Improving fifth grade students' performance in group work through cooperative learning and classroom management techniques

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(1)ACTION RESEARCH. Improving fifth grade students’ performance in group work through cooperative learning and classroom management techniques By Bharti Cartes. Faculty of Education English Department Tutors: Mary Jane Abrahams – Macarena Guajardo. December, 2015.

(2) Index. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Context ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Problem .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Research Question ............................................................................................................................. 4 Rationale ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Literature review ............................................................................................................................... 5 Methodology ...................................................................................................................................... 9 Data collection instruments .......................................................................................................... 9 Procedures for data collection.................................................................................................... 10 Data Analysis and findings ............................................................................................................. 11 Action plan ....................................................................................................................................... 16 Reflection and analysis of intervention ......................................................................................... 18 Limitations ....................................................................................................................................... 19 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................ 20 References ........................................................................................................................................ 21 APPENDIXES ................................................................................................................................. 23.

(3) Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of an action research carried out in a semiprivate school in Santiago. This research aims at helping the students to improve their performance during group work activities. The first step consisted of identifying the factors that difficult group work in the English class. Close-ended questionnaires were given to all of the students from fifth grade and their teachers. After identifying the main causes of the problem, an action plan was designed to implement cooperative learning and improve some classroom management techniques. Keywords: students’ interaction, group work, cooperative learning and classroom management. Resumen. El propósito de este documento es presentar los hallazgos de una investigación-acción llevada a cabo en una escuela Subvencionada en Santiago. Esta investigación pretende mejorar el desempeño de los estudiantes durante actividades grupales. El primer paso fue la identificación de los factores que dificultan el trabajo en grupo en clases de inglés. Cuestionarios cerrados fueron entregados a los estudiantes y sus profesores. Luego de identificar las principales causas del problema, se diseñó un plan de acción para implementar aprendizaje cooperativo y mejorar algunas técnicas de manejo de clase. Palabras clave: Interacción entre los estudiantes, trabajo grupal, aprendizaje cooperativo y manejo de clase..

(4) Acknowledgements. This research was supported by my tutors, Mary Jane Abrahams and Macarena Guajardo who provided comments that greatly improved the manuscript. I thank for assistance with data collection to the teaching staff from Nuestra Señora de Andacollo School, especially to my host teacher, Claudia Lazo Monardes who guided my teaching process and authorized interventions to carry out this research. I would also like to show my gratitude to Diego Pumarino Rojas, Chief Management Control, AIEP Institute, for sharing his knowledge with me to enrich my data collection. I am also immensely grateful to José Callado, English teacher and Juan Enrique Opazo, Sociologist for their contribution to my professional and personal development..

(5) Introduction. English teachers must focus not only on receptive skills such as reading and writing but also on productive abilities in order to promote the use of the target language. Most of the activities to foster communication are planned to be carried out in groups or pair work. However, many teachers avoid the use of group work. Firstly, teachers in general state that the students do not behave well when they work in teams. Secondly, some teachers mention that students get distracted by their classmates and do not do their activities.. In spite of the possible drawbacks of group work, it is mandatory making an effort to improve strategies to get the students working in teams; it has been proven that group work derives in positive effects on children and adolescents such as improving their social skills, learning outcomes, and specifically in the case of English as a second language: the use of group work facilitates the use of the target language among students due to the time they spend communicating to one another.. This action research aims at finding out which teaching practices interfere with the correct group work performance in fifth grade students from a school in Santiago and how a novice teacher can improve her strategies to make the students work cooperatively.. 1.

(6) Context. The participants of this project are fifth graders from Nuestra Señora de Andacollo School, located in Santiago. Nuestra Señora de Andacollo is a Subsidized Catholic School which belongs to Santa Cruz Congregation. According to Ministerio de Educación, this school serves around one thousand students from first to twelve grades. (Ficha establecimiento, n.d., p.1) Every class has 40 pupils. Every classroom is equipped with a data show, large whiteboards and individual desks for every child; the seating arrangement is normally in rows.. Regarding my practicum, I am in charge of two classes: Second grade B and the aforementioned fifth grade. Those students (ages 10-11) come from different previous grades, namely fourth grade “a” and “b”. Ten students attend a special English lesson taught by a native speaker once a week. Only the higher achievers –those pupils who get the best grades- have the possibility to attend those special English lessons.. I was introduced to this grade seven months ago. I spent four hours a week with them and their previous experiences with the English language were varied; some students were above the required English level for this grade, and some others struggled to learn. Regardless of their English level, these children participated actively during the lessons and were easy to engage in most of the activities. They are used to teacher-centered lessons and individual work.. 2.

