Identification of effective psychological and academic variables in rapid collaborative knowledge building in emergent situations (Case: Students of Mechanical Engineering, Yazd University)

The purpose was to identify effective psychological variables in RCKB in emergent situation

The research method was quantitative descriptive, in particular a causal-comparative. Forty mechanical engineering students (eight teams, five people per any team) voluntarily participated in a time overcoming race designed by Yazd university's mechanical engineering professors, with limited time and equal equipment on race day, which involved building a boat to carry at least one kilogram in the shortest possible time, and over the course of the long haul. After the competition (5 hours) and the results were announced, the 3 groups were named as successful and the other groups were named as unsuccessful. Quantitative data were collected by: Schumer's epistemological beliefs, learning approaches, Ritks' critical thinking disposition, Bradberry & Greaves emotional intelligence, GPA self-reported academic performance.

findings showed that the GPA in the successful groups was significantly higher than unsuccessful groups, but there was no significant difference in the variables of epistemological beliefs, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and learning approach between the successful and unsuccessful groups.

that participants generally have developed epistemological beliefs, they mostly use a strategic learning approach, and they have a moderate tendency to critical thinking and moderate emotional intelligence.