Statement of the Problem

4 Keramati, 2010; Topping et al., 2007. This condition is very contrast to tertiary contexts where many perceptions‟ studies have been done due to the trend of group work‟s benefits in the future working environments Astin Astin, 2000; Hansen, 2006. Therefore, this present study will help to provide some valuable understandings on which aspects of group work are regarded as meaningful by the senior high school students in their English classes. By considering the results, it is hoped that senior high school teachers will be more aware of the impacts of group work on the learning processes and how to maximize their benefits if any.

B. LITERATURE REVIEW

1. The Concept of Group Work

Without rejecting the achievements that the traditional approach has once contributed in the history of teaching and learning in all over the world, an increasing number of teachers have now started to include the cooperative learning approach in their teaching technique. Therefore, it is noteworthy to firstly figure out what cooperative learning basically means. Cooperative learning is basically understood as an approach which requires students to work in groups rather than individually. Olsen and Kagan 1992 add an important point that cooperative learning should involve the interdependence of students to exchange information and to motivate each other in order to achieve learning. These kinds of interdependence between students will not certainly 5 be found in the traditional teaching approach which only regards teachers as the center of the learning and stresses competition over cooperation Slavin, 1987. Furthermore, Ettington and Camp 2002 define group work as “a graded assignment requiring students to work collaboratively across multiple class periods and involving some time outside the normal class meeting” p. 357. In other words, Ettington and Camp focus the concept of group work as a learning strategy that is related to grades, as the achievement of the students, as well as periods, as the students‟ effort allocated to complete the given task. While Ettington and Camp 2002 perceive group work in terms of grades and periods, Davis 1993 describes it in terms of periods and kinds of task given by the teacher. Davis 1993 with an adaptation from Johnson, Johnson, and Smith 1991 categorizes three types of group work, namely “formal learning groups” p. 147, “informal learning groups” p. 147, and “study teams” p. 147. Formal learning groups refer to the completion of a particular task in a given time which usually only lasts for one class meeting up to several weeks at maximum. Meanwhile, informal learning groups are aimed as a means for students to strengthen their understanding about a concept or even help other friends to comprehend a theory in class. On the other hand, study teams have a purpose on assigning the students to make a project or a more complicated task which requires much longer time to finish. From these three types, only „informal learning groups‟ type seems to contradict to the definition offered by Ettington and Camp 2002. If Davis 1993 believes that group work can also appear when the grades do not