The Future of Education

Group work and social learning are important aspects in didactical design of higher education. They are expected to promote students' activity, increase their motivation or provide further subject-based learning outcomes. (Johnson und Johnson 2021)Additionally, students should develop their ability to cooperate and collaborate, which is expected by employers, among others. In practice, it seems that these hopes are often not realised: the quality of outcomes and processes falls short of expectations on both sides, teachers and students. This article explores how the lecture and self-study phases of a STEM lecture could be linked in a way to promote students' group work skills. To address this problem not only theoretically but also with perspectives on educational practice, a design-based approach was chosen(Bakker 2018; Reinmann 2023). Based on the existing technical lecture concept, a learning path for group skills was designed and implemented, including a Moodle learning space. Continuous reflection on group dynamics and further assignments had to be submitted according to an underlying team development process.