Students' strategies for managing social loafers in PBL: interactional means of dealing with unequal participation in group work

In this new era of education, employers require graduates who are not only academically proficient, but who also possess a variety of attributes such as being communicators, leaders, and networkers (Davidson & Major, 2014). As well as technical and practical subject knowledge, today’s students of the 'Information Age' (Lee, Huh & Reigeluth, 2015) must be capable of working with others and jointly making decisions, regardless of the unpredictable work-based challenges that they may face (Woods, Briedis & Perna, 2013). Essentially, employers demand the professional skills which gear graduates directly towards industry needs, and these competencies must be cultivated by educational institutions throughout (Imafuku, 2012). Problem-based Learning (PBL) – a group-based pedagogical approach where students are placed at the core of their learning – has been shown to foster these very skills (Boud & Feletti, 1997).