Are high achievers successful in collaborative learning? An explorative study of college students’ learning approaches in team project-based learning

Abstract This study analyses how high-achieving students approach team project-based learning (TPBL) and aims to identify the implications and challenges of TPBL practice in higher education. After interviewing 32 high-achieving students and surveying 1022 additional students at a South Korean university, we found that four factors were particularly relevant to the challenges of high-achieving students’ TPBL: initiative, goal orientation, social relationships, and preference for TPBL. The results showed that high achievers believed that they worked with greater initiative than their teammates throughout the team project – although mostly alone – and were distressed by collaboration and prone to abandon collaborative work to ensure higher grades. These findings indicate that high-achieving students, despite their high grades, might not successfully learn the competency for the high level of teamwork and collaboration expected in TPBL, perhaps because they persist in approaching team learning as individual-oriented rather than collaborative.

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