Assessing Individual Student’s Achievement in Group Project in Secondary Education

Abstract

The purpose of this research is assessing individual
student’s achievement and contribution to group project in secondary
education, based on the holistic group score, and individual score
assigned by teachers, as well as individual scores obtained from
student self assessment, and peer assessment. The sample consisted of
90 students (45 males, and 45 females) drawn from 2 secondary
schools; one for males and the other for females; randomly selected
from a total of 34 secondary schools (14 female schools, and 20 male
schools). Besides, the researcher selected 3 courses from each level
(1st , 2nd, and 3rd secondary), as well as randomly selecting 5 students
per course to fulfill the group project in which the teachers
determined its nature and scope.
The research results indicated high mean scores for both holistic and
individual ratings of teachers, as well as student self assessment and
peer assessment ratings; for males and females, with slight differences
among courses and across classroom levels, as reflected in the
standard deviation values. In addition the “true” (expected) students’
scores were very high across classroom levels and among courses.
The results also revealed high values of Cronbach alpha reliability
coefficients regarding male and female teachers’ ratings of individual
student’s contribution to the group project (1st secondary 0.86, 2nd
secondary 0.79, 3rd secondary 0.74). With respect to students’
ratings, the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients were high for the
2nd secondary (0.84), but moderate for 1st secondary (0.59), and 3rd
secondary (0.67). The researcher proposed some recommendations
for more research on the topic, taking into consideration some real
field and psychometric concerns that need to be addressed prior to
conducting research such as training both teachers and students on
rating individual student’s contribution to group projects, utilizing
scoring rubrics, and implementing more than one method for
assessing the individual student’s contribution to group projects.