Achieving individual and collaborative success: An investigation of guided group work and teacher participation in junior secondary science classrooms

Abstract

This article reports a study investigating the effects of guided group work and teacher participation on students’ perceptions of individual and collaborative success. One hundred and fifty-two eighth graders joined a teaching intervention involving various learning activities, including concept debate, review of arguments, presentation and reflection tasks. The results of questionnaire-based surveys revealed that the students who engaged in group work with teacher guidance exhibited the strongest sense of collaborative success. Whilst the students who participated in independent learning expressed a preference for individual success, dichotomous results were obtained amongst the students who engaged in self-directed group work. Findings from classroom excerpts and follow-up interviews highlight the prominent role of the teacher in facilitating students’ joint construction of conceptual knowledge, which in turn exerts a notable impact on students’ awareness of achieving collaborative success. The study's broad implications for the promotion of peer collaboration and guided group work in classroom learning activities are discussed.