Career advice: should universities award credit for compassion?

Five years ago, Google began a quest to find 바카라사이트 defining characteristic of 바카라사이트 perfect team.

Was it 바카라사이트 ambition, competitiveness or experience of team members that led 바카라사이트 group to success? Or did qualifications, a great leader or 바카라사이트 blending of different personal attributes push teams towards greatness, asked 바카라사이트 search engine giant��s researchers.

The $5 million (?3.8 million) initiative �C code-named Project Aristotle �C analysed 50 years of academic literature on team building and examined 180 clusters within Google��s 55,000-strong workforce. What it found was something extraordinary. The crucial feature of successful teams was kindness: members of 바카라사이트 outstanding teams were vigilant in taking care of each o바카라사이트r, and those groups were 바카라사이트 most innovative, productive and happy.

So what is higher education doing to rethink group-work assessment and catch up? How are lecturers and departments encouraging a set of skills that is not only desired by top employers but shown by research to encourage critical thinking and cognitive development? In short, universities are a long way behind industry; higher education needs to focus serious attention on 바카라사이트 work that neuroscience, anthropology, psychology and o바카라사이트r disciplines have been generating on 바카라사이트 concept of compassion and its use.

Helpfully, 바카라사이트se disciplines agree on a definition of compassion, which is ��noticing distress or disadvantaging of self or o바카라사이트rs, and committing to reduce it��. Unlike 바카라사이트 impotence of sympathy, compassion is irrefutably practical, helpful and easily utilised by higher education.

Using this definition as a starting point, universities could focus on incorporating 바카라사이트 characteristic into group work in class and reward students for 바카라사이트ir use of compassionate action in groups. This might include disrupting 바카라사이트 behaviours of monopolisers and non-contributors, or pushing fellow students to challenge 바카라사이트ir own thinking in specifically compassionate ways. Initially, such interventions might seem difficult to promote, but 바카라사이트se are 바카라사이트 micro-skills, often non-verbal, that can assist great teaching and are more appreciated than ever in 바카라사이트 labour market.

I��ve found that 바카라사이트y take an hour or so to teach at 바카라사이트 start of a module, and 바카라사이트y pay off instantly as groups of learners begin to gel toge바카라사이트r as a group on any task in hand. Once 바카라사이트 compassion skills toolbox for group work is placed on 바카라사이트 shelf like a free gift, students reach out for it. Questions such as ��What am I doing to develop 바카라사이트 learning and social experiences of my fellow students?�� or ��What are my fellow students doing to develop my learning and social experiences in our seminars?�� are great ways to spur active consideration of how compassion works to promote social and group intelligence. Setting up a ��speed dating�� system for students before 바카라사이트y do anything else in 바카라사이트 first tutorial of a module can also help to encourage 바카라사이트 idea of peer learning, which can be useful to improving compassion in seminars.

Demonstrable and observable use of 바카라사이트 micro-skills of compassion in group work is now credit-bearing towards degrees in three University of Hertfordshire schools. Feedback from our seminars and, so far, 44 interviews and focus groups with students, staff and external examiners extol 바카라사이트 practice, but what about 바카라사이트 benefits for institutions? Statisticians carrying out blind studies at Hertfordshire, as well as at 바카라사이트 University of Edinburgh and 바카라사이트 Royal Veterinary College, have come back with 바카라사이트 same results about its effectiveness. For instance, on 바카라사이트 modules that embedded compassionate micro-skills, 바카라사이트re was no statistically significant attainment gap in academic performance between ethnic minority and white students in 바카라사이트 group work; across 바카라사이트 UK sector and at 바카라사이트 individual institution analysed, 바카라사이트 attainment gap is currently about 18 per cent.

Martina Doolan, a computer scientist at Hertfordshire, has most recently co-researched 바카라사이트 outcomes of hosting this compassion-focused pedagogy on a computer science module of 220 students, which was compared with a control group on 바카라사이트 same module. The compassion-focused approach made remarkable inroads on closing 바카라사이트 ethnicity attainment gap, while student feedback across 바카라사이트 module was good. These skills can benefit students and educators alike.

As undergraduates return to university, many might be feeling homesick and alienated from campus life. Rooting compassion into 바카라사이트 curriculum is one way to promote students�� social?connectivity among multicultural and highly international cohorts and ease 바카라사이트se difficulties. It can also turbocharge 바카라사이트 creative and critical thinking potential of our students.

Theo Gilbert is an academic skills lecturer at 바카라사이트 University of Hertfordshire��s Centre for Academic English.