A METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING AND DEVELOPING TEAMWORK IN COGNITIVELY DEMANDING JOBS

Abstract

In cognitively demanding jobs such as control room operators in nuclear power plants, chemical works and oil refineries, pilots and flight traffic operators, dispatchers, fire brigades, rescue services, surgeons, police officers, etc., it is a crucial question that the members of the team have appropriate professional competence as well as all sensory-motor, cognitive, communicational and social skills necessary to identifying, diagnosing critical states and adequate intervening. Simulated malfunctions or other events potentially offer excellent opportunities for establishing, refreshing and improving these skills, provided that the simulation is embedded into an appropriate pedagogical and psychological environment. For efficient teamwork both individual and group learning correct and informative feedback have an outstanding importance: it provides crew members with a clear and relatively objective picture about team work effectiveness as well as quality and quantity of individual contribution to it. For these purposes a computer-supported methodology and a set of tools have been developed (`COSMOS´), by which the instructor involves the operator team into the evaluation of a training session, thus supporting formation of more realistic self-evaluation, more uniform ways of seeing things and shared mental models. This paper is a report on a case study carried out with nuclear power plant operators.