Results & Findings
Many students struggle with collaborating in groups
As I assigned students projects, the first project ended up being tackled divide and conquer style. Students would get in their groups and divide up the work “you take paragraph 1, I’ll do 2, and you can do 3.” When they put it together, they would not read it over to see if it was cohesive or accurate, but rather just copied and pasted and submitted their work. The problem with using a divide and conquer method is that the students did not gain the knowledge from the other member's research. They were not constructing knowledge together, but rather they each were satisfied with learning a piece of the information.
During a post project feedback form, the number of students who felt group work was helpful increased by one person, but 3 people moved from "it doesn't matter" to "No." I I started to interview students who enjoyed working in groups I slowly realized that the majority of the students who said that they enjoyed group work stated the main reason was “we have to do less work.” My goal was to have collaboration teach them to construct and build upon the knowledge together. But in order to do this, students would need to share and listen to each other, which was something that was not done often prior to the start of my Action Research. Most of the class only understood how to listen to the teacher, but not each other. Which was what was depicted in figure 4 (found in the Literature Review).
I knew that using group work was going to be effective because at the end of phase 1, there was a slight increase in those who enjoyed group work (figure 7). There were also 3 students that said they disliked group work, and I aimed to look why.
As I assigned students projects, the first project ended up being tackled divide and conquer style. Students would get in their groups and divide up the work “you take paragraph 1, I’ll do 2, and you can do 3.” When they put it together, they would not read it over to see if it was cohesive or accurate, but rather just copied and pasted and submitted their work. The problem with using a divide and conquer method is that the students did not gain the knowledge from the other member's research. They were not constructing knowledge together, but rather they each were satisfied with learning a piece of the information.
During a post project feedback form, the number of students who felt group work was helpful increased by one person, but 3 people moved from "it doesn't matter" to "No." I I started to interview students who enjoyed working in groups I slowly realized that the majority of the students who said that they enjoyed group work stated the main reason was “we have to do less work.” My goal was to have collaboration teach them to construct and build upon the knowledge together. But in order to do this, students would need to share and listen to each other, which was something that was not done often prior to the start of my Action Research. Most of the class only understood how to listen to the teacher, but not each other. Which was what was depicted in figure 4 (found in the Literature Review).
I knew that using group work was going to be effective because at the end of phase 1, there was a slight increase in those who enjoyed group work (figure 7). There were also 3 students that said they disliked group work, and I aimed to look why.
"Do you like doing group work in the classroom?"
Figure 7 - Data Comparison between initial data and end of phase 1
There were several students that did not enjoy group work for various reasons. Some students found themselves working more efficiently by themselves than with groups. During the assignment where I allowed them to choose groups, I found that given the choice they would not work in groups. This seemed to contradict the idea that they enjoyed working in groups, but as I observed and interviewed many of those students, I found that I had not asked if they had the choice would they work together or by themselves. When I interviewed some of the students post-assignment, they responded with various reasons:
Student 1: “No, because everybody else is stupid, they don’t work hard.”
Student 2: “No, because I don’t like working with other people and having to explain myself to them.”
Student 3: “This is why I hate having group projects, its useless… I don’t even know anything about them but I was okay with it because I didn’t want to waste time arguing about stupid things”
Many students from military families like to "get it done"
During the implementation, there was an argument that occurred between a group, where one member did all of the work and wanted all of the credit. A shouting match ensued within my classroom and I had to bring the group outside to resolve the issue. The solution that we came up with was that each student would write on a piece of paper what they did to contribute to the project and what grade they deserved. What the students submitted told two very different stories of how work was distributed.
Student 1: “No, because everybody else is stupid, they don’t work hard.”
Student 2: “No, because I don’t like working with other people and having to explain myself to them.”
Student 3: “This is why I hate having group projects, its useless… I don’t even know anything about them but I was okay with it because I didn’t want to waste time arguing about stupid things”
Many students from military families like to "get it done"
During the implementation, there was an argument that occurred between a group, where one member did all of the work and wanted all of the credit. A shouting match ensued within my classroom and I had to bring the group outside to resolve the issue. The solution that we came up with was that each student would write on a piece of paper what they did to contribute to the project and what grade they deserved. What the students submitted told two very different stories of how work was distributed.
