A student-centred approach to teaching has been conceptualised as a key driver in higher education to facilitate understanding of concepts and improve attainment. The occurence of student study team behaviours is diagnostic of this approach to teaching. However the extent to which team behaviours are performed outside the parameters of formal teacher-learner environments remains under researched. This is problematic as it is unclear whether study teams are maintained outside the confines of lectures and the extent to which they impact on individual student grades. A naturalistic observational study was carried out that utilised short message text service (SMS) communication as a means to record the frequency of team behaviours: 1) were positively associated with student grades; 2) increased after lectures independently rated as low in employing a student-centred focus; 3) facilitated by students' trait emotional intelligence.
