The Difficulties Teachers Encounter While Assessing Learners’ Individual

Learning Through Group Work Activities

A Concept Paper Presented to the Faculty of Master of Arts in Education

Holy Trinity College of Education
General Santos City

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for Master of Arts in Education
Major in English

Submitted by:
Rakeem I. Cerezo

Submitted to:
Prof. Zaldy P. Baguios Jr

October 3, 2022
Introduction
As the name suggests, group work involves students cooperating in groups to
complete assignments and evaluations. Through group projects, instructors hope to
provide students the collaboration abilities they will need in the workplace. Here,
students collaborate to complete individual work that has been divided into sections and
steps.

While group assignments may help instructors save time in some areas, such as
grading final projects, they may also take more time in others, such as the time needed
in the beginning to choose appropriate project topics, contact outside clients, and form
student groups, as well as the time needed to meet with and oversee student groups
throughout the given period and determine the contributions of individual team members
at the end of the activity.

Strong communication, coordination, and conflict resolution skills are necessary

for teamwork to be successful, but not all instructors feel competent to teach these
subjects. Many teachers are also hesitant to spend class time teaching these skills, and
some may find it difficult to handle the interpersonal problems that might develop in
groups. In other words, dealing with team dynamics in taking control of a situation may
require some teachers to step outside of their comfort zone.

It can be challenging to determine which team members contributed to the group

and understood the assignment, despite the fact that group grades can conceal
considerable learning gaps. This again adds complexity to group work that instructors
frequently overlook.

Collaboration and joint learning, which are important goals when students work
together in groups, are not always compatible with individual assessment and grading
(Steel et al., 2014). In addition to teachers’ experienced challenges, individual group
work assessment can also create competition in the group instead of the desired
collaboration (Forslund Frykedal et al., 2019). The students can also experience
unfairness in the assessment and grading (Alm & Colnerud, 2015; Harrison et al.,
2013). Fairness involves the students having equal opportunities to demonstrate their
achievements and the teacher preventing or avoiding bias in the assessment (McMillan,
2018).

Thus, researcher wants to focus on this problem that many teachers face today.
It is very important for teachers to be good at understanding in giving the right scores to
group work activities. The inclusion of group work in the classroom can result in
observable improvements in student achievement, cognition, and motivation. The efforts
of all pupils are required to attain these advances. Students are encouraged to
participate by using techniques including role-assignment, group contracts, anonymous
peer evaluations, and peer ratings.

Background of the Study

For teachers, group work assessment is a difficult and complex process. Some
educators encounter difficulties before and after taking part in a group assessment
project that prioritizes individual evaluation. The validity and fairness of the evaluation
are both impacted by this issue. Additionally, teachers encountered difficulties dealing
with students’ emotions related to perceived injustice in group work assessments as
well as difficulties attaining fairness.

When students make unequal contributions to the group’s collaborative effort,

there is a perceived issue with fairness. This happens when students don’t do their fair
portion of the group task but still receive the same grade despite their unequal
contributions. To those who present the work, it is therefore unfair. While some students
are considerably more reserved and may not contribute as much, others can speak
extensively and truly demonstrate their presence. Furthermore, it doesn’t seem fair to
assign a single score for collaborative work when not every member of the group has
contributed equally.

One challenge of group work assessment is the difficulty in discerning the

individual’s contribution within the group’s process during group work (Dijkstra et al.,
2016; Forsell et al., 2020; Van Aalst, 2013), as well as discerning each individual’s
knowledge with the group’s knowledge (Dijkstra et al., 2016; Forsell et al., 2020), in
other words, who in the group knows what, or did what. Gammie and Matson (2007)
and Nordberg (2006) argue that in group assessment, there is a chance that students
will get a higher grade at the expense of other students’ performance, or that students
may get a lower grade than what they are capable of since they worked with others who
did not achieve. Van Aalst (2013) also addresses this challenge and points out that
when a group product is graded, it is difficult to address what has been learnt since
participation and effort within the group’s process may be mistaken for learning. This too
may be considered as unfair by students.

Review of Related Literature

Diligent students can be profoundly demotivated by group projects if they feel

that their own success is dependent on team members who don’t do their share. One
way to counteract the motivational hazards of group projects is to assess individual
students’ learning and performance in addition to the group’s output. This strategy gives
diligent students a greater sense of fairness and control and discourages free ridership.
Eberly Center. (2022).

The use of group work in classroom activities is a method used for motivating
learning and increasing the idea of pleasure through learning. The current study
investigates the advantages of group work in exams in the English department, in the
College of Basic Education. 40 students in two classes of “The Introduction of Phonetics
and Phonology” participated in the study. They performed six tasks; two prior to group
work, two done in group work (by one group only) and two after group work. The tasks
were all practical, and they were based on phonetic transcription. One of the groups
participated in group work while the other did not. This was done enable to compare the
results. In addition to exam results, a five-open-questions questionnaire on the students’
perception of group work was distributed to the participants. Throughout the application
of the study, the instructor took notes of her observation of the formation of and
participation in group work. It was found that the students who worked in groups did not
improve. However, most students reported that they enjoyed the tasks and would like to
work in a group more often. The method of forming a group also seemed to affect
learning. It was found that social and academic variables of age and GPA affected the
formation, engagement and results of group work. Hanan A. Taqi & Nowreyah A. Al-
Nouh1. (2014).

