Postgraduate students' attitudes towards group work: experiences within a forensic chemistry programme

<p>The ability to work in a group is an important skill for graduates. Although the experiences ofundergraduate students with group work have been extensively explored, there is much less informationin the literature regarding postgraduate students and no information on those enrolled in scienceprogrammes. In this study, participants from a taught applied chemistry postgraduate MSc programmereport their attitudes and experiences with group work. The usefulness of this approach and of scientificdiscourse for learning and teaching several key concepts is also explored. Participants in the studycompleted attitudinal questionnaires and group/individual multiple choice question (MCQ) tests. Theyreported a range of skills developed through working together, mixed preferences for group vs. individualassignments, and comparison of the mean MCQ test scores between participants working individually andin groups demonstrated no statistically significant differences.</p>