Impact of Reflection on Individual and Team Performance in student team projects

Higher education has increasingly adopted project-based courses to prepare students for dynamic and globalized work environments. While this approach offers a student-centered, collaborative experience, it can overwhelm students, affecting motivation and group success. To address these challenges, two courses, an undergraduate IT project-based course and an undergraduate material science course, introduced repeated reflections mandatory for the overall grade. These reflections were evaluated based on self-reflection rather than content delivery, guided by Kolb's Learning Cycle. The study aimed to assess whether reflections led to structural changes in cooperation methods and communication skills, and if students perceived them as beneficial for learning outcomes. Although students initially saw reflections as extra work, they recognized the positive impact on communication and task clarification. While there was no clear correlation between reflection and individual project assessments, there was a slight link between improved group time management and higher grades. Additionally, first-year engineering students tended to be overconfident in their self-assessment, and instructors should be aware of variations in students' personalities and course performance, offering guidance for better results in group projects.