:Developing collaboration among students through teamwork among 7th Topic grade students.

MANUAL

RESEARCH PROJECT

B.Ed. (1.5 Year)

Course Code: 8613

Student Name: Adnan

Father Name: Sardari khan

Roll Number:

Registration Number:13NSTO1747

Region: swat

Theme:Developing 21st century skills among students.

Sub-Theme: Collaboration

Topic:Developing collaboration among students through teamwork among 7th grade students.

Supervisor Name: Dr Aftab Ahmad.

School Name:GMS Bashigram swat.

ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

Overall background of the participants of the project; area / Area: (socio-economic status, occupation / profession – earning trends of majority of the parents, literacy rate, academic quality, and any other special trait of the community where the Area is situated).

This action research was conducted in :GMS Bashigram swat.…..

School & Participants Background:

In general the structure of school was huge and lovely. The school had lovely playground and parking. Classes are better in condition. The environment of school was great, better for learning and secure for children. The participants of study were young learner’s (6 class) parents whose children were enrolled in :GMS Bashigram swat.. I selected young learner’s (6 class) parents which are considered in total 32 members.

Socio Economic Status:

Socioeconomic status is the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation. Examinations of socioeconomic status often reveal inequities in access to resources, plus issues related to privilege, power and control.Most of peoples from this area are Govt. employee but some of them are shopkeeper or work in private offices. Most of parents do not afford children education due to their family expenses and their low income but some parents support their children at higher level in well reputed universities. But due to the lack of higher educational institute and low income of their parents, more than 60% children stop their education after intermediate. Overall the financial status of this area is good.

Occupation & Earning Trend:

Parents with Govt. jobs and small businessman are in a better condition to help and support their children educationally, mentally and profoundly. However, Parents with low income because of expenses and low salaries issues can’t give satisfactory to up level their children education. The control of the Parents in this research from this area is normal. A part of the Parents are not monetarily so good. The children who Parents with government jobs are more verified and their family finds a sense of contentment moderately contrasted with the individuals who work in private association. They are consistently in dissatisfaction. Due to low earning trend of this area, the children face a great deal of difficulties both at home and school, which block them from taking an interest completely in classroom exercises. In present some parents drop their children at different shop for learning work and for earning but today due to free education in Pakistan more than 80% children go to school till then matriculation.

Literacy Rate:

In 2022, Litercy Rate of ……….The literacy rate for persons 15 years or older in the city is 78.6%.

Sub-theme: Collaboration

Topic: Developing collaboration among students through teamwork among 7th grade students.

Q.1 Why did you select this specific sub-theme and topic? Relate it to your experience / problem in your classroom / institution.

Reason for select this specific sub-theme

Collaboration is a working practice whereby individuals work together for a common purpose to achieve business benefit. Collaboration enables individuals to work together to achieve a defined and common business purpose. It exists in two forms: Synchronous, where everyone interacts in real-time, as in online meetings, through instant messaging, or via Skype, and Asynchronous, where the interaction can be time-shifted, as when uploading documents or annotations to shared workspaces or making contributions to a wiki.

Shared workspaces are among the most visible entries in the collaboration space. Aimed at rolling document and application sharing up with chat and perhaps versioning and other auditing capabilities, they may have more or fewer features and may be available either for license or on a syndicated basis “in the cloud,” as they say. Google Docs is a notable example of the latter, Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Documented Room of the former.

Wikis are perhaps best thought of as online encyclopedias or “how-to” manuals. They are applications that let users freely create, edit, and reorganize content using a Web browser. Perhaps the most visible example of this breed is Wikipedia, and variants exist throughout enterprises of all kinds and sizes.

Reason for select this specific topic

Researcher chooses this topic because within primary school classrooms children are often seated in groups but research shows that pupils do not collaborate or learn effectively within these groups. This study is focused on children 5–7 years old. Using a quasi-experimental design, children in experimental classes undertook relational activities to improve the effectiveness of group working during a school year. Nine hundred and eighty children (from 17 experimental and 21 control classes) were assessed and compared for attainment (reading and mathematics), motivation for group working and behavioural/communicative actions. Over a school year, children in experimental classes improved more than children in control classes with regard to academic attainment, motivation to work with others, group and on-task focus and showed high levels of communicative interaction with partners. It is concluded that young children are capable of engaging in effective group work that promotes academic achievement.