Figure A- Student writing sample 1
Figure A was the perspective of the student who normally puts effort into the work, but is also a quieter student. A major issue that caught my attention is that either nobody in her group listened to her or she did not think that anybody was listening to her. After reading the other student's account, it confirmed that her opinion was not taken into account. After talking to this student, I found that the other student (from a military background) wanted to get started so she took the project home first.
Figure B- Student writing sample 2
Figure B was written by a student who always rushes to get work done and is usually ahead of the class. If I give an assignment to the class that would take an average student 20 minutes to finish, she would usually be done in 10 minutes. Often times I would have to check her work and every time, I would ask her to revise her answers by going more in depth. In my observations I have found that this is characteristic of a high percentage of the other students from military families. This has made it difficult for some of these students to work in groups, but most have managed to do so without too many issues.
These two writing pieces from students taught me three things: the first was that it made me more conscious with the way I assembled groups. It showed me that trying to mix it up (randomly and by ability level) was forcing relationships was not going to be the best way to help this class. So I interviewed students to see what their thoughts were on group members that they would be effective working with.
Secondly, it made me understand that I will need to pay attention to groups with students from military families to make sure everyone in the group is given a chance to contribute and participate. This helped me in the following projects because I was able to diffuse situations before any arguments and disagreements arose. It helped me monitor certain students and groups to help facilitate healthier relationships. Kudler and Porter (2013) says that frequent moves and being repeatedly separated from friends and support groups affects them emotionally and behaviorally, and that as a community we must help them cope with these issues . At the end of this confrontation between these students, I did not see any malice from either students, but as I revisited each of her responses to "do you enjoy group work?" she would always respond by saying she rather just do everything herself.
The third lesson I learned was that students needed to learn to listen to each other. This has seemed to become a common theme during my findings. I found that issues such as this one were a result of students not listening to each other. In figure A, the students says, "when they were talking, I was just re-reading the documents," showing that she was not listening to her group discussion. This was something that needed to be addressed, learning and practicing the skill of listening.
These two writing pieces from students taught me three things: the first was that it made me more conscious with the way I assembled groups. It showed me that trying to mix it up (randomly and by ability level) was forcing relationships was not going to be the best way to help this class. So I interviewed students to see what their thoughts were on group members that they would be effective working with.
Secondly, it made me understand that I will need to pay attention to groups with students from military families to make sure everyone in the group is given a chance to contribute and participate. This helped me in the following projects because I was able to diffuse situations before any arguments and disagreements arose. It helped me monitor certain students and groups to help facilitate healthier relationships. Kudler and Porter (2013) says that frequent moves and being repeatedly separated from friends and support groups affects them emotionally and behaviorally, and that as a community we must help them cope with these issues . At the end of this confrontation between these students, I did not see any malice from either students, but as I revisited each of her responses to "do you enjoy group work?" she would always respond by saying she rather just do everything herself.
The third lesson I learned was that students needed to learn to listen to each other. This has seemed to become a common theme during my findings. I found that issues such as this one were a result of students not listening to each other. In figure A, the students says, "when they were talking, I was just re-reading the documents," showing that she was not listening to her group discussion. This was something that needed to be addressed, learning and practicing the skill of listening.
Students know which students they can work well with
During the interviews I began to ask both students who liked and disliked group work, and if they had to be in a group with students, which students would they choose to work with. The purpose was to see if students would be honest in choosing groups that would make increase their learning rather than just choosing friends. Their answers showed an important factor that would lead to the way I approached future projects, that students prefer to work with the people that sat next to them (figure 8).
During the interviews I began to ask both students who liked and disliked group work, and if they had to be in a group with students, which students would they choose to work with. The purpose was to see if students would be honest in choosing groups that would make increase their learning rather than just choosing friends. Their answers showed an important factor that would lead to the way I approached future projects, that students prefer to work with the people that sat next to them (figure 8).
Figure 8 - Sample interview responses
(Names used in the interview are pseudonyms, used to protect students identities)
I chose a random student sample that was representative of the entire class. Their responses were very similar to the responses that they filled out in the student feedback form. I learned through the interviews that students who get along, in this case, the students who have been sitting next to each other, believe that they are more effective than random groups.
Observation: Some projects help with learning and group collaboration better than others
During my observations of each of the assignments and projects, I noticed that some kept students more engaged in the group work while others completely failed. By comparing the level of student interaction, participation during presentations, and level of engagement with the project, I was able to determine and also adjust the projects to make them more conducive to collaboration.
