Perceived Advantages of Group Work
10 the presence of members who
do not really take part in the task, who are called as „free riders‟ Boud, 2001, „passengers‟ Bourner et al., 2001, „freeloaders‟ Daly Worrel,
1993, or „hitchhikers‟ Oakley et al., 2004, but still gain the benefits of the mark Mello,
1993; different schedules among members Oakley et al., 2004; diverse orientation of the final grades Oakley et al., 2004, lack of leadership skills Bolton, 1999; and also
lack of guidance from the tutors which causes ineffective working performance from the group Bolton, 1999.
In a set of similar studies in Asia for instance, while studies conducted by Iqbal 2004 and Keramati 2010 in Iran as well as Zakaria et al. 2013 in Indonesia could
prove that group work was effective in promoting higher grades for the senior high school students, a study led by Thanh et al. 2008 showed differently. In the study,
Thanh et al. tried to challenge the Western common assumption of the effectiveness of group work by revealing some studies with various school levels in Asian context which
did not work. The findings showed that from 14 studies that had been selected and reviewed carefully, 7 studies
– 50 of them indicated that group work was not significant to enhance grades, or even ineffective to promote a better learning for the
primary, secondary, and tertiary students. Even, Thanh et al. argued that the finding was enough to infer that group work principles “do [did] not suit the local [Asian] context in
terms of both cultural values and infrastructure conditions, leading to rejections from different levels” p. 82. This finding points out that the benefits of group work, which
11 have long been claimed to exist in Western countries may not be effective for students in
Asia. Another study conducted by Topping et al. 2007 in Scotland has also supported
the view that group work does not always result in positive outcomes. While in one project they could show that group work was effective for the primary students, in
another project, they failed to prove the effectiveness of group work in improving the grades of the secondary students. This result indicates further that the benefits of group
work may be uncertain and inconsistent to appear as the effective way to enhance students‟ attainment.