(7) Problem. According to my experience and teachers at the school, it is difficult to carry out group work activities due to misbehavior and lack of social skills to work in teams.. According to my class observations, it is common to see just one or two members per group doing all the activities and the rest of the team does not make any contribution to the group. This situation results in repetitive quarrels among the team members and task delivery’s delays. In addition, some students have difficulties to find classmates to work in groups and do not participate during the lessons.. My interest is to generate meaningful learning during group work activities; in order to achieve that objective, I need to discover the factors that make difficult my students’ performance during group work.. Many activities demand group work but the time devoted to them is really scarce since teachers avoid it. This is a puzzling issue for me because one of the main objectives of the English language courses in our curriculum is that the students must use English to communicate with one another.. I have asked some students whether they prefer to work alone or in groups and the opinions are diverse. Nevertheless, many students agree on the difficulty of working in groups. I consider that I do not have enough experience to manage group work. Furthermore I am unaware of the real factors that trouble my students when they work in groups. 3.

(8) Research Question. Taking into consideration my unawareness of the reasons why my students struggle to work in groups, my questions are: Which are the main factors that affect fifth graders’ performance in group work activities? According to those factors, what strategies can I implement to make my fifth grade students work in groups and pairs successfully, and therefore learn?. Rationale. Group work is a relevant issue due to its role in the learning process of a foreign language and involvement with the lessons. In addition, it is a valuable opportunity to make children interact.. This project is relevant because I need to improve my teaching practice and my students experience with the English language at the same time. Group work is essential for children to express their thoughts and use language in meaningful ways to communicate with one another.. I hope this project serves as a contribution to my professional experience and leads me to improve my classroom management techniques related to group work. Moreover I hope to enlighten other colleagues about group work through my findings.. 4.

(9) I really do not know the factors that prevent group work from being successful. I expect to find out what techniques I am not using properly or need to improve to make group work effective to involve every single student in my activities.. Literature review. The objective of the communicative approach of language teaching is the development of communicative competence in students; the ability to use English to communicate; consequently, the development of the four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking (Ministerio de Educación [MINEDUC], 2013). Taking into consideration the context of this research, just two skills are fostered, namely writing and reading. For that reason it is necessary to mention some concepts related to the need of incorporating the listening and speaking skills in fifth graders lesson plans. The importance of using the language to interact will be explained through key concepts: group work -its pros and cons- and cooperative learning.. Classroom interaction. Students learn a lot from the language used in the classroom such as in jokes, comments and instructions, among others. Consequently, teacher-centered lessons in which the teacher talk dominates communication are unsatisfactory to promote interaction among learners. (Scrivener, 2011, p. 58). 5.

(10) Furthermore, Brown (1994) points out the importance of increasing student-student interaction as well as getting the students to ask questions and give explanations to each other. Using gestures and facial expressions are useful for this purpose. (pp. 59- 61). Group work. According to Brown (1994), group work implies “multiple techniques in which two or more students are assigned a task that involves collaboration and self-initiated language” (p. 177). However, some teachers are afraid of group work because they consider that they will lose control form the classroom or the students will use their native language. (Brown, 1994, p.179).. A recent research studied the reasons why teachers avoid group work. Participants reported that level of distractions and group dynamics very often difficult the teacher’s control over the classroom. In addition, teachers’ lack of knowledge is very determining on how to manage and organize group activities. (Forslund & Hammar, 2014, p. 223). As teachers we must bear in mind that there are some requirements to achieve effectiveness of group tasks and it is necessary to know some classroom management techniques to succeed.. 6.

