AS1b_FC_Source_Bonanno_et_al

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Improving group satisfaction: Making groups work in a first-year undergraduate

courseHelen Bonanno,Janet Jones,Linda English.Teaching In Higher Education. Abingdon:

1998. Vol. 3, Iss. 3; pg. 365, 18 pgs

ABSTRACT

The value of working in groups as a strategy for learning, and the development of

communication and interpersonal skills is acknowledged in most tertiary institutions.

Academic staff tend to avoid introducing groupwork into crowded first-year undergraduate

curriculum, because of large student numbers and, in many cases, staffing constraints. This

paper outlines the establishment of a groupwork component in a first-year undergraduate

accounting tutorial programme. Although this component did not work well in the first year

for about half the students involved, it proved a valuable social and academic support for the

rest of the cohort, so was continued into a second year. To increase group satisfaction,

structural and managerial changes were introduced, with positive results. Establishing

groupwork early in an undergraduate course allows group skills to develop over time,encourages reflection on learning behaviour and can facilitate increasing expertise in the

subject area.

Introduction

Australian universities, like higher education institutions in many countries, are operating

under great pressure to deliver quality teaching and research with contracting resources of

time, money and staff, and a wider diversity of students than ever before. In this context, the

value of small group work for its positive effect on student learning, and on the development

of their generic intellectual, communication and interpersonal skills has been widely

acknowledged. The use of small group work has often been associated with more student-

centred approaches to teaching and learning, e.g. problem-based learning, co-operative

learning, and experiential learning and enthusiastically adopted in many professionally based

disciplines within the health sciences and management education. Research into learning in

this context links the type of task demanded of students to the type of learning that takes

place either a surface or deep approach to learning (Marton & Saljo, 1976; Entwistle &

Ramsden, 1983; Biggs, 1987).

It is generally accepted that engagement in the learning process is encouraged by cooperation

(Mills, 1991) and that the development of skills associated with deep learning is facilitated by

group work (Gibbs, 1990; Tribe, 1994). At the same time, research into group-based learninghas been from varying perspectives and sought to investigate the effectiveness of both the

processes and outcomes of such learning. For much small group work in higher education it

is the quality of the outcome rather than the quality of the process which has been often

perceived as the main concern by group members and their tutors. Jacques (1984, p. 242)

comments on the nature of task-based groups in education: '... rarely do either tutors or

students reflect on their teamwork skills in their work together, or seek substantial

improvement in their skills as the work progresses.' Explicit input on the nature of group

processes and the encouragement of reflection on these processes are challenges to the course

designer who seeks to incorporate group-based learning into the curriculum.

Apart from its value in learning, there is widespread acknowledgement by educators andpotential employers alike who see the development of the ability to work effectively in teams
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as a desirable outcome of tertiary education. The Higher Education for Capability (HEC)

movement in the UK sees the development of individual communicative skills as valid

learning objectives in their own right: '(Group-based learning) ... promotes the development

of personal and team skills, and an understanding of discipline-based subject matter' (Gregory

& Thorley, 1994, p. 23). In a recent government report (Candy et al., 1994), teamwork skills

are identified as one of the valued transferable skills components in undergraduate courses.

Despite its obvious value, the use of groupwork within courses raises many issues such as

assessment, the quality of student learning, student attitudes and perceptions towards

groupwork, and staff training. Another issue is efficient use of resources, as many institutions

suffer from a decrees in resources. Including groupwork into any course presents many

challenges for the designer, but these are challenges which we found worthwhile. Closer

analysis of cases involving group-based teaching can help to shed light on some of the issues

and may provide answers to some of the challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to outline a case study involving groupwork within a tutorial

program of a first-year undergraduate Accounting course at the University of Sydney,Australia. The groupwork assessment was initially established in response to constraints of

time and student numbers, in the context of revision of the tutorial programme as a whole. It

became increasingly valued by staff and students both as strategy for the development of

deep learning, and as a way to develop communication skills. First, the paper will outline the

course and the changes made and then describe the development of the groupwork

component over a 2-year period (1994 and 1995). The issues arising from the implementation

and evaluation of the programme, the changes made in the management and support of the

groups, and the effect of these changes on the satisfaction of group members will also be

discussed.

The Context and Nature of the Groupwork Component

The Students

In the University of Sydney, many first-year undergraduate courses are composed of a high

percentage of students who come from backgrounds where the first language is not English.

In 1994 (total in cohort: 555) and 1995 (total in cohort: 490) the percentage of students in the

first year Accounting who had a first language other than English was just over 50%. In

addition, the students taking the Accounting 1 course came from several degree courses,

including Engineering, Economics, Commerce/Law and Agriculture. Most of these students

are Australian residents entering university as secondary school leavers who have attained anappropriate score in the year 12 university entrance examination, although the number of

International students entering through other pathways is increasing. Local students who are

native speakers of languages other than English often have high numeracy skills, but low

academic literacy skills and oral communication skills. Mature-age students and other non-

traditional groupings have added to the diversity of the current first-year undergraduate

cohorts. Students in first-year undergraduate courses coming from an environment that has

given them experience of groupwork of any kind are in the minority.

