Project Education and Adams’ Theory of Equity

Abstract

This work-in-progress paper in research category is concerned with students’ perceptions of justice in software engineering group projects. Taking a directed content analysis approach, the aim is to analyze the relevance of Adams’ theory of Equity for small-group project education. The analysis was applied to the data collected from a third-year project course in which students encounter an open-ended group assignment. The results indicate that the theory can serve as a useful framework that helps teachers to identify justice-related issues in project courses. On the other hand, it was concluded that special carefulness is advisable considering the simplicity of the theory.