Can Students Work Together Equitably? An Analysis of Task Effects in Collaborative Group Work

Past research has shown that ethnic minority students and females tend to participate less in collaborative groups because of their perceived lower status. This study examined the mediating effects that the task type (single-answer versus variable-answer) has on the relationship between diffuse status characteristics of participants (race – Black and White, and gender) and group members' interpersonal perceptions and participation within collaborative groups. Eight groups of four middle school students (Black female, Black male, White female, and White male) completed two tasks (variable-answer and single-answer) while being videotaped. The study found main effects of race and gender for participation and perceptions as well as task by gender effects for giving explanations and perceived quality of ideas. This article presents these findings in terms of gender-specific task characteristics and discusses implications of these results for educators and future research.     

Oral Interaction in Cooperative Learning Groups: Speaking,Listening, and the Nature of Statements Made by High-, Medium-, and Low-Achieving Students

Oral interaction within cooperative learning groups was observed for high-, medium-, and low-achieving students. Initially, cooperative and individualistic learning situations were compared on achievement and attitudes. Forty-eight 4th- grade American students were assigned to learning situations on a stratified random basis controlling for ability and sex. They participated in the study for 55 min a day for 15 instructional days. Two observation schemes were used. The results for the cooperative situation were factor analyzed to determine the basic dimensions of oral interaction within cooperative learning groups. Five orthogonal factors were identified: Exchanging Task-Related Information, Elaborating on the Information, Encouraging Each Other to Learn, Disagreeing With Each Other's Conclusions, and Making Nontask Comments and Sharing Personal Feelings. The oral participation of students from different achievement levels was differentially related to achievement. Vocalizing was found to be more strongly related to achievement than was listening to other group members vocalize. Medium and low achievers especially benefited from cooperative learning experiences.     

The teacher's role in promoting collaborative dialogue in the classroom

Background Research on student‐led small‐group learning in schools going back nearly four decades has documented many types of student participation that promote learning. Less is known about how the teacher can foster effective groupwork behaviours. Aims This paper reviews research that explores the role of the teacher in promoting learning in small groups. The focus is on how students can learn from their peers during small‐group work, how teachers can prepare students for collaborative group work, and the role of teacher discourse and classroom norms in small‐group dialogue. Method Studies selected for review focused on student‐led small‐group contexts for learning in which students were expected to collaborate, reported data from systematic observations of group work, and linked observational data to teacher practices and student learning outcomes. Results and conclusions This review uncovered multiple dimensions of the teacher's role in fostering beneficial group dialogue, including preparing students for collaborative work, forming groups, structuring the group‐work task, and influencing student interaction through teachers' discourse with small groups and with the class. Common threads through the research are the importance of students explaining their thinking, and teacher strategies and practices that may promote student elaboration of ideas.     

Oral interaction in cooperative learning groups: speaking, listening, and the nature of statements made by high-, medium-, and low-achieving students

Oral interaction within cooperative learning groups was observed for high-, medium-, and low-achieving students. Initially, cooperative and individualistic learning situations were compared on achievement and attitudes. Forty-eight 4th-grade American students were assigned to learning situations on a stratified random basis controlling for ability and sex. They participated in the study for 55 min a day for 15 instructional days. Two observation schemes were used. The results for the cooperative situation were factor analyzed to determine the basic dimensions of oral interaction within cooperative learning groups. Five orthogonal factors were identified: Exchanging Task-Related Information, Elaborating on the Information, Encouraging Each Other to Learn, Disagreeing With Each Other's Conclusions, and Making Nontask Comments and Sharing Personal Feelings. The oral participation of students from different achievement levels was differentially related to achievement. Vocalizing was found to be more strongly related to achievement than was listening to other group members vocalize. Medium and low achievers especially benefited from cooperative learning experiences.     

