Promotion of Students Participation and Academic Achievement in Large Classes: An Action Research Report

Businesses and employers look for graduates who could collaborate and work effectively in team projects. Consequently, it is important to introduce, train and develop collaborative skills in students at different levels to prepare them to meet the labour market needs. This action research introduced group activity in finance course to improve the students' participation and their academic achievement through group activities. The results of observation indicated that the students' participation increased with group activity strategy. The increased students' participation had an impact on their academic achievement. The empirical results clearly indicated that the average scores of students had increased from 2.75 to 7.24 after the introduction of group activities. The students also well perceived the group activity strategy as they found it interesting and useful and it had changed the way they learned the course. The empirical results of Factor analysis identified the core factor that influenced student's participation through group activities was greatly influenced by the peers included in each group. In a nutshell, group activity strategy has proved effective and successful in promoting student participation and academic achievement in large classes.