Group work is used as a means for learning at all levels in educational systems.
There is strong scientific support for the benefits of having students learning and
working in groups. Nevertheless, studies about what occurs in groups during group
work and which factors actually influence the students’ ability to learn is still lacking.
Similarly, the question of why some group work is successful and other group work
results in the opposite is still unsolved. Eva Hammar Chiriac. (2014).

The major findings of the current study can be summarised in two points. First,
language learners identified many benefits of learning in GW, mostly related to
advantages for EFL learning. It has been found that, in learners’ opinions, GW seems to
be beneficial for their academic learning, motivation to learn, and the development of
knowledge. Learners perceived that GW creates a more friendly, supportive learning
environment, within which students have more opportunities and more freedom to
practise English. Learners have seen that GW creates natural, real-life interactions, in
which they have logical reasons for listening to one another, asking questions, clarifying
issues and helping each other. These interactions seem to increase the amount of
student talk and student participation in the classroom. The second major finding refers
to the negative effects and difficulties that language learners perceived in GW. These
related mostly to learning and emotional aspects: these must be taken into account by
language teachers when planning to use GW, as the learners’ attitudes towards GW are
affected by these perceived difficulties. Specifically, the main difficulties identified by
learners in this study related to the selection of groups and the criteria used for this
selection. Thus, if members are not appropriately selected, GW may result in missed
learning opportunities in EFL for language learners. There appears to be a diversity of
students’ opinions with regard to group composition: taking these preferences into
account when classifying them into groups may reduce the potential difficulties that may
impact on learning. Another important issue is that the negative attributes of some
language learners may affect GW negatively. Nurah Alfares. (2017).

In addition to teachers’ experienced challenges, individual group work

assessment can also create competition in the group instead of the desired
collaboration (Forslund Frykedal et al., 2019). The students can also experience
unfairness in the assessment and grading (Alm & Colnerud, 2015; Harrison et al.,
2013). Fairness involves the students having equal opportunities to demonstrate their
achievements and the teacher preventing or avoiding bias in the assessment (McMillan,
2018). By reviewing research into group work assessment, additional nuances
regarding its complexity and challenges have been found. In this study, we define
challenges as hindrances and problems that teachers come across in their practice of
group work assessment.

Statement of the Problem

The primary focus of this study is on the difficulties teachers encounter while
assessing learners’ individual learning through group work activities in Tampakan 2
District secondary schools. A body of studies has demonstrated the benefits of group
work in school settings for developing academic knowledge, social skills, and the
capacity for collaboration.

The researcher thus intends to concentrate on the following query: What are the
difficulties teachers encounter when assessing individual learning through group work
activities?

Significance of the Study

This study will be undertaken to find out the difficulties teachers encounter while
assessing learners’ individual learning through group work activities in Tampakan 2
District secondary schools.
 Benefiting the study are the following:

Teachers

To increase the understanding of the group work task among teachers. It

attempts to assist teachers in understanding how and when to use the group work job to
focus on each participant’s needs.

School Administrators

In order to give them awareness that teachers also need to be given stronger
skills in doing group work activities. The researcher hopes that this study is transparent
enough to give information to school authorities so they may send teachers to different
seminars that will help them become more effective at assigning group activities.

Future Researchers

To help them in their further research regarding this problem. May this research
be a guide so that the evidence that will stabilize this issue will be stronger so that those
concerned can provide intervention.

ABRIDGED METHODOLOGY

Scope and Delimitation

This study aims to find out the difficulties teachers encounter while assessing
learners’ individual learning through group work activities in Tampakan 2 District
secondary schools. The data collection will be conducted to 20 randomly selected
language secondary teachers and will represent the population.

The teachers who teach high school English courses and are from Tampakan 2
District are the study's responders. While they engage in group work activities, they will
be asked the same questions to respond to the challenges they are running into when
assessing individual learning. The researcher will contact them when they have enough
time to discuss the research they will be responding to.

Research Design

This research will utilize a descriptive research design to find out the difficulties
teachers encounter while assessing learners’ individual learning through group work
activities in Tampakan 2 District secondary schools. The study will collect data from the
result of the questionnaires given to the respondents. This design always focuses more
on what of the research subject rather than the why of the research subject (Babbie,
1990). Hence, there are possibilities of obtaining all necessary data from the school.
Quantitative data interpretation will be used to analyze result from the survey where
information is compiled into data tables.

Project Timetable or Duration of the Research

This research writing is completed for 6 weeks with the following indicated as the
duration for every section of the research paper.

Research Section Duration

Title 3 Days

Introduction 4 Days

Background of the Study 4 Days

Review of Related Literature 2 Weeks

Statement of the Problem 1 Week

Abridged Methodology

(Scope and Delimitation and Research Design) 1 Week

References 3 Days
References
Eberly Center. (2022). Teaching Excellence And Educational Motivation.

Hanan A. Taqi1 & Nowreyah A. Al-Nouh1. (2014). Effect Of Group Work On EFL
Students’ Attitudes And Learning In Higher Education

Eva Hammar Chiriac. (2014). Group Work As An Incentive For Learning – Students’
Experiences Of Group Work

Nurah Alfares. (2017). Benefits And Difficulties Of Learning In Group Work In EFL
Classes In Saudi Arabia

Johan Forsell, Karin Forslund Frykedal & Eva Hammar Chiriac. (2021). Teachers’
Perceived Challenges In Group Work Assessment