' Team Members That Bring You Down Dead ' The Antecedents of Student

Co-operative learning or working in teams (also referred to as collaborative learning or group work) has a demonstrated potential in achieving positive results (Slavin: 1986) in development of both academic (Johnson et al: 1981) and nonacademic skills such as promoting understanding and self-esteem (Slavin et al: 1985). In addition, co-operative learning prepares students for working life, as team work is commonly deployed in management of organizations. Approximately 50 per cent of workplaces use teams in managing workforces. However students themselves are often hesitant about participating in team projects. This is particularly at the beginning of team projects. This reluctance stems from the general complexity of working in teams. That is, working in teams embodies a complex web of attitudes, understandings and behaviours (Jacques:1991). It is hypothesized that lack of student readiness for team work delimits performance in the early weeks of a team project. Given that a student team project only runs for 13 weeks (one semester), this can be a significant handicap affecting overall team performance and subsequent individual student satisfaction with the team process.