The effects of individual and group instructional methods on the motivation and performance of middle school engineering technology students

Many studies have examined ways of promoting productive collaboration, but relatively few have examined task features associated with productive collaborative tasks. Prior research suggests that demonstrability and task complexity play a role in minimizing process loss, but questions remain regarding the underlying mechanism(s) for process gain. This study examined how working as a group or individual affected student performance, motivation, and learning for 129 middle school students in an engineering technology course. As part of a classroom activity, students performed an engineering failure analysis task and an engineering design task as either individuals or groups. Groups showed less failure on the engineering analysis task and more success on the design task consistent with prior research on complex demonstrable tasks. No difference in subsequent individual performance (transfer) between the group and individual condition was identified. In contrast to prior studies that identified cognitive mechanisms as a potential explanation for groups outperforming individuals, the results of this study suggested that motivational processes (e.g., self-efficacy, collective-efficacy) may play a role