How to Create High-performance Student Teams: Techniques and Strategies for Cultivating Inclusive Teams in Higher Education (How To Guides)

This book equips instructors in higher education with tools and techniques to foster meaningful and inclusive student engagement through teamwork. Grounded in research and refined through decades of classroom experience, Ruth Sessler Bernstein, Amy Johnson, and Regan Harwell Schaffer provide adaptable, easy-to-implement strategies that support content mastery, high performance and the development of interpersonal and cultural competence.

Actionable steps guide instructors in forming strong teams, handling conflict, increasing self-awareness and helping shape students’ characters, worldview and professional readiness. The authors present structured interaction practices that allow all students to contribute meaningfully and grow through feedback and reflection. They emphasize the value of inclusive and intentionally structured practices that enable student teams to become spaces for growth, empathy and the development of essential leadership skills for today’s diverse, dynamic and interconnected world.

An essential resource for educators and instructors across a variety of disciplines, this book is also go-to reading material for students and scholars in education, teaching methods and business and management.

Ruth Sessler Bernstein, Associate Professor of Nonprofit Management, Amy Johnson, Executive in Residence in Management and Regan Harwell Schaffer, Divisional Dean of Business Administration Division, Seaver College, Pepperdine University, USA