Introduction
Groupwork is widely used in higher education as a pedagogical strategy. Combining lectures with groupwork helps students feel engaged and learn more (Payne, Monk-Turner, Smith & Sumter, 2006). More than half of the courses we had at the University of Helsinki used groupwork tasks as the main assessment assignment. Many students agree that different viewpoints and opinions from others is a big advantage of groupwork. Some students enjoy the social benefits -- working with peer students gives them a sense of belonging in the learning community. Groupwork can be especially beneficial for large classes. Wright and Lawson (2005) found that group work helped students feel that the class was smaller and encouraged them to come to class more often.
With these benefits in mind, experiencing groupwork in different courses, we also noticed that some groups work, some groups do not, some students enjoy groupwork, some students do not. WHY? We decided to research “groupwork and students’ engagement”.
Research Goals
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To understand international master’s degree program students’ groupwork attitude
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To analyze which groupwork features influence students’ engagement
By doing this research, we want to
- make students' voice heard
- bridge the gap between teachers and students
- provide some information and suggestions for future groupwork design
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We are Changing Education students, let’s change education, together!
