Development of Grade-3 Students’ Teamwork and Collaboration via STEM Education using Design-Based Learning

Abstract

One crucial skill that students need to develop is the ability to collaborate with others, because in the real world, they cannot live or work in isolation. The purposes of this research are 1) to develop teamwork competency of Grade 3 students through STEM design-based learning and 2) to identify good practices in implementing this learning approach. This study employed classroom action research consisting of four cycles. The participants were one Grade 3 classroom in a laboratory school in Bangkok, comprising 39 students in the second semester of the 2023 academic year, taught by the researcher. The research instruments were validated by two university supervisors, one mentor teacher, and three experts. Data were collected through a teamwork competency assessment form, teachers’ reflective teaching logs, students’ reflective journals, and evaluation forms completed by the mentor teacher and university supervisors. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis, and competency levels were categorized based on criteria synthesized from the Office of the Basic Education Commission. Quantitative data were analyzed using frequency counts.

The findings revealed that: 1) most students demonstrated teamwork competency in terms of a systematic collaborative working process at the competent level, which met the expected criteria, and their competency progressively improved throughout the learning cycles; and 2) two good practices in STEM design-based learning were identified: 2.1) the use of various techniques for assigning roles and responsibilities, which helped students develop a systematic collaborative working process, and 2.2) the use of reflective journals that allowed students to describe their actions, explain their understanding, express their feelings, evaluate their learning, and plan their future work, which helped students develop their roles and responsibilities and become more aware of their roles within the team.