Group Dynamics and Designing Group Projects

This week, I would like to share research on the topic of Group Dynamics/Projects in addition to the research that I shared on April 23, 2021. Group Collaborations.

The article for this week is entitled, “Managing the dynamics of group projects in higher ed: Best practices suggested by empirical research” by Fittipaldi (2020). The authors share that when “designing group projects, instructors make a host of decisions across a wide range of project components. The goal of the study was to analyze results of empirical research studies highlighting the best practices on managing group activities in face-to-face higher education classrooms. This study used a semi-systematic approach to analyze over 46 peer reviewed empirical studies. A semi-systematic literature review approach allowed for the summarization of themes and patterns across a wide range of study types, research designs and student populations. The results of this synthesis involve ten themes which address the central decisions faculty face when designing and implementing group projects. Specifically this study

uncovered a unique hybrid approach to purposely assemble teams,
demonstrated the need to keep teams small,
pointed out the importance of early and ongoing team training,
showed the need for a team charter,
determined the value a high level of instructor engagement throughout the project,
confirmed the benefit of formative and summative peer assessments,
established the usefulness of conducting rater training, and
pointed out the advantages for using electronic tools to aid team processes.

This will be the final SoTL blog for the 2021-22 Academic Year. I look forward to sharing the next article in the middle of August 2022. Enjoy your summer.

References

Fittipaldi, D. (2020). Managing the dynamics of group projects in higher ed: Best practices suggested by empirical research, Universal Journal of Educational Research 8(5):1778-1796. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.080515 i