During project 1, students were split into groups but did instead of talking and sharing ideas, most students split up the work and worked individually. Their idea of group work became sitting next to each other and it became cut and paste to form their group project. I began to understand this as a divide and conquer method in which students just found group work enjoyable because they had to do less work and were able to spend more time on the less work they had to do. The issue that I found was that they were not held accountable for the other persons information.
Project 2, students were asked to do research which incorporated an individual graphic organizer that they used to fill out information from the sources that were provided. This graphic organizer held each student in the group accountable for all of the research information, this graphic organizer would encourage students to participate in discussions during the project. In addition to that, I also I found that groups that had members who completely filled out the graphic organizer tended to have a final product that was more cohesive and received better grades. On the other hand, I observed that when students did not fill out their graphic organizers, the work seemed to revert to the divide and conquer method (partially completed graphic organizers).
Project 3 incorporated various forms of presentation methods to see if engagement played a role in whether or not students would work better with each other. I found that certain methods of presentations encouraged collaboration. For example, students who decided to present using a powerpoint presentation created their individual slides and presented the ones that they created, there was little collaboration when creating the presentation. Whereas, an Adobe Slate presentation that was only allowed on one device required students to be working with each other to create the presentation. Choices in which pictures to put in, what were the important points were all done collaboratively.
Students need to learn to value the relationships in the classroom
As I started to assign students groups and have them freely work on their projects, I found that many students did not know how to form relationships with the students that sat around them. While students worked on their projects I found two types of ways in which group members interacted with each other. The first group had minimal interaction with each other, they were dead quiet and would occasionally ask a question. These groups usually consisted of students who had little or no interaction with each other before being assigned the group. The second group that I noticed usually included students who would talk a lot, but only if they knew each other. If there was a group of 4 students, and two knew each other, those two would interact frequently, while the other two listened and did their work.
Many students throughout these projects did not know each other’s names. From my initial observations and student survey, I knew that many students did not know each other’s names. I was hoping that the community building exercises would allow for students to learn each other’s names. One pair of students who had sat next to each other for an entire semester did not know each other’s names, and for the month of these projects they continued to call each other by the wrong name. During the assignment where students were given the choice of who to work with, the student feedback form asked students to write down the names of their group members. As they answered that question, I heard students in front of me ask, “what was your name again?” This caught me by surprise because these students had been talking like they were close friends throughout the entire period and these students did not know each other’s names.
During my observations of each of the assignments and projects, I noticed that some kept students more engaged in the group work while others completely failed. By comparing the level of student interaction, participation during presentations, and level of engagement with the project, I was able to determine and also adjust the projects to make them more conducive to collaboration.
During project 1, students were split into groups but did instead of talking and sharing ideas, most students split up the work and worked individually. Their idea of group work became sitting next to each other and it became cut and paste to form their group project. I began to understand this as a divide and conquer method in which students just found group work enjoyable because they had to do less work and were able to spend more time on the less work they had to do. The issue that I found was that they were not held accountable for the other persons information.
Project 2, students were asked to do research which incorporated an individual graphic organizer that they used to fill out information from the sources that were provided. This graphic organizer held each student in the group accountable for all of the research information, this graphic organizer would encourage students to participate in discussions during the project. In addition to that, I also I found that groups that had members who completely filled out the graphic organizer tended to have a final product that was more cohesive and received better grades. On the other hand, I observed that when students did not fill out their graphic organizers, the work seemed to revert to the divide and conquer method (partially completed graphic organizers).
Project 3 incorporated various forms of presentation methods to see if engagement played a role in whether or not students would work better with each other. I found that certain methods of presentations encouraged collaboration. For example, students who decided to present using a powerpoint presentation created their individual slides and presented the ones that they created, there was little collaboration when creating the presentation. Whereas, an Adobe Slate presentation that was only allowed on one device required students to be working with each other to create the presentation. Choices in which pictures to put in, what were the important points were all done collaboratively.
Students need to learn to value the relationships in the classroom
As I started to assign students groups and have them freely work on their projects, I found that many students did not know how to form relationships with the students that sat around them. While students worked on their projects I found two types of ways in which group members interacted with each other. The first group had minimal interaction with each other, they were dead quiet and would occasionally ask a question. These groups usually consisted of students who had little or no interaction with each other before being assigned the group. The second group that I noticed usually included students who would talk a lot, but only if they knew each other. If there was a group of 4 students, and two knew each other, those two would interact frequently, while the other two listened and did their work.
