Significance of the Study
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
6 have control, that is, when students are engaged in a group discussion in class, Ettington
and Camp 2002 stress that group work is an activity that can only happen if there are grades
which trigger it. Though I concede that Ettington and Camp‟s definition works in some contexts, I agree more with Davis‟ viewpoint that group work can also happen
without the interference of grades from the teachers. Recognizing that there are various definitions coming from different perspectives,
it is important to summarize the definition of group work used in the present paper. To sum up, group work can be better defined as a learning strategy under cooperative
learning approach which requires students to work supportively with a number of peers, in order to complete a particular type of task in a certain period of time, either with or
without the presence of grades as the controller Davis, 1993; Olsen and Kagan, 1992; Slavin, 1987.