Comparison of memory skills in learning disabled, low-reading, and nondisabled adolescents

Concerns are raised regarding the samples used in studies of learning disabled children. In this study, subjects were 56 high school students; 10 exhibited perceptual or processing difficulties ("learning disabled"), 15 performed poorly on reading achievement tests ("low readers"), and 31 showed no scholastic problems ("nondisabled"). Scores of the three groups were compared on nine memory tasks involving either auditory or visual input and encompassing a wide variety of content (digits, pictures, related and unrelated words, paired-associates, or sentences). The nondisabled group performed significantly better than the learning disabled group on all but one of the tasks. The low readers' performance was similar to that of the learning disabled group for some tasks, but significantly different on other tasks, most notably on tasks involving visual factors. Implications for research with learning disabled populations are discussed.     

Emotion control in collaborative learning situations: Do students regulate emotions evoked by social challenges/

Background During recent decades, self‐regulated learning (SRL) has become a major research field. SRL successfully integrates the cognitive and motivational components of learning. Self‐regulation is usually seen as an individual process, with the social aspects of regulation conceptualized as one aspect of the context. However, recent research has begun to investigate whether self‐regulation processes are complemented by socially shared regulation processes. Aims The presented study investigated what kind of socio‐emotional challenges students experience during collaborative learning and whether the students regulate the emotions evoked during these situations. The interplay of the emotion regulation processes between the individual and the group was also studied. Sample The sample for this study was 63 teacher education students who studied in groups of three to five during three collaborative learning tasks. Method Students' interpretations of experienced social challenges and their attempts to regulate emotions evoked by these challenges were collected following each task using the Adaptive Instrument for the Regulation of Emotions. Results The results indicated that students experienced a variety of social challenges. Students also reported the use of shared regulation in addition to self‐regulation. Finally, the results suggested that intrinsic group dynamics are derived from both individual and social elements of collaborative situations. Conclusion The findings of the study support the assumption that students can regulate emotions collaboratively as well as individually. The study contributes to our understanding of the social aspects of emotional regulation in collaborative learning contexts.     

Task‐ and self‐related pathways to deep learning: The mediating role of achievement goals,classroom attentiveness,and group participation

Background The expectancy‐value and achievement goal theories are arguably the two most dominant theories of achievement motivation in the contemporary literature. However, very few studies have examined how the constructs derived from both theories are related to deep learning. Moreover, although there is evidence demonstrating the links between achievement goals and deep learning, little research has examined the mediating processes involved. Aims The aims of this research were to: (a) investigate the role of task‐ and self‐related beliefs (task value and self‐efficacy) as well as achievement goals in predicting deep learning in mathematics and (b) examine how classroom attentiveness and group participation mediated the relations between achievement goals and deep learning. Sample The sample comprised 1,476 Grade‐9 students from 39 schools in Singapore. Methods Students' self‐efficacy, task value, achievement goals, classroom attentiveness, group participation, and deep learning in mathematics were assessed by a self‐reported questionnaire administered on‐line. Structural equation modelling was performed to test the hypothesized model linking these variables. Results and conclusions Task value was predictive of task‐related achievement goals whereas self‐efficacy was predictive of task‐approach, performance‐approach, and performance‐avoidance goals. Achievement goals were found to fully mediate the relations between task value and self‐efficacy on the one hand, and classroom attentiveness, group participation, and deep learning on the other. Classroom attentiveness and group participation partially mediated the relations between achievement goal adoption and deep learning. The findings suggest that (a) task‐ and self‐related pathways are two possible routes through which students could be motivated to learn and (b) like task‐approach goals, performance‐approach goals could lead to adaptive processes and outcomes.     

Suitability of published neuropsychological test norms for urban African secondary school students in South Africa

Variations in neuropsychological test performance as a function of ethnic/cultural group membership, socioeconomic and educational status are widely documented. In South Africa, issues of cultural difference, sociopolitical disadvantage, cognitive and educational limitations, are of particular relevance. Accordingly, this study investigated the performance on a neuropsychological test battery of urban African high school students. A group of 100 Soweto students in Grades 8–12, and a second group of 152 sixth grade Soweto students aged 13–15 years, scored significantly lower on most of the measures than their American counterparts, as reflected in published norms. Results also demonstrated a significant difference in test performance as a function of educational grade. The findings confirmed the need for using norms and approaches which are appropriate to a given population when interpreting and addressing neuropsychological test performance.     

