Conflict Management in Student Groups in Higher Education from a Teacher’s Perspective

Abstract

Abstract—Students working in groups is a commonly used
method of instruction in higher education, popularized by the
introduction of problem based learning. As a result, management
of small groups of people has become an important skill for
teachers. The objective of our study is to investigate why conflicts
arise in student groups at our home faculty and how they
are managed by teachers. We have conducted an exploratory
interdepartmental interview study on teachers’ views on this
matter, interviewing ten university teachers of various seniority
level. Our results show that conflicts is a recurring part of group
work, most commonly caused by different levels of ambition
among the involved students. We also conclude that teachers
prefer to work proactively against conflicts and stress the student
responsibility. Finally, we show that teachers at our faculty tend
to avoid the more drastic conflict resolution strategies suggested
by previous research. The outcome of our study could be used
as input to future guidelines on conflict management in student
groups at the faculty.