Many students throughout these projects did not know each other’s names. From my initial observations and student survey, I knew that many students did not know each other’s names. I was hoping that the community building exercises would allow for students to learn each other’s names. One pair of students who had sat next to each other for an entire semester did not know each other’s names, and for the month of these projects they continued to call each other by the wrong name. During the assignment where students were given the choice of who to work with, the student feedback form asked students to write down the names of their group members. As they answered that question, I heard students in front of me ask, “what was your name again?” This caught me by surprise because these students had been talking like they were close friends throughout the entire period and these students did not know each other’s names.
I had previously thought that the community building exercises were making progress with building relationships, but even after 3 weeks, it had not reached a deep enough level. This could mean two things, 1. they were too embarrassed to ask what their names were or 2. they genuinely did not see a need to know each others names. Regardless of which it was, something needed to be done. I needed to spend less time focusing on the projects and more time establishing relationships to build community in the classroom. I found myself worrying more on how I could create opportunities for collaboration that I neglected the fact that students did not even know how to build relationships with each other. As I revisited my research questions, I found myself focusing more on my subquestion of "creating engaging projects" rather than my main research question of "building a sense of community."
Social Media is “my time”
When I had my students all register for a Twitter account, each of them seemed thrilled at the idea of using social media in class. I had paved the way to implementing this by getting input from students about whether or not they thought it would be useful in class and if they were interested in it. The feedback I had was overwhelmingly in favor for using it, and the 15 minutes we spent in class setting up accounts and setting rules for tweeting seemed to be a good start. I was planning on using social media to implement a community aspect in class, as well as a way for students to support each other in joint knowledge building during assignments and projects.
On the first day of the tweeting assignment, the excuses started to come up. I immediately started to see how this social media aspect of the research could be highly detrimental to both students effectiveness in the classroom as well as a time waster. Many students constantly had issues trying to log in to their account. We spent about 10 minutes trying to get everyone logged in, many students did not remember their password and needed to create a new account. I asked a student what was old with her other account and she said simple, “that’s my personal account.” By the time we were able to get half the class logged in, most of the class had lost interest and began to work on the actual project. The most popular argument that I heard from the students is best summed up by my student Amy (pseudonym), "Mr. Liew, Twitter is my time." When I asked her to elaborate, she said that she needed to keep school separate from her social life, and tweeting for class was not going to work for her. As she was mentioning that to me, I noticed several students nodding in agreement. It was at this point where I realized that this part of my Action Research was going to be difficult to implement, but I decided to give it a few more tries.
Day two of the tweeting assignment did not get a better response. Day two occurred during the last assignment where students were given the choice to work by themselves or to work in a group of members of their choice. The intention of this twitter assignment was to approach social media with a social constructivist approach in which students would use Twitter to support their peers in their project by posting facts and dates. A student responded with, “I thought about it for 3 minutes Mr. Liew but I can’t bring myself to tweet… unless it is for extra points.” Many of the class echoed her sentiment and chose to not do it. Those that did tweet decided to post vague facts that were not going to help many students with their assignments.
Social Media is “my time”
When I had my students all register for a Twitter account, each of them seemed thrilled at the idea of using social media in class. I had paved the way to implementing this by getting input from students about whether or not they thought it would be useful in class and if they were interested in it. The feedback I had was overwhelmingly in favor for using it, and the 15 minutes we spent in class setting up accounts and setting rules for tweeting seemed to be a good start. I was planning on using social media to implement a community aspect in class, as well as a way for students to support each other in joint knowledge building during assignments and projects.
On the first day of the tweeting assignment, the excuses started to come up. I immediately started to see how this social media aspect of the research could be highly detrimental to both students effectiveness in the classroom as well as a time waster. Many students constantly had issues trying to log in to their account. We spent about 10 minutes trying to get everyone logged in, many students did not remember their password and needed to create a new account. I asked a student what was old with her other account and she said simple, “that’s my personal account.” By the time we were able to get half the class logged in, most of the class had lost interest and began to work on the actual project. The most popular argument that I heard from the students is best summed up by my student Amy (pseudonym), "Mr. Liew, Twitter is my time." When I asked her to elaborate, she said that she needed to keep school separate from her social life, and tweeting for class was not going to work for her. As she was mentioning that to me, I noticed several students nodding in agreement. It was at this point where I realized that this part of my Action Research was going to be difficult to implement, but I decided to give it a few more tries.
