The importance of verbal communication and project management skills, relational conflict, and group processes in enhancing student learning in a group work assessment

Stephen Teo and Adam Morgan
University of Technology Sydney

Keywords: formative assessment; group work; peer ratings

This paper reports the result of a study on the incorporation of group processes and peer group evaluation technique on student learning in an introductory Human Resource Management (HRM) subject. This subject incorporates discipline-based content (curriculum), context and processes into assessment design in order to result in student learning. Student learning is measured by the result of the peer evaluation of the group assignment mark and the final result.

Group formation strategies are linked into the curriculum development as a way of highlighting the importance of cross-cultural understanding, conflict resolution and diversity management in the classroom. Every effort was made to incorporate mid-semester course evaluation to collect feedback and concerns from students regarding their experience with group work. Academic staff then provided counselling to those students requiring further assistance.

To avoid common method variance, we used peer rated evaluation of the constructs used in the project. These include skills such as problem solving, goal orientation, planning, research, information technology, writing, verbal and non-verbal communication, people management, analytical, project management, task and relational conflict, cohesion, and peer rating of the student's human resource management content skills. Objective performance measures included peer evaluation of the group assignment mark and the final result.

Cluster analysis according to the result received for the group assignment and end of semester examination result of 141 students (34 male, 107 female, average age of 20.5 years) resulted in three clusters: high (N=67), medium (N=63), and low (N=11). Comparison of mean across these three clusters showed differences in peer rating of verbal communication and project management skills, group cohesion, relational conflict, and knowledge of HRM. The findings highlight the importance of assessment design which incorporates content knowledge with group processes, project management, and conflict resolution in ensuring student performance in a formative group assessment task.