Extending peer-led team learning to management education: The effects on achievement, critical thinking, and interest

Abstract

As an attempt to extend the implementation of peer-led team learning to management education, this study proposes to investigate business students' achievement, critical thinking skills, and interest in learning environment across academic ability groups and attitudes towards team leaders. Using a one-shot pre/post experimental design, 108 conveniently selected students participated in the treatment throughout ten weeks. Researchers collected data using the critical thinking scale and interest scales both at the beginning and at the end of the treatment. In addition, students' course achievement is used as a dependent variable. To answer research questions, paired-samples t-test, one-way repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used. Results indicate that the mean scores of achievement are significantly different for different ability group students and different levels of attitudes towards team leaders. Besides, students' interest scores increased at the end of the implementation; however, their scores on critical thinking skills decreased. Further studies are suggested to consider these issues in implementing peer-led team learning in social science courses.