Many instructors from disciplines across the university use group work to enhance their students’ learning. Whether the goal is to increase student understanding of content, to build particular transferable skills, or some combination of the two, instructors often turn to small group work to capitalize on the benefits of peer-to-peer instruction. This type of group work is formally termed cooperative learning, and is defined as the instructional use of small groups to promote students working together to maximize their own and each other’s learning (Johnson, et al., 2008).

Cooperative learning is characterized by positive interdependence, where students perceive that better performance by individuals produces better performance by the entire group (Johnson, et al., 2014). It can be formal or informal, but often involves specific instructor intervention to maximize student interaction and learning. It is infinitely adaptable; working in small and large classes and across disciplines, and can be one of the most effective teaching approaches available to college instructors.

Q.2 What was your discussion with your colleague / friend / senior teacher or supervisor regarding the problem?

After choosing this theme, I discussed this topic with my teachers, friends and supervisor.

Discussion with Supervisor:

My supervisor pointed out that collaboration is essential for everyone, especially children. There are a lot of benefits gained from collaboration, including that it fosters a positive mood and releases the stress of the day.

Discussion with Teacher:

My teacher told me that developing positive relationships with others is very important for collaboration. The benefits from time spent with friends and family is that they learn to share, compromise and listen, as well as develop conflict resolution skills. Fostering these relationships as a child will also help them maintain relationships in their adult life.

• Children who rely on collaboration are often secluded from real life interaction.
• Using computers and other electronic devices can cause health hazards such as eye strain and other physical problems.
• The technologies required for full participation can be quite expensive and this can create a gap between the children who have access to the technologies and those who do not have access.

Discussion with Friends:

One of my friend pointed about this subtheme that People have many Social Responsibility, most of which benefit themselves and society. Our Social Responsibility to eat arises out a natural concern to ensure our own survival, whereas the self-regulation for sexual intercourse arises out of a natural concern to pass our genes to the next generation. Collaboration to seek affiliation and to protect ourselves and loved ones from harm also offer examples of basic, fundamental self-regulation that promote individual and collective well-being. Self-monitoring can prevent us from engaging in motivated behaviors. People have self-regulation to survive by eating, but they use Self-monitoring to resist their temptation to eat unhealthy foods.

I concluded that Social Responsibility is no longer seen as an optional extra; it is becoming an important concern of policy makers and economists. Indeed, the dramatic rise in the number of efforts to measure and monitor the position and lives of children’ in recent years.

Q.3 What did you find about the problem in the existing literature (books / articles /websites)?

Since the education of children became a mass phenomenon in the 19th century, the resulting organisation into schools and classrooms implied that pupils receive most of their teaching and learning in some form of grouping. Pedagogic studies that inform the teaching and learning process (e.g., Mortimore, 1999) do not appear to acknowledge the importance of pupil groups; pedagogy, as discussed within the literature, mainly focuses on the teacher–pupil relationship (acknowledging the individual learner), and largely neglects to identify that the majority of children’s classroom time is spent in the presence of peers (Blatchford, Kutnick, Baines, & Galton, 2003).

On the other hand, studies that focus on the frequency and use of naturally occurring pupil groupings in classrooms consistently note that these groupings do not feature as contexts for collaboration that promotes learning – these pupil groups often inhibit classroom learning (Dreeben, 1984, Galton, 1990, Galton et al., 1999).