Day two of the tweeting assignment did not get a better response. Day two occurred during the last assignment where students were given the choice to work by themselves or to work in a group of members of their choice. The intention of this twitter assignment was to approach social media with a social constructivist approach in which students would use Twitter to support their peers in their project by posting facts and dates. A student responded with, “I thought about it for 3 minutes Mr. Liew but I can’t bring myself to tweet… unless it is for extra points.” Many of the class echoed her sentiment and chose to not do it. Those that did tweet decided to post vague facts that were not going to help many students with their assignments.
Reflection: Step by Step
I had previously understood the idea of collaboration as a way for students to work together and support each other’s learning. I approached it with the mentality that “two minds are better than one,” and the idea of students merely splitting up the work in order to make it easier made me frustrated. As I look back into the several projects that were implemented I began to realize that the collaboration in itself was not going to build community (at least not in just a semester). As I looked into the cycles, I learned that I was trying to use community-building exercises to build collaborative skills that would lead back to building a community within the classroom. The main idea of these exercises was allowing students to get to know each other and know each other’s names. What I didn’t take into account was the need for students to learn and practice the skill of active listening. When I revisited the Bettez article, "Critical Community Building," I realized that I had skipped a major component of developing community. She says, "Listening is the action step that... creates a restorative community" (Bettez, 2011, p. 4).
Being a part of a diverse classroom and creating an environment where students are engaged with each other in learning and in building relationships can be difficult. Actively trying to create a community within the classroom has been an exciting task, and as students learn to engage with each other, I learned that the hardest task is facilitating and creating opportunities. My role comes through the preparation and the opportunities that I create through lessons and assignments largely determine how successful students are when developing relationships with each other. Creating a community in an 11th grade classroom can be difficult if students do not know how to listen to each other. I learned that students did not understand the point of the community building exercises because I was not explicit in stating the purpose was for them to learn about each other.
The social media aspect started to become more detrimental than helpful when building a supportive classroom environment. Even though the idea of including social media in the classroom sounded like a good idea at first, I quickly realized that many students wanted to keep their social life and their studies separate. Poellhuber states in his article that students age affected their desire to collaborate, "older... students are more interested than younger studnets in collaborating with peers" (Poellhuber and Anderson, 2009, p. 8). From student feedback forms to the interviews, I saw the apprehension in their responses and that they did not believe it was necessary to use social media to build community. I also noticed that the social media component was drawing their attention away from the main purpose, which was to create a collaborative community within the classroom.
Although I can’t say that the students have truly learned how to effectively collaborate and work in a group, the students are beginning to understand the complications of group work but also the benefits. I am excited to see the growth and changes as I shift my focus away from the projects and into building relationships within the class. I believe that teaching them through norms as well as learning how to listen will be much more effective than trying to find ways to group students.
Being a part of a diverse classroom and creating an environment where students are engaged with each other in learning and in building relationships can be difficult. Actively trying to create a community within the classroom has been an exciting task, and as students learn to engage with each other, I learned that the hardest task is facilitating and creating opportunities. My role comes through the preparation and the opportunities that I create through lessons and assignments largely determine how successful students are when developing relationships with each other. Creating a community in an 11th grade classroom can be difficult if students do not know how to listen to each other. I learned that students did not understand the point of the community building exercises because I was not explicit in stating the purpose was for them to learn about each other.
The social media aspect started to become more detrimental than helpful when building a supportive classroom environment. Even though the idea of including social media in the classroom sounded like a good idea at first, I quickly realized that many students wanted to keep their social life and their studies separate. Poellhuber states in his article that students age affected their desire to collaborate, "older... students are more interested than younger studnets in collaborating with peers" (Poellhuber and Anderson, 2009, p. 8). From student feedback forms to the interviews, I saw the apprehension in their responses and that they did not believe it was necessary to use social media to build community. I also noticed that the social media component was drawing their attention away from the main purpose, which was to create a collaborative community within the classroom.
Although I can’t say that the students have truly learned how to effectively collaborate and work in a group, the students are beginning to understand the complications of group work but also the benefits. I am excited to see the growth and changes as I shift my focus away from the projects and into building relationships within the class. I believe that teaching them through norms as well as learning how to listen will be much more effective than trying to find ways to group students.