The Course

The Accounting 1 course is a two-semester course in financial accounting at the University ofSydney. The course consists of two lectures, a workshop and a 1-hour tutorial per week. The


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tutorial programme, which focuses on theory and the application of theories to case studies,

contains a large groupwork component. Groups were focused on problem-solving of case

studies involving increasingly complex real life situations in professional accounting.

In the the groupwork component, practical advantages emerged for both students and tutors.

For tutors, groupwork provided a way of overcoming limits of time and large numbersbecause meetings took place outside timetabled sessions, and provided valuable experience in

both written and oral communication for students without increasing their marking load to

unreasonable levels. For students, groups provided a place for discussion of tutorial readings

and weekly exercises in the first year, and in both years provided practice in the production of

both oral presentations and case study written reports through group problem-solving tasks.

Students were not individually assessed in these skills until after they had gone through the

process of producing oral presentations and written reports as a group.

There were accompanying disadvantages. By operating outside timetabled hours, groupwork

put added stress on already crowded student timetables. It was therefore particularly

important that students should see the groupwork component as valuable. For staff, it becameapparent that knowledge of team skills and processes was necessary so that tutors could assist

groups with conflict situations, and ensourage a positive attitude to groupwork. This resulted

in an increasing focus on training and development for staff, and in an increased emphasis on

the positive role played by groups in learning; in particular, in the areas of gaining subject

knowledge, reflection on interpersonal experience and management and completion of task.

Evaluation

Semester 1 1994

Generally speaking, students' positive and negative comments reflected the broad experiences

reported by teachers working in the field of problembased learning, e.g. groupwork is time

consuming (Cawley, 1991), groupwork can be more fun than conventional task fulfilment,

and there is resentment if group members do not put in equal effort (Lovie-Kitchin, 1991).

32.5% of students reported that study groups helped them develop team skills.57.7% of

students felt that the case studies helped them to relate the course material to the real world.

Of the 15 students interviewed, 10 commented positively on study groups as helpful to

learning and also beneficial as part of a social network. The forum expressed strong

agreement for the view that participating in a team that worked well was helpful for learning,

but that difficulties with teams hindered learning. Generally, students perceived memberswho did not contribute equally as a major problem, particularly when it came to assessing

their performance, and also indicated that about half the teams worked well together and half

did not work effectively.

A summary of this qualitative feedback on the success of study groups can be seen in Table I.


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TABLE I.

Most common suggestions from students concerned areas of dynamics, e.g. difficulties with

equal contribution from group members, a perceived need for closer staff involvement and

support; organisational problems; e.g. group size, need for more planning time; and fine

tuning of assessment procedures.


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Discussion

Issues that emerged for both staff and students during the first year covered a wide range,

many of which are reflected in the literature.

Lack of Experience of Staff

This and the resulting need for support was one issue which had been generally anticipated

from the outset. Gregory & Thorley (1994a, p. 57) have pointed out that introducing

groupwork is a staff development issue as well as an issue of developing student skills. Most

course tutors had no experience in facilitation of groupwork or, indeed, in other aspects of

classroom management. In order to give tutors some support in 1994, training sessions were

held, a special manual was designed and a weekly staff meeting was held. The weekly staff

meetings were considered an essential form of staff development by the tutors themselves.

Several tutors who lasted the first year of the programme and also stayed on staff for 1995

were a strong source of peer support to newer tutors, but the issue of staff development was

never completely resolved.

Lack of Experience of Student Groups

Mcgrath-Champ and Baird (1995) found that lack of experience in working in groups was

one of a number of challenges facing their students. This is even more of a challenge in a

first-year undergraduate course. The majority of the students were school leavers who had

just gone through their university entrance examinations, and were thus very focused on

assessment. The idea of taking responsibility for the effective functioning of group processes,

as well as the group product was new to most students, and the idea that the successful

working of the group was itself an important learning outcome was also new. Main issues for

students were those of time management-fitting in the groupwork around crowded

timetables-and the peer assessment of individual members' contribution to the group product.

This latter process is generally acknowledged as problematic (Gregory & Thorley, 1994b, p.

182), despite a variety of innovative methods. Peer assessment with the objective of

increasing equal participation was tried in various ways in this tutorial component; for

example, dividing a group total mark of 100 among group members in proportion to their

contribution. However, students perceived this process of assessment as destructive of group

dynamics, although complaints about laziness were the most common negative assessment of

the effectiveness of groups in the qualitative evaluation interviews.