(11) Classroom management techniques. Regarding management strategies, Brown (1994) states “group work can go wrong if I is not carefully planned, well executed, monitored throughout, and followed up on in some way” (p. 182).. Key strategies to promote successful group work consist of selecting appropriate tasks, giving brief explanations, modeling complex tasks, checking instructions for clarification and monitoring the tasks. (Brown, 1994, pp. 183-190) One alternative to get students working in groups actively is the next topic of the research: “Cooperative learning”.. Cooperative learning. Johnson (1989) offers a concise definition of cooperation as working together to accomplish shared goals whereas cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning (as cited in Leicester, & Modgil, 2000). “Over 500 research studies back the conclusion that cooperative learning produces gains across all content areas, all grade levels, and among all types of students including special needs, high achieving, gifted, urban, rural, and all ethnic and racial groups.” (Kagan, 1999). Cooperative learning improves students’ social skills as it increases skills such as listening, turn-taking, leadership, among others. Moreover, pupils take more initiative and feel more responsible for the outcomes they receive (Kagan, 1999). Cooperative learning promotes 7.

(12) committed relationships among students. Even when individuals initially dislike each other, this methodology has been found to promote positive relationships (Johnson & Johnson, 1999, p. 72) Nevertheless, there are some risks that teachers may face: “when we put students in groups, there is potential for all sorts of social interaction problems. Cooperative learning unmasks the lack of social skills, students who do not know how to work together. Without instruction and structuring, students will put each other down and fail to resolve basic task conflicts” (Kagan, 1999).. Regarding the above-mentioned drawbacks, it is a mistake assuming that children know how to work with each other. Most of the times the students do not have experience in cooperative tasks; pupils may not be used to work with different classmates. Under those circumstances it seems complex introducing group activities, but Cohen (1986) highlights that “the first step is establishing rules” (p. 39). Having expressed different views of group work and cooperative learning -and its respective classroom management strategies- I wonder to which extent it is possible to use cooperative learning in fifth grade at Nuestra Señora de Andacollo School.. The research indicates that cooperative learning is possible in low level learners of English; small group interaction resulted in the improvement of social skills. Back in the eighties, when group work was not a common activity in the classrooms, a study proved that cooperative learning has positive effects on children. Teachers applied cooperative learning strategies in their lesson plans, whose performance was discussed in conferences to give feedback. As a result, the students gained confidence and the teachers switched their roles 8.

(13) from lecturers to facilitators and maximized the student’s participation. (Ringdahl et al., 1986, pp.27-28). Methodology. Throughout this research it will be gathered quantitative and qualitative information related to perceptions, feelings and assessments related to group work activities in English as foreign language. The instruments used to gather data are listed below:. Data collection instruments. Group work grades. This information is useful to determine whether the students improve their results in group work activities over time. See table 11 (Page 37). Teachers’ survey. The survey is composed by 34 statements which were answered according to a Likert-type scale. See Appendix B (Page 28) Student’s survey. The students answered a survey based on 35 statements, classified in seven categories. Each item was answered according to a Likert-type scale. See Appendix A (Page 25). 9.

(14) Procedures for data collection. Grades. This information was gathered throughout the semester, that is to say, between August and November. The assessments considered for analysis are: . A role play: “At the restaurant” (group work activity). . Presentation called “My profession” (Individual activity). . Presentation called “The weather forecast” (Group work activity). Teachers’ survey. The teachers selected to answer the survey have worked with fifth grade “B” during the last two semesters, therefore, they know the pupils working dynamics and relationships. Each teacher received one hard copy of the survey and answered it when they were available at the teacher’s lounge.. Students’ survey. The students were asked to answer the survey in fifteen minutes during one module, monitored by their math’s teacher. Each student received a hard copy of the survey and the teacher gave the instructions to answer the statements.. 10.

