[How do university students feel about group projects?]

Why I want to explore this research topic

“Group projects can help students develop a host of skills that are increasingly important in the professional world” (Caruso & Woolley, 2008; Mannix & Neale, 2005). “Positive group experiences, moreover, have been shown to contribute to student learning, retention and overall college success” (Astin, 1997; Tinto, 1998; National Survey of Student Engagement, 2006).

Group projects allow the collaborative efforts of students with varying talents to tackle a goal together, and there are plenty of projects that have ended up looking professional as a result. Teamwork makes the dream work, afterall.

However, not every group can fulfill this ideal.

“Students often have to deal with difficult issues such as getting credit without doing equal work, poor communication, culturally different approaches to work, lack of (formal) leadership, varying work ethics, and different grade expectations.”(McGraw and Tidwell (2001)

There may be an unsatisfactory experiences within group projects, perhaps due to the struggles in the division of labor or the lack of initiative. There are also the case of freeloaders, and the burden being placed on one or few individuals that struggle to compete with the fellow rivaling groups. 

To prevent further such cases from happening again, I also would like to look into how to coordinate such a group despite the odds and bolster teamwork together – or how universities can improve the group project experience as a whole.

The purpose of this research topic

I want my research to explore these inner sentiments of college students, and take an in depth analysis if there are ways for the education system to resolve these problems.

From identifying different approaches in how courses may assign groupmates, I would be able to list the pros and cons of each method, such as:

• What if groups were assigned by random?
• What if groups were made by the students themselves?
• What if groups were assigned by each member’s talents after identifying them?

I may even discover more methods through the opinions of others after collecting more data.

In conclusion

I believe that a thorough look into this topic can result in a more happier, and fairer university experience for everyone. This topic may also serve as an interesting point of reference for colleges or other related researches.

Thank you for reading.

References

Caruso, H.M., & Wooley, A.W. (2008). Harnessing the power of emergent interdependence to promote diverse team collaboration. Diversity and Groups. 11, 245-266.

Astin, A. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

McGraw, P., & Tidwell A. (2001). Teaching group process skills to MBA students: A
short workshop. Education & Training, 43(2/3), 162-170.