Exploring group work for STEM and non-STEM undergraduate students

Abstract

The literature highlights the importance that in an ever-increasing competitive employment market, graduates are expected to possess a varied range of transferable skills in addition to their degree programme. Furthermore, the literature demonstrates that transferable skills, such as communication, leadership, problem solving, negotiation, management, are all indicative of the group work process. Much of the literature on student attitudes and experiences of group work focuses on the challenges of assessing it, with little emphasis on the acquisition of transferable skills and the processes required when participating in groups. Given the recent drive from government for STEM graduates (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) this study seeks to address this gap by investigating the differences in students’ perceptions and experiences of group work in STEM and non-STEM areas at Ulster University

The design of a combined model adapted from Kolb’s (1985) Experiential Learning Model and Race’s (2015) Ripples in a Pond Model formed the theoretical underpinnings for this research and informed the methodology design. A quantitative methodology was employed in the collection of data and involved three phases, in which questionnaires were administered to both STEM and non-STEM students. A stratified sampling technique was used in recruiting students from across varied STEM and non-STEM disciplines, which saw 1259 students surveyed across all three phases. Phase one and two involved a longitudinal study which explored students’ expectations of group work at the start of their first year in university (phase one) and a follow up questionnaire was conducted at the end of first year (phase two)to explore students’ experiences of group work from their first year. Phase three explored final year students’ perceptions and experiences of group work and explored more fully the assessment process and group dynamics between STEM and non-STEM students throughout their time at university. The data were analysed in SPSS and t-tests and MANOVAs were used to compare any significant differences between STEM and non-STEM students.

The findings indicate that while both STEM and non-STEM students reported similar experiences of the skills they had engendered from group work, the study found that there were significant differences between the types of group work used in STEM and non-STEM and how the students were assessed. As a result of the student findings, a practical toolkit was developed based on the combined model of Kolb (1985) and Race (2015) and identifies some of the key factors that should be considered when using group work at different stages of a student’s degree programme. The toolkit was tested on eight academics from across STEM and non-STEM disciplines in the form of two focus groups. From the focus groups, four themes emerged which allowed the toolkit to include the views of lecturers as well as the students. A prominent theme throughout the focus groups was the emphasis on how groupwork should be tailored depending on the year of study and supported the results shown from the students. This study makes a valuable contribution to knowledge as the findings illustrate the need for universities to give a prominence to the ways in which group work is implemented within different disciplines and at different stages throughout a degree programme. It is concluded that such an approach could facilitate the acquisition of transferable skills for students in making them ‘work ready’.

Date of Award	May 2023
Original language	English
Sponsors	Department of Employment and Learning
Supervisor	Karyn Stapleton (Supervisor)