Examining the Relationship of Students' Social Skills in Group Work Engagement

Chapter 1
The Problem
Introduction
Social skills can be defined as behaviors needed to be competent in social situations
and that enable the establishment of harmonious social relationships (Gresham &
Reschly, 1987;Grover et al., 2020).
Gutiérrez (2017) cited that social skills are important because they allow human
beings to interrelate with those around them, and apart from being considered
necessary, they also influence academic performance because through social
relations many aspects can be learned, such as cognitive and emotional aspects. To
be precise, putting students into pairs or groups strengthens their social skills, as it
helps them to become more tolerant toward their companions, to respect them and to
pay them more attention (Sharan, 2014).
Moreover, enhancing children’s social skills is crucial for improving their overall quality
of life and facilitating their adjustment to the surrounding environment from an early age
(Maleki et al., 2019). Furthermore, the development of social skills is crucial for
children’s positive mindset and their willingness to learn (Tarr, 2014; Lu & Effandi,
2015). By equipping young children with social skills, they are better able to
demonstrate flexible behavior, emotional intelligence, and cognitive resources in
achieving social goals (Smogorzewska & Szumski, 2018).
A study in Bohol Wisdom School, Tagbilaran City, researcher Baldicana, et.al, (2018)
cited that “in everyday life, the development of social skills help high school students
recognize the impacts of their actions and learn to be responsible for what they do.
Knowing how to appropriately interact with others is important for a variety of different
aspects in a person’s life. The skills also help them to build confidence in spoken skills,
and for team collaboration and cooperation. Students’ ability to successfully interact
socially will impact their success in school, their career paths, their lifelong relationships,
and many other areas”.
In educational setting, social skills plays relevant role in an attainment of the students
with their teacher asking for their opinion regarding to the topic in the class. Their social
skill could be also shown in group work engagement, how would they convey their
ideas, work together with their peers, and handle situation like disagreement and put
solution on it. Social skills in group activities is critical as it is the key in a successful
group activity. It is not just in group activity but in the whole classroom in general,
collaborating and learning together makes it more meaning, purposeful, build good
relationship while doing it together.
The lack of social skills has yielded to adverse consequences in the classroom setting
in terms of student-teacher and peer interaction for instance, incapability to sustain
social relationships among classmates. Also, the impact of social skills in the group
work engagement shown to exist in the student’s social and play interaction, self-
regulation, communication and social decision making.
As a students of the Bachelor of Elementary Education, inspire the researchers to
examine the impact of social skills. Addressing the gap in examining whether social
skills have to do with group work engagement among the junior high school students of
Mindanao State University- Maigo School of Arts and Trades. This study would help the
teachers to know well their students’ interaction in their peers involving their
engagement towards a group work. Further, it would also help the teacher education
students to deal with social skills among students during their practice teaching.
Theoretical Framework
The Collaborative Learning Theory (Lev Vygotsky, 1978) cited by Gary K. Lewis 2020,
a process whereby a group (or groups) of individuals learn from each other by working
together to solve a problem, complete a task, create a product, or share one’s thinking.
An example of this type of collaborative learning would occur in groups of 3-5 students
working on the solution to a problem-solving question. A smaller group helps to keep all
students on-task, enabling everyone to participate and share their ideas with the
solution, i.e., smaller breakout groups. Collaborative learning is group-structured,
whereby the students come together to organize and divide the work between
themselves. Each student is responsible for his/her work separately, but are also in
charge of the work of the team as a whole. Cooperative learning is a structured
approach in which the teacher is directly involved in the learning process by making
each member within the group accountable for a specific task, and it is the responsibility
of this individual to help others learn their specific task.
Social learning theory, introduced by psychologist Albert Bandura 1977, cited by Kendra
Cherry 2022 proposed that learning occurs through observation, imitation, and modeling
and is influenced by factors such as attention, motivation, attitudes, and emotions. The
theory accounts for the interaction of environmental and cognitive elements that affect
how people learn. His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new
information and behaviors by watching other people. Known as observational learning,
this type of learning can be used to explain a wide variety of behaviors, including those
that often cannot be accounted for by other learning theories. Today, both teachers and
parents recognize how important it is to model appropriate behaviors. Other classroom
strategies such as encouraging children and building self-efficacy are also rooted in
social learning theory.
Conceptual Framework
The figure below shows the variables of the study. These include the social skills
among students, peers and teachers and its relationship in group work engagement.
The social skills is identify as independent variable of the study. The participants'
assessments of social skills consist of peer interaction and student-teacher interaction.
The dependent variable of the study is group work engagement and will be determined
by social and play behavior, self-regulation, communication, and social decision making.
The study also considers the level of engagement of how active and responsive
students are in dealing with group work.
Independent Variable Dependent Variable