College students' role models, learning style preferences, and academic achievement in collaborative teaching: absolute versus relativistic thinking

Based on the perspective of postformal operations, this study investigated whether college students' role models (technical teachers vs. lecturing teachers) and preferred learning styles (experience-driven mode vs. theory-driven mode) in collaborative teaching courses would be moderated by their cognitive development (absolute thinking vs. relativistic thinking) and examine whether academic achievement of students would be contingent upon their preferred learning styles. Two hundred forty-four college students who have taken the technical courses with collaborative teaching participated in this study. The results showed that those participants with absolute thinking perceived the modeling advantage of technical teachers was greater than that of lecturing teachers, preferred the experience-driven mode over the theory-driven mode, and displayed differential academic achievement between technical courses and general courses. On the other hand, the students with relativistic thinking revealed no difference in perceived modeling advantage of role models, learning styles preferences, and academic achievement between two categories of courses. In addition, this research indicates that college students' preferred learning styles would interact with course category (technical courses vs. general courses) to display differential academic achievement. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Cooperative learning and group contingencies

This paper discusses the similarities and differences between cooperative learning and group contingencies. Cooperative learning refers to any methods in which students work together to help one another learn, while group contingencies refer to rewarding students based on the performance of a group. Research on the achievement effects of cooperative learning finds that these methods are effective primarily when they incorporate group contingencies, when groups are rewarded based on the average of their members' individual learning performances. The use of group contingencies within cooperative learning is hypothesized to motivate students to do a good job of explaining concepts and skills to their groupmates, and elaborated explanation is the principal behavior found to account for achievement gains in cooperative learning.     

Social Background and Achievement in Public and Catholic High Schools

One of the more provocative findings from the 1980 – 1982 High School and Beyond comparisons of public and Catholic high school students was the apparent lower effects of social class and race on achievement test scores in Catholic schools. A number of changes in American society and public education since that time suggest that relationships may have changed either in the direction of greater or lesser Catholic school benefits for less-advantaged youth. The analyses presented here represent an update of the High School and Beyond public-Catholic comparisons using the 1988 – 1992 National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88). As in the early 1980s, results indicate that Catholic high schools in the early 1990s had positive effects on student achievement test score gains. Without adjusting for other public-Catholic background differences, Catholic school minority and lower-SES students finished high school with higher average test scores than their public school counterparts. When adjustments for the effects of prior achievement and other background variables are made, however, differential benefits of Catholic schools for minority and lower-SES students are not found. Instead, Catholic schools appear to confer roughly equal benefits to students from more- and less-advantaged social backgrounds.     

When high achievers and low achievers work in the same group: The roles of group heterogeneity and processes in project‐based learning

Background . There has been an ongoing debate about the inconsistent effects of heterogeneous ability grouping on students in small group work such as project‐based learning. Aim . The present research investigated the roles of group heterogeneity and processes in project‐based learning. At the student level, we examined the interaction effect between students' within‐group achievement and group processes on their self‐ and collective efficacy. At the group level, we examined how group heterogeneity was associated with the average self‐ and collective efficacy reported by the groups. Sample . The participants were 1,921 Hong Kong secondary students in 367 project‐based learning groups. Method . Student achievement was determined by school examination marks. Group processes, self‐efficacy and collective efficacy were measured by a student‐report questionnaire. Hierarchical linear modelling was used to analyse the nested data. Results . When individual students in each group were taken as the unit of analysis, results indicated an interaction effect of group processes and students' within‐group achievement on the discrepancy between collective‐ and self‐efficacy. When compared with low achievers, high achievers reported lower collective efficacy than self‐efficacy when group processes were of low quality. However, both low and high achievers reported higher collective efficacy than self‐efficacy when group processes were of high quality. With 367 groups taken as the unit of analysis, the results showed that group heterogeneity, group gender composition and group size were not related to the discrepancy between collective‐ and self‐efficacy reported by the students. Conclusions . Group heterogeneity was not a determinant factor in students' learning efficacy. Instead, the quality of group processes played a pivotal role because both high and low achievers were able to benefit when group processes were of high quality.     

