CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Teaching and learning at the secondary school is fast changing; group work has become an important focus in this time of pedagogical change (Burke, 2011). Group work is one strategy for group instruction which is under the learner-centered approach. It is a pedagogical approach that promotes students to students’ interaction through working in small groups to maximize their learning and reach their shared goals (Adekola, 2014).
Group learning is an instructional program in which students work in small groups to help one another master academic content. Learners in this classroom structure perceive that they are working together with other students to gain rewards. In this environment, a student’s success depends on the comparable success of other students (Chukwuyenum, Nwankwo and Toochi, 2014).
An important goal of using group work is to encourage and enable other students to succeed. Effective cooperative learning has two major components: Positive interdependence and Individual responsibility. That is, the members of the group must depend on one another to the extent that each member has responsibilities, each wants the others to succeed, and no one feels that his own success or failure will hurt the others in the group (Johnson and Johnson, 2002).
To enhance students’ achievement, group members must promote each other’s learning and success face-to-face; hold each other personally and individually accountable to do a fair share of the work, use the interpersonal and small group skills needed for collaborative efforts to be successful and process as a group how effectively members are working together (Adekola, 2014).
In education today, there are interesting goup learning strategies that will enable students to have active control over their own learning and will also enhance academic achievement (Onabanjo, 2000). According to Wichadee (2007) group learning can be structured in many different models; some of the general ones are Students’ Team Achievement Division (STAD), Teams-Games Tournament (TGT) and Jigsaw I and II.
Teachers can use any of this approach to stimulate students to acquire the knowledge as well as create interpersonal and team skills. Traditionally, classes always consist of good students (high achievers) and weak students (low achievers). The weak students sit in isolation as they gradually lose confidence in their ability to learn. Working in groups, therefore, is believed to help solve this problem as group members can complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Students who do not like to speak in a large class are more comfortable speaking out in smaller groups (Adekola, 2014).
While the term encompasses a broad array of practices, group learning, or small group work, remains an important element of active learning theory and practice (Burke, 2011).