Improving Student Participation in Group Project Work: An Action Research

Group project work is a tool to share knowledge and skills among students and it is one way to assess students in a semester. However, a large number of students are not participating in group project work. This paper aims to improve students’ participation in group project work and identify challenges that hinder students’ participation in group project work. The primary data were collected by questionnaire and observation data gathering tools. Qualitative and quantitative research approaches and purposive sampling were used. Advanced Database Systems course was selected from the Information Systems Department and 13 groups were formed and each group has 5 members. The questionnaires distributed to all 65 students, and of which 61, were properly filled for analysis. Descriptive statistical analyses of percentage were calculated. The major factors that hinder students’ participation were a shortage of time, lack of interest and awareness, lack of monitoring, group members not given individual responsibility, and assessment method. The taken actions to improve students’ participation were creating awareness, distribute project guidelines, assigning roles, monitoring group members’ participation, and prepare assessment criteria. After the implementation of the actions and there is a great change in the participation of students in the group project work. Keywords: action research, group project work, implemented actions, students’ participation DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-13-06 Publication date: May 31 st 2020