The statements above should not be taken as evidence that studies of effective classroom groups do not exist. Co-operative and collaborative (structured into classroom activity) studies have drawn upon various forms of pupil grouping to promote cognitive development, motivation to work with others and pro-school attitudes (Aronson and Patnoe, 1997, Gillies and Ashman, 2003, Johnson and Johnson, 2003, Littleton et al., 2004, Slavin, 1995). Reviews of co-operative and collaborative studies show moderate advantages in using a structured ‘social’ pedagogic context (such as co-operative groups) to enhance children’s attainment and pro-school attitudes (Johnson and Johnson, 2003, Slavin, 1990). These reviews, though, rarely include studies of children aged 5–7 years – at the start of their primary (elementary) schooling (Battistich and Watson, 2003, Littleton et al., 2005). And, the focus of those studies that do draw upon co-operative and collaborative learning with young children tends to be single curriculum oriented – e.g., in literacy strategies (Mathes&Babyak, 2001) and in focused elaboration of skills for mathematics (Fuchs et al., 1997).

Moreover, many of the studies concerning effective group work have shortcomings when considered for general classroom use. As identified in Kutnick, Sebba, Blatchford, and Galton (2005), these shortcomings include the following: a tendency for group work to be undertaken over a short time period; a focus on input–output as opposed to process models; disaggregating of aspects of group work innovation (such as task or group structure) from the general classroom/grouping context; an assumption that relationships of support among children will be a product of effective group working; and a further assumption that the experimentally imposed conditions of a co-operative/collaborative study can be generalised to normal classroom activity. Even innovative studies that focus on internal communication and talk among group members (Howe and Tolmie, 2003, Littleton et al., 2005, Mercer, 2000, Webb and Mastergeorge, 2003) and quality interactions between classroom teacher and a particular group of pupils (Adey, Robertson, &Venville, 2002) rarely account for group and collaborative work that involves the whole class (undertaking this work simultaneously) over a school year.

Q.4 What were the major variables / construct of your project? Give definitions /description from literature.

Developing 21st Century skills in students

Previously, students worked on developing specific skill sets and understanding domain areas that they would need for their future careers. Today’s students, however, will need a set of transferable skills that can be applied in nearly every setting in order to succeed. Many educational experts define 21st-century skills as competencies that must be mastered to collaborate effectively and problem solve in a global economy. Some examples of 21st-century skills include critical thinking, creativity, communication, adaptability, digital literacy and cross-cultural understanding.

Collaboration

Collaboration is a working practice whereby individuals work together for a common purpose to achieve business benefit.

Collaboration enables individuals to work together to achieve a defined and common business purpose. It exists in two forms:

Synchronous, where everyone interacts in real-time, as in online meetings, through instant messaging, or via Skype,

.

Team work

Research shows that educational experiences that are active, social, contextual, engaging, and student-owned lead to deeper learning. The benefits of collaborative learning include: Development of higher-level thinking, oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills..

Q.5 What did you want to achieve in this research project?

Objective / purpose of the study:

The purpose of this action research will be Developing collaboration among students through teamwork among 7th grade students.

Objective of this research are:

1. To enhance collaboration throughteamwork amongamong grade 7.
2. To explore collaboration throughteamwork amongamong grade 7.
3. To discover the effect of collaboration throughteamwork amongamong grade 7.

Research Question:

• How to enhance collaboration throughteamwork amongamong grade 7?
• How effect of Developing collaboration among students through teamwork among 7th grade students.?
• Which level of goal is best used for Developing collaboration among students through teamwork among 7th grade students.?

Q.6 Who were the participants in your project?

The targeted population was students enrolled in young learners of :GMS Bashigram swat.. However, in these observations, thirty-two (32) parents, taking a related course, were selected in a School as a sample while considering the research control and validity of thisstudy. This sample included parents of the two major medium (English Medium and Urdu Medium). These participants might generally represent the student’s parents in young learner’s class. The Developing collaboration among students through teamwork among 7th grade students. was developed on the basis of a series of research regarding identification and improvement for young learner’s class students. This curriculum purported to enhancestudents’ Self-monitoring and depositions through speculating about academic learning and life issue discussion.

Q.7 How did you try to solve the problem?

