Abstract
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed higher education, presenting new opportunities and challenges for developing 21st-century skills such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, and digital literacy. Among emerging AI tools, ChatGPT has gained prominence for its ability to support students’ learning by assisting with academic writing, conducting research, finding and summarising resources, brainstorming and generating ideas, clarifying complex concepts, enhancing engagement, personalising learning, facilitating collaboration, and aiding educators in developing instructional materials. Despite its growing use, limited research has explored how undergraduate students experience ChatGPT during collaborative teamwork. Therefore, this study sought to explore undergraduate students’ experiences of using ChatGPT during collaborative teamwork in a South African university context.
The study adopted a constructivist research paradigm, which assumes that reality is subjective and socially constructed, and used a qualitative research approach grounded in phenomenology. Purposive sampling was used to select 12 first-year undergraduate students from the Faculty of Education at a South African university who had experience with collaborative learning and ChatGPT. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather in-depth narratives, while qualitative surveys were distributed to 17 students to provide broader perspectives. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings indicate that students generally found ChatGPT to be a valuable tool for collaborative teamwork. They reported that it supported idea generation, organised discussions, reduced cognitive load, and enhanced their self-efficacy and participation in group activities. ChatGPT acted as both a cognitive and social scaffold, facilitating knowledge co-construction and promoting the development of essential 21st-century skills. However, challenges such as over-reliance on the tool, reduced critical thinking, occasional inaccuracies, and a decreased sense of ownership over teamwork were also noted. These findings suggest that while ChatGPT has the potential to enhance collaborative teamwork, a balanced approach to its use is imperative...