Changes in faculty trust, class engagement, and learning motivation in team-based project learning

Objectives The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of team-based project learning on students' trust in faculty, class participation, and motivation to learn. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed in an integrated manner to examine the effects of team-based project teaching on learners. Methods The participants were 26 undergraduate students enrolled in a liberal arts program who participated in a 15-week team-based project learning course. The lessons consisted of a review of the previous lecture, individual activities, paired learning and teamwork, plenary sharing, instructor mini-lectures, and reflection journals. We administered the Faculty Trust Scale, Class Participation Scale, and Learning Motivation Scale at the beginning and end of the semester. A paired sample t-test was conducted to examine pre- and post-test changes, and the students' reflective journals were analyzed for network centrality between keywords using UCINET 6 to present semantic connectivity networks. Results First, students' evaluations of their professors' closeness, expertise, teaching ability, and leadership improved significantly after team-based project learning. In the reflective journals, the main keywords related to professor were ‘thought’, ‘name’, ‘different’, ‘call’, ‘difference’, ‘participation’, ‘time’, ‘activity’, ‘communication’, ‘opinion’. ‘Thought’, ‘difference’, ‘different’, ‘time’, ‘share’, and ‘opinion’ showed a high degree centralty. ‘Thought’, ‘difference’, ‘different’, ‘speaking’, ‘subject’, ‘name’ and ‘call’ were highly closeness centrality, and ‘thought’, ‘difference’, ‘speaking’, ‘name’, and ‘call’ were highly betweenness. Second, after the team-based project learning, the sub-factors of class participation showed statistically significant improvements in expressing, extending, and enthusiasm for the class, and the sub-factors of learning motivation showed statistically significant improvements in attention, confidence, and satisfaction. In the team project learning process, the order of appearance frequency of major keywords was ‘idea’, ‘people’, ‘different’, ‘opinion’, ‘story’, ‘good’, ‘lack’, ‘activity’, ‘difference’, ‘evaluation’, ‘help’, and ‘growth’. The top keywords with high connectivity links were ‘think’, ‘people’, ‘activity’, ‘opinion’, ‘self’, ‘time’, ‘different’, ‘lack’, ‘complement’, ‘help’, ‘write’, and ‘listen’. The top keywords with high degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality were ‘activity’, ‘idea’, ‘person’, ‘different’, and ‘opinion’. Conclusions This study examined the usefulness of team-based project instruction in liberal arts courses and specifically examined the conditions under which it affects students. Implications and recommendations for the implementation of team-based project classes are then discussed.