GROUP WORK IN THE CLASSROOM

Abstract

Nowadays both at home and abroad everybody including parents is concerned about the quality of education at school. Therefore both principals and teachers are to give more and more importance to the teaching skills and methods. In this century of technology when there is too much entertainment for children out of class it’s really urgent for teachers to improve their traditional lessons with the elements that can draw students’ attention to the subject and not only keep them in class but also keep in class awake far from boredom. Of course it’s difficult for a teacher, in school conditions of Kazakhstan, to work and keep all students involved and interested in a large class where there are more than 25 students whose levels of intelligence and abilities are different. So group work can be a good solution for large, mixed ability and multi-level classes where all students can be participants and have their role or parts to perform. Moreover, employers want university and college graduates to have developed teamwork skills. Students who participate in collaborative learning get better grades, are more satisfied with their education. This paper will discuss the use of group work in education.

Introduction

There are many definitions of group work and collaborative work that have been suggested by many researchers. Group work can also be considered as a part of a cooperative learning which is defined as a system of concrete teaching and learning techniques, rather than an approach, in which students are active agents in the process of learning through small group structures so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning. There are five characteristics that feature cooperative learning: (1) positive interdependence, (2) face-to-face interaction, (3) Individual accountability, (4) Interpersonal and small group skills, and (5) group processing. (Tsailing Liang, 2002)

According to Slavin, (1986, as reported by Dunkin, ed. 1987:238) “Group work is a division of the class into learning groups of four to six members who are of all levels of ability. These groups also have mix of boys and girls and students of different racial, ethnic backgrounds in about some proportion, they represent in the class as a whole.”

In Beard’s opinion (1978, as reported by Dunkin, ed. 1987:288), “Group work is a discussion of academic work that affords students the opportunity to organize their thinking by comparing ideas and interpretation with each other and to give expression and hence form to their understanding of a subject.”

It also has been suggested by Bennett and Dunne (1989,as cited in Galton and Williamson,1992:10) that “In collaborative work all the pupils are expected to work together to produce a single outcome and the group has to debate a social or moral issue and produce agreed solutions or recommendations,” Collaborative work defined as a more developed form of “group work”, where work is done together and the outcome is a combined product, perhaps in the form of a model or play (Pollard and Tann, 1987:104).

Thinking of all the definitions above given by researchers I decided that the group work is a teaching method, when several students make up a group to work together for a common goal and they share their resources and ideas together. Then the working together will turn into the positive effect on the students:

1. Increasing students’ self-confidence

In secondary school students are very young. They are all among seven to fourteen years old. It is a very important time to build self-confidence and self-esteem during these years. Group work and collaborative work is a good method and skill to build students’ self-confidence and self-esteem in English teaching of school. Group work is lead to supportive and secure learning environment. Students become active and patient in such learning atmosphere. They can learn cooperative working with each other. They respect each other, and also respect their ideas and weakness. In group and collaborative work, they can take a chance to use their skills, knowledge, experience, particularly they can learn to work interdependently and not to be dependent on their teacher. They can realize that getting knowledge is possible without teacher. In group work the importance of teacher is the planner, supervisor and organizer, not the leader or the controller. Students can understand each other very easily. They also become social individualist in the group. They can think, speak, write, read and listen independently. Their self-confidence and self-esteem can be improved greatly in the group. Group work can provide a more comfortable and relaxed learning atmosphere. So students can get more self-confidence and self-esteem from this learning atmosphere. Moreover, students also can be good teachers in the group, because they can understand each other much more easily, they are easily able to accept learning and listening from each other. I think not the result but the procedure is the most important in group work. Students can enjoy their achievement in the procedure of this group work. Group work is also very useful and suitable to the low learning students’ development. The low learning students also can make a progress in the group work because they feel secure.

2. Promoting interaction

Group work can promote interaction in the English classroom, it also supports those who are not usually willing to take risks or suffer the frustration of not having adequate language to express their ideas or emotions. In collaborative classrooms, students learn to rely on each other. They also have the security of knowing that they will have several opportunities to rehearse a contribution before they are asked to share it with the larger class. Students can get psychological comfort and security in group work. They are provided more opportunities for interaction, for face to face, for give and take, for practice in negotiation of meaning and for students to build social relationships. In this face to face communication, students learn to collaborate with their peers. By applying such a learning strategy as cooperative learning, students promote both their cognitive learning and interactive skills. They are exposed to new ideas and information to different perspectives and approaches. They are in a process of discussing, questioning and organizing which facilitates the comprehension and internalization of critical concepts and new information. As students learn to justify and clarify their own points of view when exploring an issue or solving a problem. They improve their linguistic competence as well as their overall communicative language competence.

