Teaching Students How to Succeed in Group Assignments

Abstract

The ability of university students to function effectively as team members in group assignments is essential for their success as they transition to the workforce. For this reason, many universities have teamwork as a required learning outcome for their graduates. Researchers have identified both the problems university students encounter with group assignments and the solutions to these problems. However, one main issue remains—university faculty do little in the way of teaching their students how to work as a team on group assignments. This descriptive practice-based paper reviews the problems associated with university group assignments and provides solutions to these problems and curriculum guidance with specific suggestions on how faculty can teach students to work in group projects. These suggestions can apply to any university group assignment.