Significance of cultural and motivation variables on students' attitudes towards group work

Volet, S. (2001) Significance of cultural and motivation variables on students' attitudes towards group work. In: Salili, F., Chui, C-Y and Hong, Y-Y, (eds.) Student motivation: The culture and context of learning. Kluwer Academic Publishers/Plenum Publishers, New York, U.S.A, pp. 309-333.

Abstract

While the issues of group formation and group dynamics are well documented in the school context (Johnson et al., 1981; Slavin, 1983), what motivates, or alternately inhibits university students from different cultural backgrounds to engage in group work is largely unknown. In the university context, different types of group work can be identified, for example, informal study groups where students spontaneously study together of their own volition, or formal group work where students are required by their teacher to complete an assignment with a group of peers. The research reported in this paper concentrates on the latter category, the mandatory group assignments.