Method of the study:

The procedure of this research was involved on an activity research to discover and tackle the issue. Thesocial wonder under investigation was the Developing collaboration among students through teamwork among 7th grade students.. Survey,interviews, field notes and perceptions were utilized to gather the information expected to give the dataknowledge important to respond to the research questions.

Data Collection:

The term survey is normally used on the other hand with audit. It is ordinary and straightforward strategy fordata amassing, in actuality, look at. Moreover, it is snappiest, most affordable, private method for social affairdata from respondents. The data was accumulated through efficient research gadget. So in suchsort inspects, it is indispensable during progress of estimation gadget for quality data to recollect all points of view. Emotional/Quantitative system was used to get critical and cautious information. Information wasassembled through survey including simply close completed request in regard to investigate goals. The close bycompleted overview was made for data gathering.

Sampling:

The entire group from which a sample is chosen is known as the population and we choose the students of GMS Bashigram swat.. It was quite convenient for me, being a resident of GMS Bashigram swat. to accumulatequality data from chosen city and Area.Sample is smaller representation of large data. Generally, it consists of all the observation that represents thewhole population.The number of observation included in a sample is called size of sample the students of GMS Bashigram swat.. Andtheir teacher was selected for this class based action research.

Ethical Consideration:

From the inception of this research I was extremely particular to carry out an ethical inquiry and therefore gave serious thought to all ethical aspects this study would entail. As teacher-researchers, my young learner’s class responsibility was to my students. An action research is considered ‘ethical’ if research design, interpretation and practical development produced by it have been negotiated with all parties directly concerned with the situation under research. Permission to conduct the study was first sought from the principal and Area governing body. Permission was sought from Area head. Permission was granted by the Education Department for this study to take place at the Area where I was teaching. The rights of the participants (young learner’s class students) were spelled out clearly i.e. they could refuse to be audio recorded and they could demand to see any notes or recordings.

Q.8 What kind of instrument was used to collect the data? How was the instrumentdeveloped?

Research Instrument:

Observation tools were used to collect the data needed to provide the information insight necessary to answer the research questions. In this technique a number of observations were designed according to requirement and relevancy of researcher being conducted. The observation was prepared to attain study objectives.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research is explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using performing based methods (in particular statistics). Quantitative data contains closed ended information such as that found on attitude behavior and performance instruments .In this study the children have been given a questionnaire to find out Using social responsibility through support honesty behaviorin young children and this observation has been derived and analyzed in terms of numerical data. This is why the research falls under quantitative category.

Observation
Anobservation is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondent’s statistical society. Usually a observation consists of a number of questions that the respondent has to answer in a set format .A distinction made between open ended and closed ended questions .an open ended question ask the respondent to formulate his own answer, whereas a closed ended question has the respondent pick an answer from given number of options.

Q.9 What were the findings and conclusion?

I used scale observations to get students’ responsestowards the use for the improvement of Collaborative activities are any activities where learners are working co-operatively in pairs or groups. For example:

Completing shared tasks in a pair or group, e.g. matching, sorting, ranking

Activities or games with a competitive element, e.g. bingo

Examples of activities

Collaborative activities can be used for any age-range and in any subject. EAL learners at any stage of language development can take part, particularly if those who are New to English are grouped with supportive peers. Here are some examples:

1. Group or pair discussion:

There are a range of pair or group discussions, for example:

Listening triangles: learners work together in groups of three: a speaker, a questioner and a note-taker.

The speaker explains the topic (or expresses their opinion on an issue) as directed by the teacher

The questioner listens carefully and asks for clarification or further detail

The note-taker observes this process and provides feedback to both speaker and questioner

Talk partners: Learners are paired for short discussion activities. Pairs can be selected, chosen randomly or regularly switched. It may be useful to establish ground rules and model some appropriate question types and responses.

Think-Pair-Share: Learners prepare a response to a text or prepare a piece of work and then explain their ideas to a partner. After the pairs have discussed the issue, they join with another pair, share views and emerge with a group conclusion or perspective.

Snowballing: Learners discuss something or investigate an issue in pairs. The pairs then join another pair to form a group and share their findings.  The small groups then join together to make a larger group: 2 →4 →8 →16 → whole-class.