(15) Data Analysis and findings. First of all, one of the concerns that led me to carry out this investigation, was the fact that the students had better performance and grades in individual assessments. At the beginning of the second semester (second week of August) the students had to make an oral presentation individually. One month later, the pupils had to perform a role play in which they obtained lower grades compared to the previous oral presentation. See figure 1 (Page 36).. Students’ survey results. The objective of the students’ survey was to determine which factors are more determining in the students’ performance in group work activities. The survey focusses on seven aspects that may influence the students’ performance, namely relationships among pupils, group work dynamics, behavior, attitude towards activities, attitude towards group work and finally, the teachers’ role and assessments.. Questions regarding the students’ relationships, behavior and group dynamics were based on 3-point Likert scales. Variable 1 represented “Always”, variable 2, “Sometimes” and variable 3, “Never”. Similarly, questions about attitude towards activities, teacher’s role, assessment and group dynamics were based on 3-point Likert-scales. 1 for “I agree”, 2 for “neither agree nor disagree” and 3, “disagree”.. The results on students’ relationships are presented by the frequency of certain choices the students make when they work in teams. See table 1 (Page 31) Interestingly, 47% of the 11.

(16) students feel forced to work with classmates that they do not like and 86% declared to have had quarrels frequently or always during group work activities. Nevertheless, most of the students consider that they respect their classmates and feel that they are respected at the same time. This fact could be explained if we consider that they work very often with classmates they do not get on well with and perhaps the children do not get to agreements most of the times during the activities, but it does not mean that they do not respect each other.. The students’ responses about the correct delivery of tasks correlates with my own experience: 70% per cent of the students recognize that sometimes they do not deliver the activity in the established deadline. Besides, some problems regarding the instructions’ understanding is evident since 42% of the students answered that they sometimes do not understand the activity. Another important factor in the groups’ performance is responsibility; almost half the students do not bring the materials to work and 60% of the students answered to have done other activities during English lessons. See table 3 (Page 32).. Regarding the students behavior, surprisingly no one admitted to present bad behavior during the English lessons, however an important number of students recognized not to pay attention to the teacher while she gives instructions and the opinions are diverse about how easy they get distracted. One third of the students answered to lose focus easily when they work in groups. See table 2 (Page 31).. 12.

(17) 42 % of the participants consider that just some group members work, which coincides with their responses about how much they feel they are a contribution to their teams: 40% of the respondents marked the option “neutral”, which means that they do not consider themselves as an important contribution during all of the activities. See table 3 (Page 32. Regarding the attitude towards group work, 70% of the respondents agree that group work improves their learning and relationships. See table 4 (Page 32). This last point is absolutely relevant for the purpose of this research since the students perceive group work as an important aspect to foster their relationships.. With regard to the teachers’ role, the students’ responses are absolutely positive. 84% of the pupils feel that the teacher explains the instructions very clearly and more than 50% of the students consider that the activities are motivating and feel that the teachers provide support when they need it. One aspect that should be fostered is clarifying the learning objectives. Once the students have clearer ideas about the learning objectives it may be easier for them to organize their activities.. In general, respondents’ answers were predominantly approving about the teachers’ strategies, activities and assessments. However there are some features to be enhanced such as clarity in the instructions and relationships among students.. Finally, the students marked the statements they consider more representative about assessments. Just a minor percentage of the students judged the assessments as exceedingly demanding. See table 6 (Page 33) The purpose of this question was to verify whether the 13.

(18) activities were too difficult, consequently the grades and behavior could have been influenced by the complexity of the tasks, in other words, the students may have faced problems in task completeness due to excessive work or complexity of the activities. However their opinions are diverse and 53% of the respondents do not agree neither disagree. This issue can be related to the fact that more than 50% of the students do not understand completely the instructions as well. Teacher’s survey results The participants were five teachers from different subjects who work with fifth grade “B”. The first questions were related to the methodology they use during their lessons and there is a general preference for individual activities in contrast to group work: Only three participants answered that they sometimes use team work. By asking this question it was possible to confirm one hypothesis that the students are not used to work in teams very often, which affects directly their performance. The most common type of work among teachers is pair work, which was reported to be used sometimes by four teachers. See table 7 (Page 34). Regarding the preparation for group work activities, it was interesting to see that the teachers are not involved in groups’ formation. Five statements focused on the teachers’ role, in which the respondents indicated the level of difficulty of some activities. The most complex according to the teachers’ opinions were controlling discipline, followed by establishing rules, and monitoring that all of the students work. See table 9 (Page 35).. Finally, the last section of the teachers’ survey reveals the main problems that the students face when they work in teams. Most of the teachers coincide in the fact that the students have 14.

