Abstract:

The teaching strategies for the development of students' competences have become very important in recent decades, with the consolidation of the framework of the European Higher Education Area. It is important to emphasize that the group strategy has been fundamental in the business world and progressively, has been incorporated into other professional areas. In the field of education, group work offers an innovation strategy that is based on the exchange of experiences and knowledge. The purpose of this study has been to know and analyze the assessment of students of the Physical Activity and Sports Science degree on group work in terms of organizational and operational aspects of the groups assigned at random and of the self-selected groups, as well as analyse their differences. The design of this research is exploratory, using a mixed methodology (quantitative and qualitative), not experimental. The sample consisted of 164 students distributed in three different subjects belonging to the first three courses of the Physical Activity and Sports Science degree (42 first graders, 58 second graders and 64 third graders). The instrument used to collect the quantitative and qualitative data was the one used and validated by Salicetti (2009).

The quantitative data show that the items most valued by the students are: group cohesion, the involvement with the subject and the work project, favors mutual help and collaborative work in a collaborative way. Regarding the qualitative data, the valuation that the university students make of the group work on what this activity has meant, 94.76% of frequencies refer to positive evaluations as: the achievement of greater cohesion with their classmates, a pleasant working climate, learning from others and achieve to alleviate the volume of total work, through fair work. Finally, the reflections of the students indicate that for the groups randomly assigned by the teacher, the work has involved a personal and team challenge, a greater involvement to carry out a common objective, while at the same time it has allowed them to know and interact with colleagues with those who usually do not.

Keywords:

Physical Education, University Students, inicial training, collaborative work.