Satisfaction with the Group Process

Identification and categorisation of the components of 'satisfaction' relating to groups has a

substantial place in the literature of groupwork (Keyton, 1991; Witteman, 1991). For the task-

orientated students in this tutorial programme, satisfaction could be generally identified with

three components:

equal contribution of all members ('I liked my study group ... we all contributedequally and helped each other', Student interview, 1994);

the positive assessment of the group product; supportive social/emotional aspects of the group ('I had a nice group and made

friends', `Interacting in a group is better than going home and trying to do it alone',

Student interviews, 1994).


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The fact that groupwork was a negative experience for approximately half the students in the

first year ('I could have done it on my own just as well or better', Student interview, 1994)

was of great concern to course designers, who acknowledged that groups would only be a

useful learning tool if they were carefully managed and supported from the beginning. For

the other half, who felt that groups were a positive learning experience, there was an

unexpected bonus-the group provided a valuable network of social support that improved thequality of the first year experience. Comments such as `My study group worked well-it

became more social than task oriented....', `It was very motivating, it was great' (Student

interviews, 1994) are very encouraging.

Effectiveness of Heterogeneous Groups

The issue of effectiveness of diverse groups compared to homogeneous groups was not

explicitly explored, but it emerged very early with the formation of groups. The mix of

language background in the tutorials, and the presence of a minority of older students in the

cohort meant that diverse groups were more likely than not. The controversy in the literature

(Kirchmeyer, 1993; McLeod et al., 1996) concerning the comparative effectiveness of diverseand uniform groups was reflected in student qualitative comment: `Half my group was quiet

Asian girls who worked with each other', 'I changed my group to one that was more open',

`Groups make you relate to others', `Group members should encourage members who don't

feel confident to speak' (Student interviews, 1994). Students who had English as a first

language tended to regard students who participated less actively in discussion as

contributing less. Groups were later encouraged to raise awareness of the different possible

ways to contribute to a project, other than in discussions.

Group Formation

The Accounting students were roughly divided between the desire for the tutors to take the

responsibility of creating groups (and thus take the responsibility for non-functioning groups)

and the desire to self-select. In the first year of the tutorial programme the students were

encouraged to self-select, with the tutor stepping in if there were any problems, but in fact

students found their choices restricted by timetabling and logistic problems. Thus, with these

issues in mind, it is important to make groups work better for more students and making the

dynamics of group processes more explicit.

Conclusions

Using groupwork as a strategy for learning and skills development in large first-yearundergraduate cohorts has many practical difficulties, and demands much from staff who

often lack training in facilitation and experience in groupwork. As teachers who are aware of

the emphasis put on communication skills in the workforce, we assume that working in

groups must be helpful for our students (Green, 1997). Unfortunately, this is not necessarily

immediately true. In many cases, groupwork can only be helpful to first-year undergraduate

students after a change in focus has taken place. Most of our first year students have come

direct from a public examination system that focuses on successful product. In order to

benefit from groupwork there must be an equal focus in the curriculum on successful process,

and an explicit recognition of the type of learning that this involves. Many students require a

demonstration of the need for working in groups, and the value of the process for them as

individuals. Many students are already efficient reproductive learners, but need toconsciously change their focus to successful learning for understanding. Assessed tasks that


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require and reward the skills which develop through effective teamwork can help students

make this change of focus. Class discussions of learning experiences and positive approaches

to improve group dynamics in the context of managing these tasks can support students who

are not accustomed to reflecting on themselves as learners. A positive consequence of

focusing on strategies that foster a deep approach to learning in a group situation-reflection,

discussion, negotiation and collaboration-is that these strategies also encourage students toengage effectively with the subject content and the culture of the discipline.

Although the introduction of this groupwork component was not as smooth as was expected

in its first year, subsequent years (1996 and 1997) have seen a change in student attitude as

the culture of first year has incorporated the notion that groupwork is expected and valued.

Students have also perceived the links between the groupwork in their first undergraduate

year with team project work done in later years of their degrees. Starting the process of

developing group skills early in an undergraduate degree and seeing the process as on-going

means that by the time of graduation, students have a solid understanding of the value of

effective teamwork, and a repertoire of useful skills and learning strategies to take into the

workforce.

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BIGGS, J.B. (1987) Student Approaches to Learning and Studying (Melbourne, Australian

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BIGGS, J.B. (1993) From theory to practice: a cognitive systems approach, Higher Education

Research and Development, 12, pp. 73-87.

CANDY, P.C., CREBERT, G. & O'LEARY, J. (1994) Developing Lifelong Learners

Through Undergraduate Education (National Board of Employment Education and Training,

Australian Government Publishing Service).

CAPPELLETTO, G. (1993) Educating Chartered Accountants in Australia (Institute of

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CAWLEY, P. (1991) A problem-based module in mechanical engineering, in: D. BOUD &

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ethics of accounting teaching: education for immorality and a possible case for social and

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GREEN, R. (1997) Designing and assessing task centred groupwork: issues of management

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GREGORY, R. & THORLEY, L. (1994a) Chapter 1: Introduction, in: L. THORLEY & R.

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