(19) problems organizing their groups. Moreover, the pupils have difficulties to overcome their own problems as teams and sometimes the teachers perceive lack of motivation among students. See table 10 (Page 35). Nevertheless, 63% of the students declare to feel motivated during the activities and their attitude seems to be positive while working in groups and just 12% feels demotivated which is a very low percentage. In the middle of the semester, the teacher assigned a second group work activity which consisted of presenting a weather broadcast in front of the class. The teacher allowed the students to work on the computer lab of the school to prepare the presentation. The grades increased in most of the cases. See figure 2 (Page 36) Perhaps this was due to the fact that the students did not have to bring materials and they had time enough to fulfill the task. In addition, the teacher wrote down the instructions and modeled the activity. These improvements determined in part what is intended to solve through the action plan.. 15.

(20) Action plan. The action plan aims at improving my classroom management techniques to implement cooperative learning properly. Based on the results obtained from surveys and grades from the research, the following activities were planned:. Implementation of activities based on cooperative learning. Increasing pair work activities. Taking into account that many teachers do not include this type of work I decided to make pair work as a routine for certain contents. Some activities from the textbook were adapted to use some Kagan Structures (1994) to make the students work in groups and pairs . Pair-think-share: As a pre-activitiy, I used this Kagan structure and the students were given a question which they had to discuss and then share to the rest of the class.. . Team interview: In order to practice vocabulary and review contents for an exam, the students had to ask questions from a worksheet to their team members. Each participant was interviewed and all of the members of the group shared their answers.. 16.

(21) Improving classroom management techniques. Working on the instructions. The teacher applied more techniques to clarify the instructions: . Writing down the instructions step by step on the board.. . Providing one example. . Modeling the activity. . Asking one student to model the activity. . Asking some students to repeat the instructions. More guidance during the activities. One of the most troublesome aspects of group work was the teams’ organization. Most of the times children had arguments because of the uneven distribution of work among team members. For that reason, the teacher implemented strategies to distribute the activities and complete the task on time..  The teacher assigned the members for each group.  Each student had a specific role: Leader, Secretary, Spokesperson and monitor  An alarm clock was used to control the time for each activity.. 17.

(22) Reflection and analysis of intervention. The activities implemented such as Think-pair-share and Team interview were successful in terms of participation since all of the group members discussed the questions and they enjoyed the opportunity to talk. However this class was not used to follow guidelines for group work most of the times, which made difficult the implementation of the activities at the beginning: some students started to talk about other topics instead of following the instructions.. Regarding the instructions, the changes were very satisfactory; just a few students were confused during the activities but they easily followed the directions once their partners explained the activities. Another positive aspect of the action plan, was assigning the group members. At the beginning it was difficult because some students tried to join groups in which they felt more comfortable but after the teacher justified the reasons why they had to join a different group, the pupils seemed less reluctant to work with classmates they were not used to talk to. One week later the students were assigned a task to be done in the same groups and the students had no problems at all making groups with their new team members. All of the groups worked almost at the same pace which was somehow challenging at the beginning because some students needed more time to complete their tasks. The alarm clock worked perfectly because it was a kind of pressure and challenge for the pupils to finish the task.. 18.

(23) Limitations. Certainly there were some aspects that interfered with my plans. Firstly, the time available to make interventions and prove whether my action plan was effective was very scarce. During the second semester at Nuestra Señora de Andacollo School there were a number of celebrations and activities that reduced my lessons. Moreover the second semester is shorter than the first one; therefore the possibilities to put my ideas into practice were limited. It could have been more effective to have worked on my action plan and see the results in the long run instead of making a few interventions to prove the efficacy of my ideas.. Another important limitation to this action research was the fact that this project should be carried out cooperatively by all of the teachers and not only by one person. The action plan is not effective at all if there is not a systematic work. All of the teachers should agree on the need of increasing group work activities and designing a plan collectively to make this research work. The students may be more enthusiastic and prepared for group work activities if more teachers try to apply the same strategies.. Finally, and this this the limitation that probably affected the quality of this project is the fact that I do not have the knowledge to develop a rigorous methodology and design the proper instruments, which may have an impact on the validity of this research.. 19.