Facilitating Collaborative Knowledge Building

This article describes a detailed analysis of knowledge building in a problem-based learning group. Knowledge building involves increasing the collective knowledge of a group through social discourse. For knowledge building to occur in the classroom, the teacher needs to create opportunities for constructive discourse in order to support student learning and collective knowledge building. In problem-based learning, students learn through collaborative problem solving and reflecting on their experiences. The setting for this study is a group of second-year medical students working with an expert facilitator. The analysis was designed to understand how the facilitator provided opportunities for knowledge-building discourse and how the learners accomplished collective knowledge building. We examined episodes of knowledge-building discourse, the questions and statements that the students and facilitator generated throughout the tutorial, the change in their understanding of the problem that they were solving, and the collective knowledge that was constructed. The results indicate that the group worked to progressively improve their ideas through engaging in knowledge-building discourse. The facilitator helped support knowledge building through asking open-ended metacognitive questions and catalyzing group progress. Students took responsibility for advancing the group's understanding as they asked many high-level questions and built on each others thinking to construct collaborative explanations. The results of this study provide suggestions for orchestrating knowledge-building discourse.     

Unraveling the race paradox of achievement and self-views

Considerable evidence indicates that African American students achieve less academically than European American students. Yet, African American students hold more positive self-views than their European American counterparts. Previous studies that address these seemingly paradoxical findings focus on students in a relatively narrow age range and/or convenience samples. Therefore, the current study examines two common explanations for these seemingly paradoxical findings, among a large and diverse sample of African American and European American students (N = 1, 493) from elementary to post-secondary school and across the socioeconomic spectrum. Results indicate that among a diverse group of students and conceptualized in two different ways, African American students do not devalue academics. However, African American students are more likely than European American students to discount academic feedback.     

A Black Theological Response to Race-Based Medicine: Reconciliation in Minority Communities

The harm race-based medicine inflicts on minority bodies through race-based experimentation and the false solutions a race-based drug ensues within minority communities provokes concern. Such areas analyze the minority patient in a physical proxy. Though the mind and body are important entities, we cannot forget about the spirit. Healing is not just a physical practice; it includes spiritual practice. Efficient medicine includes the holistic elements of the mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, the spiritual discipline of black theology can be used as a tool to mend the harms of race-based medicine. It can be an avenue of research to further particular concerns for justice in medical care . Such theology contributes to the discussion of race-based medicine indicating the need for the voice, participation, and interdependence of minorities. Black theology can be used as a tool of healing and empowerment for health equity and awareness by exploring black theology’s response to race-based medicine, analyzing race in biblical literature, using biblical literature as a tool for minority patient empowerment, building on past and current black church health advocacy with personal leadership in health advocacy.

     

The influence of mirror reversals on male and female performance in spatial tasks: A componential look

