Complete thesis - Murdoch University

student achieving at least two rating of higher than average. Interestingly, a higher thanaverage rating did not appear to correlate with either specific team roles (eg that of ProjectManager) or project phases. However, cultural backgrounds appear to influence the selfassessmentcomponent of the instrument – the usefulness of this metric therefore requiresfurther investigation.Student reflectionJournal entries were based on consideration of the following questions:what did I achieve this week?what issues did I have this week?what can I do next week to address these issuesin the areas of learning, personally and in the group. Students were also able to make generalcomments.Appendix C contains verbatim entries from these journals. The entries reflect the dynamicnature of the learning experience. As an aid to reading these narrative, it should be noted thateach student took on the role of Project Manager for a 4-week period during the semester.The order was Vaughn, Alaina, Dermot then Markus.These extracts provide significant insight to the students’ perceptions of their learning environment.Despite the numerous comments regarding time management, workload was rarely,if ever raised as an issue. Students also appeared highly motivated. Although presenting aworking demo of the problem/system required much more effort, and is group-based, eachcohort has decided to dedicate the (extra) time required to produce a working system. Theimplication of this decision is students’ ability to gauge the level of proficiency of their attemptsto master the problem and complete the task: they appear to be drawn actively intothe problem and learning environment, suggesting ‘real learning’ is occurring. This alignswith Stage 4 of Grow (1991/1996)’s model for life-long learning.Vaughn’s reflections focus on time – he often felt that it was not being used effectively,either through personal issues (need to concentrate on the important stuff) or due to lackof group cohesion (team is not working togeather well). He exhibited a tendency to ‘blame’others (either circumstances or team members) for lack of progress. His greater expertise inmanagement support was exploited at the commencement of semester. However, this wasnot reflected as confidence in his performance in the group later – he felt quilty that I wasnot able to help ... more.375