Dominance in Small Group Tasks during Students' Engagement in Collaborative Learning
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Date
2011-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of thi s study was to investi gate students' coll ab oration and dominance in small
group tasks. The stu dy was conduc ted in Dagmawi Min ilik Preparatory sch ool in Addi s Ababa in
the acad e mic year 20 I 011 1 grade 1126 was in focus and tw o small groups in th e sect ion were
taken as s ubj ects for the study.
Three data gathering in s truments, observation as a principal tool, student's di ary and teacher's
interview, as supportive too ls were used to co ll ect the data, seekin g for an in-depth data two
gro ups .in the section were observed six times i.e. three times eac h, continuously with the hel p of
audio record er and observat ion checkli st. The checkli st contained di fferent activities like the
extent and patterns of learn e rs ' collaboration and ind ividual dominance in s mall group tasks . In
order to get addi ti onal data and see kin g for some clarifi cat ion on th e ob se rved phenomenon, the
two groups of par ti cipants i. e . ten st udents were reques ted to de velop the ir own diary in Engli sh
le sso n pe riod and [our teac hers using avai lab le samp lin g tec hniques were int e rvi ewe d. In order to
analyze th e data gathered from th ose in st rument s desc ripti ve re search method was employed.
Result s of the data analy sis show th at students were le arning co ll aborat ive ly in all English peri od.
Consequently, the extents of learners ' collaboration in th e clas sroom were very high and were
stud en t-student patterns of interaction. During learners interaction in small groups the extents of
individuals' dominance were ve ry high. The cla ss room dire ct observation, the student's diary and
th e teac hers in te rvi ew revealed th at, a s far as learners come up with different characteri sti cs,
exper ience, background and pe rso nal it y, in dividua ls' do min ance in small gro up s were persistent .
Do minance related to acade mi c compet iti veness, perso nalit y and procedure were th e major
patt erns of dominance.
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Keywords
Dominance, Small Group