Fantastic Groups and Where to Find Them

Abstract

There is great interest in studying factors influencing why students drop out of higher education and why some students perform better. This study has focus on the importance of the relationships between students and the importance of social networks. Additionally, the area of focus will stand in relation to how strategical grouping of students can be used to influence students’ group dynamics and peer support. Theory of group dynamics and previous studies in this field is presented together with qualitative interviews of senior staff at the Faculty of Engi- neering at Lund University. Previous research on the topic strongly suggests that social support has a positive impact on academic persistence, although to limited effect on academic grades. We found group projects to be useful when the task allows for it. Although both teacher as- signed groupings and independent student groupings are both valid in different scenarios, when assigning groups, we argue based on theory and interview results, that going beyond a ran- dom assignment approach has substantial benefits. Introducing parameters such as personality, complementary skills and tailoring size of groups so each member can have appropriately sized independent contributions when assigning groups would likely speed up cohesion processes, developing better working groups. This group cohesion can then secondarily lead to large social networks and social support between students.