(24) Conclusion. After conducting this project, it was possible to see how different factors can trigger students’ problems which are reflected sometimes on their grades. Most of the times grades do not reflect the problems, but the perceptions from pupils and teachers are illuminating about the nature of a problem.. This action research allowed me to know the hidden reasons behind the students’ poor performance during group work activities and my own limitations as a teacher. Professional development takes time and making mistakes, but above all, it is necessary to search for solutions.. This research has been beneficial for both the teacher and students. Some improvements were made regarding giving instructions more clearly, helping the students to feel more engaged and organized and accepting different people to work with. Relationships are an important aspect to be fostered. Improving relationships among students takes more time, for that reason this issue was not tackled throughout the implementation of the action plan. Strengthening relationships in fifth grade B at Nuestra Señora de Andacollo School might be an enriching challenge and an interesting topic for further research because it would complement the findings of this project.. 20.

(25) References. Brown, H. (1994). Chapter 12: Interactive language teaching: Sustaining interaction through group work. In Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall Regents. Cohen, E. (1986). Preparing students for cooperation. In Designing groupwork: Strategies for the heterogeneous classroom. New York: Teachers College Press. Ficha. Establecimiento.. (n.d.).. Retrieved. August. 26,. 2015,. from. http://www.mime.mineduc.cl/mime-web/mvc/mime/ficha. Forslund, K., & Hammar, E. (2014). Group Work Management in the Classroom. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 58 (2), 222-234. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/ Johnson, D. W & Johnson, R. (1999) Making Cooperative Learning Work. Retrieved from ERIC database. (EJ592334) Kagan, S. Cooperative Learning: Seventeen Pros and Seventeen Cons Plus Ten Tips for Success. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. Kagan Online Magazine, Winter 1999. www.kaganonline.com Kagan, S. (1994). Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. Leicester, M., Modgil, C., & Modgil, S. (2000). Part 1: Classroom practice. In Classroom issues: Practice, pedagogy, and curriculum (2000 ed., Vol. III, p. 18). London: Falmer Press.. 21.

(26) Ringdahl, S., Kobayashi, H., Chan, S., Facunla, M., Ibasco, E., Javier, M., & Moreno, E. (1986). Thank You for Working with Me": Experiment in Cooperative Learning. (1st ed., pp. 26-29). Washington D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280312.pdf Scrivener, J. (2011). Chapter 3: Classroom Management. In Learning teaching: The essential guide to English language teaching (3rd ed., pp. ) Oxford: Macmillan Education. Unidad de Currículum y Unidad de Currículum y Evaluación Ministerio de Educación. (2013). Idioma extranjero: Inglés Programa de Estudio para Quinto Año Básico. Santiago. Retrieved from http://www.curriculumenlineamineduc.cl/605/articles-20548_programa.pdf. 22.

(27) APPENDIXES. 23.

(28) Gantt chart ACTIVITIES WEEK. AUGUST 1. 2. 3. Diagram of general structure of AR project. x. Preliminary Introduction. x. Context. x. Preliminary research question. x. Rationale. x. Project outline delivery. SEPTEMBER 4. OCTOBER. 1. 2. 3. 4. x. x. x. x. 1. 2. x. x. 3. NOVEMBER 4. 1. x. x. 2. 3. 4. x. Literary review Research methodology. x. Project first draft delivery. x. Data collection Data analysis. x. Second draft delivery. x x. Review/corrections. x. Final version delivery. x. 24.

(29) APPENDIX A Students’ survey. List number: ___. Asiste a grupo de inglés:. Sexo. Sí Femenino No Masculino. Choose the best alternative that represents you. I. Relationships. 1. I choose my best friends to work in groups. 2. It’s hard for me to find a group to work. 3. I am forced to work with classmates I do not like. 4. When I work in groups I have quarrels. II Group work dynamics 1. We deliver the activities on deadline. 2. When I have doubts, we as the teacher for clarification. 3. We use English during the lesson. 25. Always. Sometimes Never. Always. Sometimes Never.

