Seven disagreements about cooperative learning

Enhancing Student Motivation in Secondary School Mathematics Courses: A Methodological Approach

“…The results of the questions related to student satisfaction with the presented methodology-Question 3 ( Figure 3) and Question 6-reflect that students enjoyed the new methodology (a rating of 7.6 out of 10 in Question 3, and 91% preferred the new methodology in Question 6). The result of Question 4-with a lower rating than expected when compared with the rest of the questions (Figure 3)-can be explained as follows: (i) the lack of interest of some students in taking an active role in the classroom, (ii) the effort needed in daily work at home for preparing or finishing the different activities (some students do not want homework), and (iii) the work in groups (problems between peers arose in some work groups, which is consistent with the literature [43][44][45]). It is worth noting that some students thought-wrongly-that with our methodology they would experience "effortless" learning; hence, after the experience, they negatively rated the experience in the post-test.…”

Member Reactions to Social Loafers When Doing Group-Based Assignments: A Group Processes Perspective

“…Ideally, two ways of forming groups for assessment of student progress are worth noting: instructor-formed and student self-formed methods. In relation to these methods, the instructor-formed groups were reported to be more challenging in initiating and organizing the group assignment tasks and being more susceptible to the occurrence of social loafing as compared to student-formed groups similar to what was observed in some of the previous studies (Opdecam & Everaert, 2018;Pieterse & Thompson, 2010). Based on the findings of the present study, it follows that the occurrence of social loafing hindered proper organization and performance of the group activities among students.…”

“…It also improves task performance and the development of learners' critical thinking skills (Petty, 2009). Indeed, the use of group work is also considered an effective strategy in addressing diversity issues in education provision (Morgan, 2004;Opdecam & Everaert, 2018). Certainly, the use of group work is believed to facilitate the development of some of the skills and competences being emphasized as important in the 21st Century (Geisinger, 2016;Kereluik, Mishra, Fahnoe & Terry, 2013;Mishra & Mehta, 2017).…”

“…Despite the potential benefits of using group work in education, working in groups is not always a rewarding experience especially when justice (that is, distributive, procedural, and transactional) is not observed when students engage in group assignments (Baron & Branscombe, 2012). One of the dark sides of working in groups amongst students is the existence of social loafing and/or free-riding tendencies (Davies, 2009;Gaur & Gupta, 2013;Opdecam & Everaert, 2018), and certainly leading to conflicts (LaBeouf, Griffith & Roberts, 2016). Further empirical evidence indicates that working in group situations is a stressful experience to some students especially the active team members (Hall & Buzwell, 2012;Livingstone & Lynch, 2000), partly because of social loafing phenomenon.…”

An Educational Intervention to Increase Efficacy and Interdependence in Group Work

“…Although most studies on CL have emphasised the positive outcomes from employing CL, there is also research highlighting disagreements on or criticism about CL as an application and/or method (Opdecam & Everaert, 2018). Low-quality group work and negative experiences of cooperative situations may come from students' and teachers' perceptions of and beliefs about CL.…”