SOCIAL SKILLS GROUP WORK

ENGAGEMENT

Peer Interaction Social and Play

Behavior

Student- Teacher Self - Regulation

Interaction

Communication

Social Decision Making

Figure 1. Schema of the Study

Statement of the Problem
This study aims to determine the level of students social skills in collaborative learning.
It scrutinize how well they dealt with the situation in educational setting. And it further
examine their communication skills in interaction with peers and teachers in classroom
engagement.
1. What is the level of social skills among students in terms of.
1.1 Peer Interaction; and
1.2 Student- Teacher Interaction

2. What is the level of group work engagement in terms of:

2.1 Social and Play Behavior;
2.2 Self Regulation;
2.3 Communication; and
2.4 Social Decision Making

3. Is there a significant relationship between the level of social skills and group work
engagement?

Null Hypothesis
The null hypothesis will be tested 0.05 level of significance.
HO1 : There is no significant relationship between students’ social skills and
group work engagement

Significance of the Study

The study will be conducted to determine the relationship between students’ social skills
and their engagement in group work.

Students. The outcome of this study can help students gain the facts that their personal
social skills play an important part in their group tasks and engagements. Some
students might think that their engagement in group tasks is low because of other
external reasons, such as the fact that group members are not willing to talk to them
and so on. Having awareness about their own personal skills’ impact in such group
engagements may assist them in reflecting on and finding ways to address issues with
their group tasks and engagements. Moreover, their realization of the importance of
social skills in group task engagements will encourage them to develop their
communication, interpersonal skills, and ability to work together in a group to perform
better.
Parents and guardians. The insights from the study can help parents understand the
level of social skills needed for good classroom engagement, which at the same time
helps them identify and reflect on their own children’s skill level. By recognizing the level
of social skills of their kids, parents can take measures that can help improve their kids’
social skills from a parent’s perspective. It also enables them to provide constant
guidance through simple measures such as daily chit chats about school, encouraging
them to participate in family activities, guiding them in effective communication, etc.
Teachers. The findings of the study can create awareness among teachers regarding
the impact of personal social skills in group engagements. Teachers will be more
observant in class to find out which students might be having problems with their
personal social skills, which may lead to poor group task engagement. By identifying
students who potentially have social skills problems, teachers can focus on ways to
assist or guide them individually. The findings of the study can also encourage teachers
to work on ways to promote two-way communication during daily classroom activities,
which can lead to better student social skills.
School. The findings of this study can provide necessary information to the school on
how good or bad the students are at their social skills and how it impacts their group
task engagements. The school can use such information to come up with instructions or
goals that focus on areas like social skills, which are normally neglected while
prioritizing curriculum. It opens an opportunity for the school to implement some
measures that can promote better social skills, such as setting up a two-way
communication-friendly classroom, giving special instructions to the teachers, giving
high priority to co-curricular activities that require teamwork, and so on.
Future researchers. The insights and outcomes from this study can be used as a
stepping stone for further studies on this topic, which aim to research deeper.
Information from this study can aid in researching things such as reasons for a lack of
social skills among students and ways to improve social skills among students, which
can be collectively used as research findings that can make major changes in the
educational system.

Scope and Limitations

This study aims to determine the level of students’ social skills in group work
engagement in the secondary department at MSU-MSAT. The participants will be
randomly chosen from grades 7 to 10 who are enrolled at Mindanao State University-
Maigo Arts and Trades in the academic year 2023–2024. The independent variable in
this study is social skills, which will be examined based on peer interaction and student-
teacher interaction. On the other hand, the dependent variable, which is group work
engagement, will be examined in terms of social and play interaction, self-regulation,
communication, and social decision-making.
Definitions of Terms
Communication. A process that involves sending and receiving messages through the
verbal and non-verbal methods. In this study, it pinpoints to the students’ thoughts,
opinions, and ideas with their peers for the purpose of building an understanding.
Group Work Engagement. Instructional strategy that encourages deep engagement
with content through active and social learning. In this study, it is about successful
group assignments and activities to allow students exercise collaborative skills in order
to create something together that individually they would not, or could not.
Peer Interaction. Occur when children are playing, sharing, taking turns, and/or using
verbal (talking) and non-verbal (smiling, waving) communication with each other. In this
study, it is having similar likes, interests, and hobbies and how well they interact with
each other.
Self-regulation. The ability to obtain, maintain and change one’s emotion, behavior,
attention and activity level appropriate for a task or situation in a socially acceptable
manner. In this study, it refers to students being able to understand and manage their
behavior and reactions to strong emotions.
Social and Play Behavior. Voluntary engagement in self motivated activities that are
normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment where the activities may be, but are
not necessarily, goal oriented. In this study, it used as how well the student interact and
deal with their peers during play.
Social Decision Making. Refers to the process of making choices that consider the
impact on oneself and others in social situations. In this study, students need to
recognize and define the social issue or dilemma they are facing.
Social Skills. Are the skills use everyday to interact and communicate with others.
They include verbal and non-verbal communication, such as speech, gesture, facial
expression and body language. In this study, it stands for students interaction, how they
dealt with their peers and how they approach each other.
Student-Teacher Interaction. Refers to the way in which teachers and students
communicate in their classrooms. In this study it pinpoints to the teachers who foster
positive relationships with their students.