Chapter 6 Student Group Work Across Borders: A Teaching Innovation and Exploratory Study

This chapter explains a group assignment implemented for the United States and Irish students where the goal was to reflect real-world teams and communication addressing a global tax ethics issue. Students first completed a case on a corporation’s tax avoidance strategy and submitted individual write-ups. Then they were assigned to groups with the United States and Irish members and exchanged write-ups, planned and executed an international meeting using technology, and submitted a group written assignment about the case and their experience. Post-assignment survey data show that several learning objectives were met. The authors encourage faculty to carry out similar assignments, and the chapter includes recommendations for doing so. This chapter highlights the group work, cooperative learning, and ethics underpinnings of this initial project. The conclusion explains future plans for theoretically grounded research to investigate the team process and what members can learn from team experiences.