more effectively with the team. These teamwork competencies compound the impact of individual contributions towards the team result. For example, meetings are better planned and executed, quiet students are proactively drawn into conversation, and team members help each other with their learning of course and project concepts (Carr, Herman, Keldsen, Miller, & Wakefield, 2005). Team training, either self-directed by the students, or guided by the teacher, contributes to raising team effectiveness through raising the quality of peer assessment and peer feedback, raising general teamwork competencies, and raising individuals’ motivation for teamwork

Turbocharging the employability loop

A student’s employability is raised as both their academic achievement (personal result) and teamwork competencies are raised through effective peer feedback and improved team results. Ultimately, a positive, reinforcing effect ‘turbocharges’ the entire system as students’ motivation for team work is raised through knowledge of their increased level of employability.

So, what’s the impact?

We find that quality peer assessment and feedback is associated with a 10 to 15 mark increase in a team’s result compared with teams who abdicate their responsibility for accurate, fair, honest and constructive feedback (on a grade scale of 0 to 100 marks). Examples of unconstructive peer feedback include: when a team member rates each of their team members the same; when a team is inconsistent in its ratings; or when a team member’s self-rating differs significantly from the rating received from other team members. Considering the value of feedback, when asked ‘How did other class members most help you achieve your goals?’ 34% of students in an organisation development class stated ‘By giving me honest appraisals of my performance’, the highest mentioned item (Mellalieu & Dodd, 2018).

Assuring quality peer feedback

The teacher plays an important role in ensuring that the quality of peer feedback provided by students to their team members is accurate, fair, honest, and constructive. A quality result is achieved through the teacher rehearsing the students’ use of the peer assessment rubric before the peer assessment survey. Alternatively, early formative use of peer feedback during a group projects helps clarify both the practicalities and consequences of the summative peer assessment process with which the teacher intends to conclude and assess the project.

During the peer assessment, the dashboard of a comprehensive digital peer assessment system will highlight teams and individuals who are at risk of failure, or who abdicated their peer assessment activity, for example, overgenerous, outlier, or inconsistent ratings. Finally, students need a safe space to receive and react constructively to the feedback they have received. 

Further information

Best practices for peer assessment preparation, quality assurance, and receiving feedback are presented in the video of our webinar Improving Group Assignments through Peer Feedback and Peer Assessment. 

References

Learn operations management in an applied workplace setting

Introduction to the experience of studying operations management at Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. Study operations management in the 12-month Graduate Diploma in Business (operations management) or as part of several programmes including Bachelor of Business, and Graduate Diploma in Creative Enterprise...

Further information and enrolment details

Capstone course in operations management (BSNS 7350)

 https://moodle.unitec.ac.nz/course/info.php?id=546

Study operations management programmes at Unitec

Students' reflections on a project-based learning course in operations management

Graduating students of Unitec's Operations Management programme discuss their insights, challenges, and successes from studying the final year course BSNS 7350 Operations Management. They offer future students wise advice from their experience that will guide their future success in the course. Teachers who apply a project-based learning approach with senior undergraduate and postgraduate students will find useful lessons from the students' reflections and the course handbook.

Key features of the course, BSNS 7350:

Over a fourteen-week period the students undertake a challenging team-based investigation in which they work with a client organisation to analyse and report on their proposals for resolving a specific issue faced by the client organisation. The project contributes the major part of the course grade. Each student is expected to contribute 150 hours to the class. Consequently a typical project team of five students will contribute about 500 hours to the team project, with the remaining hours spent on other course activities. Effective project planning is crucial.

Every class, each week, the project teams present an oral report on their progress, gaining constructive, critical feedback from the other teams and the tutor, thereby refining their future plans.

Regular contact is maintained throughout the project with the client to ensure the issue is correctly understood, and that the developing solutions are feasible within the client organisation's context. Clients welcome and encourage this regular contact.

A professional, high quality technical investigative report is produced at the end of the course. A penultimate draft of the report is presented to the client as part of a formal oral presentation approximately three weeks prior to the close of the course. This draft report then receives constructive feedback from the other teams as a basis for the final report.

The client provides a written evaluation of the team's project based on factors including communications, project planning, engagement, oral reporting, and the final report. The client feedback evaluation rubric contributes 15 % to the students' final grade.

Effective teamwork is crucial. Consequently, a team peer review session midway through the course helps students improve their ability to draw on each other's strengths, and resolve issues about the work contributed by each team member. In the video, the students report this peer review session as an especially valuable component of the course. The peer review process was informed by the Peer Feedback chapter in Carr, Herman, Keldsen, Miller, & Wakefield, (2005). 

At the conclusion of the course, team members rate the relative contribution of each team member against four leadership indicators using a Team Contribution Calculator. This rating impacts on the final grade the student gains from the team project.

High standards of formal, professional writing are required from students. A key approach towards developing writing competence employs several 'traditional' business case study discussions throughout the course. These discussions help develop students' analytical, investigative, and report writing skills. Somewhat uniquely, students submit a draft of their case analysis prior to the in-class discussion. Next, they participate in the class discussion, and write up a formal executive summary of the discussions. Finally, they peer mark the executive summaries of three other students using the Turnitin Peermark facility. The Peermark facility implemented in the class enables students to compare critically the quality of their own writing with other students in the class.

Students conclude the course by writing a reflective essay drawing from a learning log (diary) they maintain throughout their learning journey.

Example projects

Previous students have conducted investigations including:

Reducing order to delivery time below three days at the Pallet Company

Capacity planning for high growth at Bakeworks

Improving site internal transport policy and signage at Toll Holdings

Developing an integrated approach to operations management software systems at Motion Design

Improvements to production scheduling at LSG Sky Chefs

An improved approach to inventory management of paint at VIP Packaging 

Corporate Social Responsibility and Shareholder Engagement at Kiwi Rail

Improvements to waitress scheduling and customer service in a casino operation

Inventory and logistics planning to meet Best Buy's growth strategy

Operational improvement strategies for Rio Kitchen

Theobroma St Luke Operational Report

Overview of the course assignments

e-learning site

Course: BSNS 7350 Operations Management [Moodle eLearning site].  https://moodle.unitec.ac.nz/course/info.php?id=546

Video overview

Course handbook

BSNS 7350 Operations Management: Course Handbook (4.0 ed, 2016.). Auckland: Department of Management and Marketing, Unitec Institute of Technology. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/opsmanpdf

Enrolment, timetable and workshop location

Operations Management BSNS 7350 Timetable 2016. http://www.unitec.ac.nz/career-and-study-options/management/graduate-diploma-in-business-operations-management/operations-management

Pre-requisite/Co-requisite course

Mellalieu, P. J. (2013, June 23). Introduction to Business Process Improvement at Unitec. Retrieved July 19, 2013, from http://pogus.tumblr.com/post/55844795959/introduction-to-business-process-improvement-at

Further resources about Project Based Learning