Every year of the mechanical engineering CDIO curriculum at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal contains an integrator project. To maximize team learning effectiveness, Ecole Polytechnique developed teaching strategies and tools so students can develop self-awareness, selfmanagement, psychological diversity sensitivity and communication skills.
The yearly projects confront students with different forms of teamwork in an intense but gradual, dynamic but controlled experiential process. The project scenarios given to students are designed to create tense project situations. The team’s reaction to this tension is influenced, in part, by each student’s personality and interests. To generate controlled conflict situations in an educational context, Ecole Polytechnique developed team selection methods and tools. These tools are based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator TM [1] methodology supported by a Competence and Preference Sheet (CPS) developed by the teaching staff.
Over the four year program, students will challenge teamwork issues that grow in a planned progression. The final 4th year capstone project closely matches industrial realities and challenges including: multidisciplinary interactions, negotiation, budget and time constraints. This paper will discuss the use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Competence and Preference Sheet (CPS) to foster effective team dynamics in student projects at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal.
Conceive
Design
Implement
Operate
