The implementation of group work in Hong Kong: A case study

Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 2, Issue 2, Article 5 (Dec., 2001)
Simmi Ho-Yan TAM
The implementation of group work in Hong Kong: A case study

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The Role of Assessment of Group Work
According to Johnson & Johnson (1994), the role of teacher as an effective assessor in group processing is to ensure that each student and each group gives and receives feedback on the effectiveness of task work and teamwork; to analyze and reflect on the feedback that the students and groups receive; to help individuals and groups set goals for improving their work; and, to encourage the celebration of members' hard work and the group's success.
From my point of view, assessment in group work should not involve assigning grades. The emphasis is on assessing learning outcomes through performance measures. Of course a grade for any group work will usually be supplemented in the students' final grade with midterm or final examinations. Individual accomplishment in the group work itself should be assessed so that members' contributions to the groups are evaluated accordingly. Teachers must decide on the criteria used to evaluate student performance and plan how to collect the information in order to make judgments. Also, they have to define the process of learning and facilitate students to reach the criteria.
The assessment should focus on both the processes and the outcomes of learning. Teachers should measure the quality and quantity of student outcomes to assess how much students have actually learned in group work. Performance-based assessment requires students to demonstrate what they can do with what they know by performing a procedure or skill. In a performance-based assessment, students complete or demonstrate the same behaviour that the teacher intends to measure. Students may submit assessment compositions, journal articles, exhibitions, demonstrations, video projects, science experiments, lab reports, surveys or oral presentations.
When assessing student performance, teachers need an appropriate method of sampling the desired performances and a clearly articulated set of criteria to serve as the basis for evaluative judgments. Although teachers cannot assess all learning outcomes in group work, they can assess student learning mainly by observing, and through self- and peer evaluation.
To supplement traditional evaluation procedures, such as testing and collecting samples of students' work, teachers may wish to assess learning through direct observation during group work and provide formative feedback to the group. Observing also provides teachers with feedback about the appropriateness of the task (Johnson & Johnson, 1995). It involves recording what students do while they work together to complete a task and also allows teachers to effectively assess students' work and understanding. Clarke, Wideman, and Eadie (1990) offer the following suggestions for conducting systematic observations.
1. Tell students what task and social skills will be observed.
2. Decide how many groups to observe and for how long.
3. Be unobtrusive; avoid hovering over student groups while they are working.
4. Prepare observation sheets, such as checklists, in advance.
5. Use one observation sheet for each group.
6. Make notes or jot down questions that come to mind which may not fit into the categories on the observation sheet.
After the observation, teachers can give feedback to the whole class or to particular groups about the effective and ineffective behaviours observed. Whenever possible, teachers should positively emphasize effective behaviours rather than focusing on negative ones only. This enables teachers and students to clarify problems, consider solutions, and set new goals to improve their outputs.
Team members are responsible for the quality of group work so teachers must assess and evaluate each student's achievement in the group. Teachers should lead their students in an effective sharing and reflection session after group work activity. This can be done by conducting self- and peer evaluations to help groups reflect upon and analyze their work. For self-assessment, students identify their own contributions to the overall group learning achievement. Teachers can give each group member an assessment checklist or questionnaire for self-assessment. For example, teacher can give students series of questions to evaluate their interpersonal skills ("How did group members encourage each other's participation?"). Teachers should stress to their students that group work is an integral part of learning. Group members can then share their answers as they express what they feel they have contributed to the group work, analyze how well they worked together and improve the group's efforts. Or individuals can be called upon at random to make brief reports on the group's progress, including a description of the problems they had overcome and questions to be addressed.
If the student's ability and class size allow, they can offer feedback to other groups. To help students fairly evaluate other groups' work, the teacher can provide evaluation guidelines for students to score group work, for example, on a scale of one to five to measure the degree of addressing and clarifying major issues. During peer evaluation, teachers can share with the class the results of their observations. It is a good idea to make a record of students' group achievement, this allows students to see how much they have improved using a particular set of skills over a fixed period of time. Students should be asked to discuss in groups the things that they did to help each other learn and be prepared to share the results with their classmates. Again, an evaluation form can be provided that for group members to rate their peers (Davis, 1999) in areas such as their professionalism (their attendance at group meetings, participating appropriately), their initiative (suggesting ideas, working constructively toward common goals), and their independence (completion of tasks at agreed-upon deadlines, researching the topic and sharing resources).
By explaining the group evaluation task, before the group work begins, students will probably express less discomfort with the ideas, and will feel peer pressure to contribute and work toward the common goal. Most students, indeed, are concerned about their image and do not want to appear as being foolish or irresponsible among their classmates. Learning groups and their members need continual feedback on each member's level of learning. When assessing individual contribution, group members should provide immediate feedback to each other. However, students may lack experience in peer evaluation and worry about offending their classmates so there may be difficulties in evaluating one another, especially when the evaluation is negative. Therefore, teachers have to relieve students' pressure during evaluation.
After students have completed self- and peer assessment with feedbacks from each other, teachers should guide students to set some goals for improvement specifically on how their learning becomes more effective in the future. The goals should be reviewed at the beginning of the next group activity session.