O'Boyle and Hoff (Neuropsychologia, 25, 977–982, 1987) reported that females were faster and more accurate than males at mirror-tracing the outline of random shapes. To account for this differential performance, the authors advanced two alternative explanations. The first was a ‘Spatial Stroop’ effect which suggested that, because of their enhanced spatial ability, males are especially disadvantaged in escaping the misleading visual feedback provided by the mirror, resulting in slower and less accurate tracings. The second was a ‘manipulospatial’ hypothesis which suggested that the tracing advantage was related to female superiority in fine-detailed motor control, and perhaps, differential practice at performing skilled motor tasks in mirror-reversed contexts. In the present study, two experiments were conducted to assess the relative viability of these explanations. In Experiment 1, the WAIS-R Block Design task was performed within and outside the context of a mirror. This was done to determine if the observed female advantage was restricted to mirror-tracing per se, or generalizable to other manipulospatial tasks. In Experiment 2, a mental rotation task was performed within and outside the context of a mirror. The latter was designed to reveal if the removal of the motor component would affect the obtained sex difference. The present findings suggest that as long as some form of precision motor manipulation is required, females are superior to males at mirror-reversed spatial tasks. However, when the motor component is eliminated, a male performance advantage emerges in both normal and mirror-reversed contexts, suggesting that the manipulospatial hypothesis is the more viable explanation.     

Relationship Skills Training in Schools: Some Fieldwork Observations

The importance of training in relationship skills is emphasised. Following a review of the British and American literature on relationship skills training in schools, a year-long relationship skills course with a group of Australian secondary-school students of low academic achievement is described. The course had mixed success. Issues and problems pertaining to the course and to doing this kind of work in schools are discussed. These issues include: theoretical assumptions, content of course, size of group, composition of group, training methods, facilitating motivation and participation, and assessment. Though its difficulty should not be underestimated, relationship skills training in schools represents an exciting challenge.     

Grouping students for instruction: effects of learning style on achievement and attitudes

The present study examined the effects of matching and mismatching American middle-school students with a preference for learning alone or learning with peers with selected instructional treatments in order to determine the impact upon their attitudes and achievement in social studies. Analysis revealed that the learning-alone preference performed significantly better in the learning-alone condition and that the learning-with-peers preference performed significantly better in the learning-with-peers condition. However, no-preference students also performed significantly better in the learning-alone condition than with peers. In addition, data revealed that the learning-alone and the learning-with-peers students had significantly more positive attitudes when matched with their preferred learning style; the nopreference students had more positive attitudes in the learning-alone condition.     

Spouses' family work participation and its relation to wives' occupational level

Past statistical and conceptual limitations may mistakenly overstate women's and men's unequal participation in family work. The present study used log-linear models to examine spouses' participation in household work and parenting and their perceptions of equity regarding this participation. Wives' occupational level, an important but often overlooked source of variation, was used to classify couples according to three family types—single-wage traditional (TR)—and two types of dual-wage families—dual-earner (DE) in which wives held jobs while husbands held jobs or careers, and dual-career (DC). Data were taken from a study of 81 couples of comparable socioeconomic status and age who had an adolescent child living at home. As hypothesized, results indicated more sharing of household work in dual-wage families than typically reported, particularly for DC families. Husbands and wives in all family types were largely in agreement regarding the distribution of responsibility for household and parenting tasks, but perceptions of equity varied by family type. Spouses with comparable perceptions of fairness reported higher marital satisfaction.Appreciation is expressed to Sue Lucas and Darl Lewis for their assistance with this study. Portions of this paper were presented at the Third Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC June, 1991.     

Cultural expression and black students' attitudes toward high achievers

The authors of the present study have extended research by D. Marryshow that investigated African American students' attitudes toward 4 high achievers who differed in their approach to high achievement. D. Marryshow (1992) assessed students' social attitudes and perceptions of 4 high achievers with culturally distinct achievement orientations. In the present research, the authors assessed students' academic attitudes and perceptions of the same 4 high achievers. In addition, the present study includes Black children's predictions of their parents' and peers' attitudes toward these high achieving students. The results generally supported the authors' hypothesis that African American children would report a preference for students who achieve via attitudes and behaviors congruent with African American cultural values. The children also predicted that their parents and their Black peers would prefer these same African American culturally oriented high achievers. The findings suggest that Black children who prefer African American cultural modes of achievement may find themselves at odds with classroom demands geared toward learning in the mainstream cultural mode and thus may be at increased risk of academic failure.