Question 1. Which characteristics do you think belong to a traditional group or a cooperative learning group?
Below is the table indicating 7 characteristics of a traditional group and 7 characteristics of a cooperative learning group mixed up together. After asking 5 teachers at Luong The Vinh school, the number of choices they made has been included in the last two columns to the right of the table.
STT Characteristics Traditional
group
Cooperative learning
group 1 Students form groups with whoever they want or
whoever is sitting near them
5 0
20 2 Teachers (and students) plan group size and
composition so as to maximize the potential of the groups
0 5
3 Group members sit in such a way as to see and hear one another easily, and at the same time, bother other groups as little as possible
0 5
4 Students arrange their groups as they see fit 5 0
5 Collaborative skills are explicitly taught 3 2
6 Students are assumed to know how to work together
2 3
7 When groups finish an activity, they disband 5 0
8 Groups often stay together for more than one activity perhaps for weeks or months and spend time discussing how they can work together better
0 5
9 Teachers attempt to build group solidarity 5 0
10 Students are assumed to feel a common purpose with their fellow group members and to care about one another
3 2
11 Group members are assumed to be interested in participating and learning
2 3
12 Teachers encourage each group member to feel responsible for participating and learning
0 5
13 Teachers actively monitor groups to see if they are learning and functioning smoothly
5 0
14 Teachers use time while students are in groups to catch up on grading and other paperwork
0 5
Table 1: The characteristics of a traditional group
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More visually, the data was represented in the chart form as below:
Chart 1: Responses from selected teachers selecting characteristics of a traditional group versus a cooperative learning group
Of the 14 characteristics, those of a traditional group are characteristics 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 14; the rest are of a cooperative learning group.
As can be seen, the teachers know quite well what a traditional or a cooperative learning group is. However, it was questionable that all the five teachers failed to choose the right characteristics number 13 and 14. Perhaps, they misunderstand about the role of a teacher when leading the two different types of group: they might have thought that teachers would not have to monitor closely when students work in cooperative learning groups.
Question 2. How much do you agree about the benefits of cooperative learning group activities to the students?
1 – Strongly disagree 2 – Disagree
3 – Neutral 4 – Agree
5 – Strongly agree
The list of benefits can be found in the table below. For the convenience in date presenting, the researcher has included the number of responses by teachers accordingly
5
0 0
5
3 2
5
0 5
3 2
0 5
0 0
5 5
0
2 3
0
5 0
2 3
5 0
5
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Teachers' awareness of a traditional vs cooperative leaning group
Tradition group Collaborative learning group
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to specific benefits. Again, the data was also represented in the form of a chart after the table.
STT Benefits of cooperative learning group activities
Strongly
disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree A Develop group work
skills 0 0 0 3 2
B Increase students’ talking
time 0 0 4 1 0
C
Forster and develop interpersonal
relationships and build positive friendships
0 0 5 0 0
D
Help students use language creatively and confidently
0 0 2 1 2
E
Enhance students’
satisfaction with the learning experience
0 0 3 1 1
F
Create an environment of active, involved,
exploratory learning
0 0 1 2 2
Table 2: The benefits of cooperative learning group activities to the students
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Chart 2: the number of responses by teachers about the benefits of cooperative learning group activities to the students
Although there were a number of neutral choices which shows that the teachers were not quite confident about the benefits that cooperative learning group activities could bring about to the students, it is a good thing that none of the teachers chose
“Strongly disagree” and “Disagree”. It does mean that all the teachers at Luong The Vinh School know for sure these are the benefits their students can gain from joining cooperative learning group activities organised by their teachers.
Question 3. What difficulties have you ever encountered when applying groups activities (even with cooperative learning groups)?
Answering this question, the teachers provide some useful information for the researcher. Noticeably, the following three difficulties can be generalised:
- Unequal opportunities to speak among group members (due to unbalanced oral English proficiency of the group members and as a result the less able members lost opportunities because it took them more time to utter)
- Group leaders are often recommended to answer the teacher’s questions and be the representatives to produce speeches in front of the class
- If there are not the group leaders, the opportunities to speak in class will be belonged to the high achievers, and the students with low oral English proficiency will have no chance to speak.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Stronly agree
Chart Title
Develop group work skills Increase students’ talking time
Forster and develop interpersonal relationships and build positive friendships Help students use language creatively and confidently
Enhance students’ satisfaction with the learning experience Create an environment of active, involved, exploratory learning
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These are very important to the researcher because when adopting the cooperative learning group activities as an advantageous tool in teaching and learning English at school, we have to find ways to overcome the above challenges so we can help teachers in teaching and students in learning. Otherwise, weak students would be left behind.
As soon as the researcher decided to apply literature circle technique as an intervention which helps improve the situation, it requires exploration into the current status of students’ experience during speaking lessons at school. To do so, a pre- questionnaire was administered to the 84 selected students in the study. The questionnaire also aimed to cross check about the difficulties noted by teachers from the students’
perspectives.