(30) 4. My group follows the instructions. 5. My group brings the materials to work during the lesson. 6. My group devotes time to activities unrelated to the lesson. 7. My group rehearses before presentations. III Attitude 1. I behave well during the lessons. 2. I respect my classmates. 3. I pay attention to the teacher. 4. I prefer to work individually. 5. I get distracted easily by my peers. 6. Group work improves my learning. 7. Group work improves my relationships. Agree Neutral. Disagree. Always Sometimes Never. IV Group work/team 1. All the members work equally. 2. We assign activities equally. 3. We make an effort to deliver quality work. 4. I am a real contribution to my team. 26.

(31) 5. I am important in decision making. 6. My team respects my opinions. V. Activities. 1. The instructions are clear. 2. The activities are motivating. 3. I have experience working in groups in other subjects. 4. The teacher gives us support when we need her. 5. I learn through group work activities. 6. I understand the objectives of the activities. 7. In my opinion, the activities are too difficult. Agree. VI Assessments. Neutral. Agree Neutral. I know the rubrics for each project The rubric is too demanding My grades represent my effort I consider that most of the times my grades are fair. 27. Disagree. Disagree.

(32) APPENDIX B Teachers’ survey. How often do you use the following methodologies?. Never. Seldom. Sometimes. Often. Always. Group work Pair work Whole class Individual work. How do you prepare the students for group work?. Always. 1. I choose the topics the students will work on. 2. I explain the learning objectives before the activity. 3. AI choose the group members. 4. I assign roles to each group member I give the students the possibility to organized their. 5 activities 6. I use a variety of classroom management techniques. 28. Sometimes Never.

(33) Teachers’ role 1. Giving clear instructions. 2. Giving feedback besides the grades. 3. Helping students with special needs. 4. Monitoring the whole classroom. 5. Establishing rules.. Assessments-rubrics 1. I employ rubrics from MINEDUC. 2. I use rubrics designed by teachers from the school. 3. I change rubrics according to my needs. 4. I design my own rubrics. Group work. Difficult. Neutral. Always. Sometimes Never. Agree. 1. Improves relationships. 2. Creates a positive environment in the classroom. 3. Fosters the students’ learning. 4. Makes difficult the classroom management. 5. It’s not necessary in my subject. 29. Neutral. Easy. Disagree.

(34) Students’ attitudes. Yes. 1. The students are involved during the activities. 2. The students are motivated. 3. The students make groups easily. 4. Listen carefully to my instructions. 5. Distribute the tasks equally.. 6. The respect each other They overcome their problems by themselves. 7. (without teacher’s intervention. 8. Most of the group members do not work. 9. Just a few members work actively.. 10. The members work autonomously. 30. Sometimes. No.

(35) Relationships in group work activities: Table 1. Frecuency of occurrence Frequency. Always. Sometimes. Never. 51%. 49%. 0%. 9%. 56%. 33%. not like. 9%. 42%. 47%. When I work in groups, I have quarrels. 12%. 74%. 12%. I show respect to my classmates. 51%. 44%. 5%. My classmates respect my opinions. 37%. 53%. 9%. I choose my best friends to work with It's difficult for me to be accepted in a Relationships group among group I am forced to work with classmates I do members. Table 2 Level of agreement I have good behavior in the classroom. Agree. Neutral. Disagree. 40%. 60%. 0%. 51%. 7%. 26%. 7%. 21%. 72%. 33%. 42%. 26%. I pay attention to the teacher when she gives Student's instructions behavior I prefer to work alone instead of working in groups I lose attention easily. 31.

(36) Table 3 Level of agreement Attitude Group work helps me to learn. Agree. Neutral Disagree. 70%. 30%. 0%. towards. Group work is useful to improve relationship with. group. my classmates. 81%. 14%. 5%. work. I have much experience working in groups. 72%. 26%. 2%. I learn English with group work. 72%. 26%. 2%. Table 4 My group delivers the activity in the established deadline. 30%. 70%. 0%. 60%. 33%. 5%. 21%. 65%. 12%. 56%. 42%. 2%. 47%. 47%. 2%. the lesson. 90%. 60%. 28%. My group rehearses before presentations. 88%. 5%. 5%. My group asks for clarification when we do not understand Group. We use English to communicate with one. work. another. dynamics I understand the instructions My group brings the materials We devote time to activities that are not part of. 32.

