Contact hours spent on group and teamwork did not have any significant positive
effects on any of the outcome indices of participants. There was a significant negative
effect of contact hours spent in both group and team work on community knowledge
and shared future and purpose at the .001 and .01 levels, respectively. It is possible to
suggest that some of the outcomes we have measured are the result of the social
interactions that take place during the extended period of the “academy” experience as
people discuss what they learn, put it into a context that is relevant to what they want
to know and do, and then think together about ways they can apply what they have
learned. In doing this, they might actually ignore the specific content of the instruction
and develop a new way of thinking about a problem so that it becomes feasible to
solve.