Improving cooperation in higher education by portfolio method change in university students’ attitudes in light of the results of a survey

Abstract

Employers expect that those entering the world of work including recent university graduates are equipped with the skills necessary for working in groups and teams. Therefore, training institutions – including higher education – try to adapt to this expectation. At the language courses offered at Budapest Business School Faculty of Finance and Accountancy , students’ cooperation skills are developed hand in hand with their foreign language skills. Since foreign language learning is mostly carried out through in-class group activities, language classes provide ample and natural opportunities for addressing the improvement of cooperation skills. As part of foreign language instruction at Budapest Business School Faculty of Finance and Accountancy, students’ cooperation skills are developed with the help of the portfolio method through tasks to be completed in groups. The present paper (1) provides an account of the way our research sought to make students’ attitudes to cooperation measurable, and (2) describes whether it was possible to achieve some improvement in our students’ attitude to cooperation through assignments used as part of the portfolio method applied in our research. In this paper, first the theoretical background is presented with a detailed description of the concepts of “team” and “skill”. Then, based on the literature, the cognitive and non-cognitive sub-skills enabling successful implementation of team cooperation are presented. Finally, the paper introduces our own questionnaire used for measuring cooperation as well as the results of this empirical study. From our data it appears that the portfolio method in its current form only slightly improves students’ attitude to cooperation and only modestly develops cooperation skills in teams, which necessitates the reconsideration and revising of the portfolio tasks applied in the scope of this study.