"In graduate school and on the job, students will be working as groups," said George Dupuy, professor of economics and business administration. "They need to learn good teamwork skills. Teamwork involves much more than just combining individual efforts, and the only way to learn it is to do it." To build these skills in his students, he has used a team approach during all six years he has taught at Presbyterian College. Judging from the graduates who stop by to thank him at the homecoming barbecue each year, his approach does prepare the students for life after college.

Dupuy divides the students in his Personnel/ Human Resource Management course into research teams of four or five whose job is to become consultants to the Personnel Departments of local industries or organizations. Groups make several on-site visits with the object of describing, analyzing, and evaluating how the client currently conducts human resources. The group also makes recommendations for improvement. The research teams meet with client personnel such as the human resources manager or CEO. Their research sources also include at least five recent articles and Internet sources. Dupuy reads a draft from each team due two-thirds of the way through the semester and writes his suggestions for revision. At the end of the semester, each team, using visual aids, presents the highlights to the class with the client's representative in the audience.

In Business Strategy, the senior "capstone" course, groups act as consultants to conduct an in-depth strategic analysis of a specific Fortune 500 corporation, following a model described in their textbook, Strategic Management by Fred R. David. Their sources include reference manuals, at least six articles since 1997 from business periodicals, three texts since 1990, company literature such as annual reports and brochures, the World Wide Web, and at least two interviews of managers and two of consumers.

One of the major objectives of this team project, according to Dupuy's syllabus, is to give the seniors "experience in working as part of a self-managed team." While "traditionally education has emphasized individual performance and competition, the world of work emphasizes teamwork and cooperation," Dupuy wrote. Rather than giving detailed assignments with specific instructions, Dupuy presents a broad project and lets the team members manage how to accomplish it. He plays the role of coach that a manager in the workplace would, available to answer questions and provide guidance. The team is responsible "for making decisions and getting the work done effectively."

The students write individual sections of this writing project and then need to pull it together into a coordinated paper. To coach these teams, Dupuy uses some time in class once a week to meet with each team. Most of the work, however, is completed out of class.The teams present a half-hour oral report of their recommendations at the end of the semester. He gives them handouts on presentation techniques and the use of audiovisuals.

Some "A" students worry that the group will pull down their grades, but Dupuy encourages them to be leaders, to learn to motivate others on the team. He grades the team's paper and presentation as a whole: each student on the team receives the same grade. He does, however, collect a confidential peer evaluation at the end of the semester on which team members allocate 100 points among themselves and add brief justifying comments. That peer evaluation counts as 20% of an individual's grade.

To head off any major problems with levels of responsibility and work such as a "free rider," all groups also complete a non-confidential peer evaluation during the semester. Meeting face to face to discuss any problems gives members a chance to reduce conflicts. Dupuy is available to help groups work through any disagreements which the students cannot solve on their own.

While team projects may mean some extra work for faculty, ensuring that students are active learners is a goal of Dupuy's. He quoted Ann Matthews from Bright College Years: Inside the American Campus Today (1997): "In the end, an undergraduate education is not so much a pile of notebooks moldering in the bottom drawer, but learning to talk in front of a group, to read and to summarize, to reason on demand, to push yourself late at night. To live and work with people you might never speak to in ordinary life."