Reducing Social Loafing in Teamwork among University Students: Experiences of Reflective Teaching

Teaching and learning in the education sector are changing because active learning has become an important focus in the twenty-first century of pedagogical change. In this study, first, the author aimed to provide practical evidence or activities for reducing social loafing, which has performance implications of teamwork in students. The action research design was employed in the study, which was carried out on students at Debre Markos University, Ethiopia. To collect necessary data from participants, classroom observation, survey tests, and interviews were used. As a result, most of the students had not effectively participated in group tasks before intervention. Also, the students’ pretest and posttest scores in the survey test of the group were statistically significant. No gender difference was found in students’ pretest and posttest scores in teamwork. Thus, on the basis of these findings, in order to maximize group task effectiveness, the instructor implemented several tasks or activities, such as forming cohesive and small teams to teach students about group assignments, creating clear expectations and outcomes, peer evaluation, explaining the importance of the tasks at hand, assigning dividable tasks so they feel more responsibility, and assessing process and product of groups’ performance. On the basis of this study, the author strongly recommends intervention strategies.