Group Work tesis english lang literaturee

performance in the group. There is strong evidence that group grades and team rewards are most successful for motivation Slavin, 1995. According to Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec 1993, students who are at the most fundamental level must be able to move into groups with a minimum of noise and fuss. They should be able to work with the group by using soft voices so that they would not disturb other students. These management skills also include group social skills such as encouraging everyone to work together, calling other group members by name and distributing of tasks equally. These are basic cooperative skills which students have to learn. Even adults still need to learn these skills. Furthermore, students also need the opportunity to be taught how to work in groups and how to be a productive group member. Each member has to play a role during cooperative tasks which allow students to practice behaviors that will both benefit the group and deeper understanding of content Putnam, 1997. Putnam 1997 compares cooperative learning with traditional learning group. Research indicates that this is a worthwhile effort. Putnam found that cooperative learning is not simply putting students in a group in order to accomplish a task, but a well-planned strategy designed to promote content learning, trust in others and social development. Table 2.1 shows the comparison between cooperative learning and traditional learning. Table 2.1 Cooperative learning Vs Traditional learning Cooperative Learning Groups Traditional Learning Groups Positive interdependence No positive interdependence Individual accountability No individual accountability Cooperative skill instruction No cooperative skill instruction Concern for peer learning Little concern for peer learning Heterogeneous groups Homogeneous groups Teacher selected groups Student selected groups Student reflection and goal setting Student selected groups Teacher observation and feedback No teacher observation and feedback Equal opportunity for success Uniform standard for success Taken from Putnam, Joyce 1997 cooperative learning in Diverse Classroom Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill Many teachers use cooperative learning in many different ways. In assessing the effectiveness of specific cooperative learning strategies, however, there are a number of researchers who have developed cooperative learning procedures, conducted research and evaluation of their methods. According to Johnson, Johnson and Stanne 2000, there are ten modern methods of cooperative learning that received the most attention refer to table 2.2.