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Pitchapa Lookpeach Jitsajjapong

Mr.Abel Cadias

English 10/1001

June 5, 2019

Students’ Preferences on the Type of Work in World History Class

Group works assigned by teachers can help students in learning and developing

their teamwork skills rather than doing it individually. A work of Kristy (2018) stated that

group work can help in developing communication skills and increasing student

achievement. However, working as a group can also cause a conflict when it comes to a

big project. A group work can not be done effectively without a good teamwork.

Sometimes, members in a group do not have same opinions and lack of responsibility, so

the work fails. Many teachers in Mahidol University International Demonstration School

always assign a final project for students especially in World History Class. However,

which is the better way to finish the work: working alone or working as a team? The author

thinks that grade 10 students who study World History at MUIDS prefer working as a team

rather than working individually because they can help each other, make an effective work,

and finish the work faster.

The purpose of this research report is to find out whether students in grade 10 prefer

a teamwork or an individual work in World History Class. The author uses three different

academic articles from different sources to relate the results and interpretation of the survey

to other research studies.

The author asked grade 10 students about their preferences on type of work in

World History Class and found out that 37 students (54.4%) choose working as a group,

while 31 students (45.6%) choose working alone. The figure below shows the reasons why

students choose working as a team. The main reason, stated by 59.5% of them, is that
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working together will finish the work faster. The second reason is that different opinions

can produce an efficient work, stated by 35.1% of them. The rest of the students stated that

they just want someone to make them work while working as a team. Meanwhile, students

who choose an individual work give the following reasons which exactly opposed to the

opinions from students who like working as a group. Working as a team makes them have

to do more work, if their teammates do not have responsibilities, stated by 45.2% of

students who prefer working alone. The second major reason, stated by 35.5% of them, is

that they can make their own decisions, so the work will be finished faster. The rest of the

students stated that working alone can prevent a conflict from different opinions. This

shows that both individual work and team work have different advantages and

disadvantages. It depends on students’ preferences whether they like working individually

or working as a team.

Figure 1 working alone Figure 2 working as a group

A group work can increase students’ communication skills, positive attitudes, and

knowledge only when each member collaborates well, unlike a competitive group that

students only do their parts and compete with their teammates (Elli 2017). In World

History Class, for grade 10 students at MUIDS, teachers always assign them big projects

such as presentations, models, and posters. Thus, working as a group seems to be a better

way to finish the work. A collaborative team can create an effective work because of many
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different ideas and varied skills from teammates (Janssen and Wubbles 2016). However,

if teammates do not have responsibilities, then it is better to work individually. So, students

can only focus on their work and make their own decisions which will make the work

finished faster.

This research report concludes that teammates are one of the important factors

influencing students’ preferences on types of work in World History Class. Students most

likely prefer to do group work only when their teammates collaborate well. However, if

their teammates do not work at all, it will cause students to prefer working alone to prevent

overworking while working as a group.

References

Janssen, J. and Wubbels, T. (2016). Collaborative learning practices: teacher and student
perceived obstacles to effective student collaboration. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0305764X.2016.1259389

Kristy, J. (2018). Group Work. Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6007768/

Elli, J. (2017). Student perception of group dynamics predicts individual performance:

Comfort and equity matter. Retrieved from
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0181336