(37) Table 5 Level of agreement. Agree. Neutral Disagree. The teacher gives clear instructions of the activity. 84%. 16%. 0%. The activities are motivating. 63%. 26%. 12%. The teacher helps us when we need her. 79%. 21%. 0%. I understand the objective of the activities. 60%. 40%. 0%. The activities are too difficult. 12%. 49%. 40%. The teacher's role. Table 6 Level of agreement. Agree. Neutral Disagree. I know the rubric for each activity. 42%. 37%. 21%. Assessment The assessment is too demanding. 19%. 53%. 28%. My grade represents my effort and learning. 84%. 12%. 5%. Generally I consider that my grades are fair. 65%. 16%. 19%. 33.

(38) Table 7 How often do you use the following methodologies?. Never. Seldom. Sometimes. Often. Always. Group work. 1. 1. 3. 0. 0. Pair work. 1. 0. 3. 1. 0. Whole class. 1. 0. 1. 2. 1. Individual work. 0. 0. 1. 1. 3. Always. Sometimes. Never. Table 8 How do you prepare the students for group work? 1. I choose the topics the students will work on. 3. 0. 2. 2. I explain the learning objectives before the activity. 1. 0. 3. 3. AI choose the group members. 0. 2. 3. 4. I assign roles to each group member. 0. 2. 3. activities. 2. 0. 3. I use a variety of classroom management techniques. 2. 0. 3. I give the students the possibility to organized their. 5. 6. 34.

(39) Table 9 Teachers’ role. Difficult. Neutral. Easy. 1. Giving clear instructions. 2. 3. 0. 2. Giving feedback besides the grades. 3. 1. 1. 3. Helping students with special needs. 3. 2. 0. 4. Monitoring the whole classroom. 3. 2. 0. 5. Establishing rules.. 2. 2. 1. Sometimes. No. Table 10 Students’ attitudes. Yes. 1. The students are involved during the activities. 1. 4. 0. 2. The students are motivated. 1. 4. 0. 3. The students make groups easily. 0. 4. 1. 4. Listen carefully to my instructions. 1. 4. 0. 5. Distribute the tasks equally.. 0. 5. 0. 6. The respect each other. 0. 5. 0. 7. They overcome their problems by themselves. 0. 3. 2. 8. Most of the group members do not work. 0. 2. 3. 9. Just a few members work actively.. 0. 5. 0. 10. The members work autonomously. 0. 4. 1. 35.

(40) Figure 1. Relation between individual task results and group work results. 27% Improvement Retrogression 73%. Figure 2. Relation between group work 1 and group work 2. 39%. Improvement Retrogression. 61%. 36.

(41) Table 11: Grades. Student Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22. MY PROFESSION Individual activitiy 20 64 68 60 70 70 54 66 64 66 70 70 70 64 70 70 31 70 62 70 64 70. ROLE PLAY RESTAURANT Student Number 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44. Group activity 54 58 70 44 66 62 38 70 58 66 58 62 70 58 62 66 42 58 42 58 62 44. 37. MY PROFESSION Individual activitiy 32 70 68 58 36 66 70 66 64 70 70 64 68 68 48 70 66 50 70 70 70 68. ROLE PLAY RESTAURANT Group activity 58 54 70 62 38 70 62 70 54 66 66 70 70 70 40 70 70 38 70 70 46 44.

(42) Student Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. ROLE PLAY RESTAURANT Group activity 1 54 58 66 44 64 58 38 68 58 66 58 58 70 58 58 63 42 58 42 54 62 44 58. Wheather Broadcast Group activity 2 65 60 70 50 65 60 40 70 52 43 52 60 52 43 60 65 40 49 50 55 70 40 49. 38. Student Number. ROLE PLAY RESTAURANT Group activity 1. Weather Broadcast Group activity 2. 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44. 50 65 62 38 70 62 70 54 66 66 70 66 70 40 70 66 38 70 70 46 44. 55 70 65 40 70 70 70 61 60 60 65 70 65 61 65 70 70 53 65 53 52.

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