Characterizing Team Cognition Within Software Engineering Teams in an Undergraduate Course

Abstract

Contribution: The study characterizes aspects of cognitive and metacognitive dimensions of team cognition of software development teams in educational settings. Background: The software development industry requires software engineers and developers to work in teams; for this, there is substantial research on teamwork in the context of the organization. However, little is known about it in the context of educational settings, where there is scant research on teamwork in engineering and computing projects. Research Questions: How do students enact teamwork cognitive engagement and metacognitive regulation in the context of a systems analysis and design course? Methodology: The participants were 127 undergraduate students in a systems development course organized into 26 teams. Qualitative categories were derived from a content analysis based on recorded teamwork sessions, which were then quantized and visualized for pattern identification. Findings: Results provide each team's overall cognitive engagement coefficient and metacognitive regulation coefficient. The findings also describe three clusters, each with a description of a selected team to provide further insights into the identified patterns.