Brow (1994, p59) asserted that “the best way to learn to interact is through interaction itself.” Group work provides pupils with the best stage to “show off” when they are applying what they have newly known. In group work, pupils may receive peer encouragement and support such as spontaneous feedback on errors. The group works make students work together. It also teaches them an important life skill – cooperation. By means of such cooperative learning, group work affects students’ attitudes and improves their interpersonal relationships, which play an important part in their present daily and future professional life.

3. Cultivating self-studying competence

Self-study, in isolation, has the potential for only limited impact on self or community. But in connection with others in the group has the potential for powerful and ultimately far-reaching influence. In group work, students have more opportunities to listen, speak, think, read and write by themselves and discuss with others. Students can be good teachers. They can learn from each other and study better. In peers students are able to accept learning from each other easily. The group work provides a positive and relaxed atmosphere for students to study. In group students have their own places. They have a larger space for their own development. They have more opportunities to listen, speak, think and write by themselves. It provides better space to cultivate self-study competence. So in group work, it is easier to cultivate students’ self-study competence. In group work teacher do not need to teach every individual and group members influence each other. Discussion is the necessary way for students to use in group work. It is one of the good methods to cultivate students’ self-study competence. In this discussion procedure students can learn how to study well on their own. Discussion has the advantage of encouraging young children to express their ideas and to learn new things; children can share common problems and evaluate work at the end of the discussion. Galton argues, “When a pupil does use a classmate as a learning resource, this is generally accomplished by listening to the teacher talking to the other child trying to pick up clues from their conservation…” (Galton, 1989) So the group work can improve students’ competence of self-studying. It also provides a suitable learning atmosphere to weaker learners to self-study. The low learning students can also make a progress by themselves.

4. Classroom dynamics through group works

Aim of any method used in the class is to raise the quality of education, which is the development of students’ performance in the class. Cooperation of students in small groups is an effective way of having dynamic class where all students have their parts to perform. As I mentioned before it’s difficult for a teacher to keep all students active in a large mixed ability class and grouping is a good solution for it. Because in a group each student has got his or her own role thus they are all involved into the lesson. This can help especially shy and weak students as they gain better marks thus self-confidence as an individual. Active class and active students mean positively motivated learners who have got an important part in the country’s quality statistics of education. Grouping the class allows teacher to achieve higher results in students’ performance, thus to gain a positive classroom dynamics in EFL classroom. There are many ways to achieve Classroom Dynamics, but what I believe is that easier way of all is dividing class into several groups so that teacher can have an opportunity to interact with every student in a large mixed level classroom. Of course, we shouldn’t forget that the important tips for a healthy group work are to form group carefully, taking into consideration the personality, level of learning and communication style of each student; to set clear expectations and require mutual participation from all students in the group and the last is to offer support and encouragement when needed.

Conclusion

There is a well of information about group work and the benefits of collaborative learning. When students spend time meeting in groups, they are able to achieve a deeper learning themes covered in class as well as develop skills, such as writing and communication (Light 2001). Wright and Lawson (2005) found that the bridging of in- and outside- class work encourages students to spend more time preparing for class, and having conversations with team members outside of regular class time. People remember group discussions better. Group learning fosters learning and comprehension. Students working in small groups have a tendency to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same material is presented in other instructional formats (Barkley, Cross & Major, 2005; Davis, 1993) In conclusion, the usefulness of group work can be considered as one of the leading ways of teaching.

References:

Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Major, C. H. (2005). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco; Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Dunkin, M., (1987), “The International Encyclopaedia of Teaching and Teacher Education”, Oxford: Pergamon.

Galton, M. and Williamson, J., (1992), “Group Work in the Primary Classroom”, London: Routledge.

Light, R.J. (2001). Making the Most of College: Students Speak their Minds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Pollard, A. and Tann, S., (1987), “Reflective Teaching in the Primary school”, London: Cassell.

Tsailing Liang, Implementing Cooperative Learning in EFL teaching, National Taiwan University, 2002

Tsai S. (1998) Effects of Cooperative Learning on Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Senior High school Students. Master’s Thesis. National Kaohsiung University.

Wasley, P. (November 17, 2006). Underrepresented students benefit most from ‘engagement.’ The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53 (13), p.A39.

Wright, E. R., & Lawson, A.,H. (2005). Computer mediated communication and student learning in large introductory sociology classes. Teaching Sociology, 33, 122-135.

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