Grouping in the Dark: What College Students Learn from Group Projects

Undergraduate group projects: Challenges and learning experiences

“…Task-related issues were cited most often (276 times) and also contained the most common concerns: that some group members were not concerned about producing high quality work (62 times) and that some members showed a lack of punctuality with respect to meetings and deadlines (57). This is consistent with the prior findings of Colbeck et al 4 , who found that "free riders" and leadership were common concerns for students. Interpersonal issues were mentioned only about half as often (144 times), with dominating behaviour and lack of communication topping the list (51 and 49 times, respectively).…”

“…One approach is that students simply learn from their personal experience of group work -positive and negative. It can be argued that experience is not a perfect teacher, and the evidence collected by Colbeck et al led them to conclude, that without "faculty guidance, it seemed that only a few student teams developed positive goal or role interdependence" 4,5 . More generally, Cohen has argued that "it is a great mistake to assume that [learners] .…”

“…Even if the project group meets for too short a period to allow students to experience the different stages of group development, students who have prior experience of groups may be able to draw on their prior experiences in order to understand the utility of a model of group development. Colbeck et al found that engineering students with less prior experience of workplace or academic group work are perhaps more likely to experience difficulties in establishing cohesive groups 4 . Those with few prior experiences may not have the empirical data with which to understand how groups work, and how a theoretical model like Tuckman's can be used to make sense of them.…”

“…Working in a group is not always an immediately rewarding experience for engineering students. Colbeck et al, for example found some students struggled with questions of leadership, dealing with free-riders or "slackers", and dealing with conflicts and with the egos of group members 4 . It has been suggested that such challenges can become very problematic for students, and Ford and Morice claiming that for "students already struggling with the pressures of university life in general, the added burden of trying to work within a seemingly dysfunctional team was often the 'last straw.…”

“…In summary, the last few decades have seen a growing emphasis on early experience of group projects as part of engineering education programmes 1,4,14 . The literature suggests these should be accompanied by education on group processes (as well as on project management skills, both oral and written communication skills, and accessing and using information).…”