Secondary school teachers' management and assessment strategies of free-riders in group work: implication for engaging the disengaged

This study aimed to explore teachers' management and assessment strategies of free-riders, and the challenges they faced in the process at selected secondary schools in Ethiopia. To address these objectives, a concurrent mixed-methods design was adopted. 146 teachers were selected for the questionnaire survey while four teachers were selected for follow-up interviews. To decide teachers' management and assessment levels of free-riders, a one-sample t-test was used at (α = 0.05) while the qualitative data were described based on their themes. The results showed teachers infrequently used some assessment strategies even if they offered the same marks for an unequal contribution. As well, teachers attempted to apply various management strategies although they fall short of sharing the tasks with individual members. Also, workload, class size, lack of sufficient skills, and failure to report free riders were some of the challenges teachers faced in the management and assessment of free riders.