Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of a classroom application of the cooperative learning (CL) methodology on nine dimensions of business students’ teamwork competence (TC).Design/methodology/approach: The authors used a quasi-experimental pre-post design with a previous cohort as control group (first-year students from the year prior to treatment application), applying treatment to a sample of 228 first-year students in a School of Economics and Business at a Chilean University (114 as treatment and 114 as control).Findings: The authors’ results show that CL had a positive, significant influence on five dimensions of TC: collective efficacy, planning, goal setting, problem solving and conflict management.Research limitations/implications: This paper upholds the importance and effectiveness of CL in developing TC. However, the evidence suggests that the effectiveness of the CL methodology was limited to development and improvement of less complex dimensions of TC. More complex dimensions require a longer period of time to be developed.Practical implications: This research is an important contribution to the design and implementation of appropriate methodologies for developing a widely needed area of competence in the workplace, considering its multidimensional nature, whether in academia or business.Originality/value: This is the first study to seek empirical evidence that would link the CL methodology with TC. In addition, it fills a gap in the literature on the development of TC in its multiple dimensions. It particularly addresses the training of business professionals.

The goal of this study is to determine the extent to which faculty training in cooperative learning (CL) transfers to university teaching, according to students’ opinions. The design was quasi-experimental, with a control group and an intervention group. During two years, 346 first-year university Business School students and 12 university teachers of four disciplines (Business and Economy, Communication, Mathematics and Knowledge Integration) took part in the study. The results show that, after specific training in CL methodology, teachers showed significant improvement in the application of several CL dimensions: social skills, evaluation, reflection, interdependence, interaction and tutoring. In addition, a multivariate analysis of variance was calculated to examine the possible interaction effect of teacher training and disciplines on CL application. The results indicate that training based on participants’ needs and context fosters transference to university teaching. Teachers from different disciplines respond differently when applying CL to the classroom after training, especially in evaluation, heterogeneity, and tutoring. The results highlight the importance of a quality faculty professional development program.

Purpose: The debriefing is a procedure based on intra-team feedback, which has frequently been applied in university formation in health but has been less used in business. The aim of this research is to analyse best practices in the actual implementation of debriefing in organisations, based on criteria the guidelines for carrying out each stage established in the procedure.Design/methodology/approach: To achieve these goals, working teams from different organisations carried out 19 group-debriefing sessions on an authentic work problem. These sessions were observed and analysed following a qualitative approach.Findings: After observing a debriefing session in 19 organisations, four categories related to its implementation have been identified: Self-analysis, information, planning and orientation of the development of the team.Research limitations/implications: It is important to mention some limitations to this work. The major limitation was the lack of published literature related to the debriefing in the area of organisational management. The qualitative and exploratory nature of the study limits the generalisation of the results.Practical implications: The research has practical implications as the characterisation and description of each phase favours the transfer to implement the debriefing technique adequately in different types of organisations.Social implications: It has been observed that all forms of debriefing have a common purpose in learning and, team and employee development, due to the powerful transferability and usefulness of debriefing in different contexts. Therefore, knowing the correct use of debriefing is a breakthrough in this area. In addition, including this type of practice will not just facilitate a better performance, it will also help teams to learn to work in a team from their own experiences.Originality/value: It has been characterised by the process of debriefing from the correct implementation of each phase through the analysis of the narratives that arise in the debriefing sessions carried out.