A study on "Communications process in group work" in cooperative learning

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The purpose of the present research was to examine the types of communication processes children would be engaged in the group activity at elementary school levels of education. Amongst others, the greatest focus was placed on describing the processes of cooperative learning in group work. In so doing, an attempt was made to develop an effective study method that should be employed in classrooms. The present report is a result of the research study that had been conducted in an elementary school in Akita Prefecture over the last two years.A series of observation studies were conducted on the 5th and 6th grade classes of arithmetic, national language and the classroom activity. There were approximately 20 pupils in each classroom. In those classes, the teacher was intentionally scheduled as the group' s discussing. The lessons were recorded on the video-tape. In addition to observing the whole class, one group was selected from each class for in-depth analysis. By doing so, it became po … More ssible to examine each child' s behaviors and facial expressions in a group work setting. The analysis of linguistic information that was recorded revealed communication patterns each child followed when getting involved in a discussion. Visual information was also analyzed for investigating non-linguistic behaviors, such as eye-movements, manual labors, non-verbal aspects of discussion, and so forth.The analysis of the data revealed the following.【Factors contributing group discussion】 (1)Advance knowledge and materials that children had had prior to discussion (2)Roles of group leader or chairperson (3)Memoing and note-taking by each child (4)Active involvement of each child in the form of cooperation (5)Teacher support, such as asking facilitative questions, positive intervention (6)Revelation of something ‘uncommon' in each child.【Factors inhibiting group discussion】 (1)Dysfunction of group leader/ chairperson (2)Too much attention to memoing/note-taking (3)Frequent interruption of talk (4)Inappropriate task for discussion (5)Inappropriate organization patterns (6)Teacher-student perception gap (7)Inappropriate support from the teacher out of context (8)Revelation of something ‘uncommon' in each child.It was also found that the leader of group work was not necessarily the leader of the whole class. It behooves homeroom teachers to notice this, as it is too often neglected in their instructions. Less