2. Working on shared tasks, e.g. matching, sorting, ranking:

Working collaboratively on a task encourages use of the vocabulary of the curriculum area, and at the same time encourages use of the language of making suggestions, justifying opinions, agreeing and disagreeing, etc. It also gives practice in listening. Many of the resources on this website have images that can be made into flashcards which can be used for matching, sorting or ranking. For example, in A Balanced Diet learners are asked to sort cards with different foods on into groups according to their nutrient content.

3. Games and activities with a competitive element:

Games can be very effective in motivating learners, and in revising or consolidating curriculum content. They also practise the language of turn-taking and negotiating. Bingo is a popular game included in several of the resources on this site, e.g. food bingo. A quick noughts and crosses game can be produced for any topic on a whiteboard, i.e. a 3×3 grid with answers in each square. Split the class into two teams, and teams discuss possible questions to match the answers. There are likely to be a range of possible correct questions. In this example a question to which the correct answer is ‘protein’ could be ‘What do you find in fish, nuts and meat?’ or ‘What do we need to build and repair tissue?’

Q.10

Summary of the Project

In today’s world of work, the complexity of tasks to be performed and the globalised nature of both the workplace and service-provision increasingly necessitate collaboration and cooperation among co-workers at any workplace. The need for these 21st century skills, with some transversal skills included, is underpinned by several research efforts including the 2015 study by Hart Research Associates or the 2007 study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Even specialised editions of journals like The Economist (2017) have addressed this issue, and concluded that cooperation skills are one of the most essential qualities employers expect their current or future workforce to possess.

Having noticed this arising need, higher education institutions are constantly updating the range of skills to be developed in the scope of their training programmes. One very expedient way to develop such skills is to teach and practice them in professional contexts and pair them up with subject areas including foreign languages. As most commonly language learning takes place in groups where learners very frequently work together, cooperation skills can ideally be developed in such learning environments. The Department of Languages for Finance and Management at Budapest Business School University of Applied Sciences’ (BBS) Faculty of Finance and Accountancy (BBS FFA) had also realised this, and in order to develop and enhance its students’ cooperation skills, it considered and realised, in the scope of a pilot project, the introduction of a portfolio approach to promote cooperation skills at its English for specific purposes (ESP) classes.

With a view to this pilot project, this study seeks to uncover whether students would welcome cooperation skills development in the scope of ESP classes through a portfolio project, and whether the portfolio tasks – developed for the purpose of cooperation skills development in the scope of this research project – in their present form would constitute a potential candidate for this purpose. In the light of this, the present study introduces the relevant theoretical background in the context of which the most important basic terms (including team and skill) are used in the present study, to be followed by the definition of cooperation and its subskills. Next, a description of how the portfolio tasks developed by BBS FFA’s Department of Languages for Finance and Management can potentially improve cooperation skills is provided. The subsequent section in the paper outlines the research design including the description of the participants, the instrument for data collection, the data collection itself and the procedures of analysis. After that, the data and the analysis are presented, and finally the pedagogical implications of the research as well as its limitations are discussed.

Q.11 How do you feel about this practice? What have you learnt?

I am feeling very satisfied and glad after my research. It was quite interesting and Conflict management experience. Now I am confident after this research. Now I am able to do these all sorts of such tasks.im feeling myself as confident, glad and learnt person. I learnt a lot of new things which I never learnt in my previous life. For example when I talked with senior Parents and expert people I learnt a lot of skills of writing. When i taught the children then me counsel dictionary and great writers, businessmen and novels .These all things increased my Conflict management also showed them video lesson of some expert and creative writers to teach them. It also helped me to learn new things. This practice also improved my writing skills too.

I also learnt how to write effectively and accurately I have improved my English grammar. My work has been improved. I learnt new methods of improving writing. I learnt how to write stories in appropriate way. Overall it helped me to develop new writing skills, new way of teaching writing skills. So I am glad to say that it was unforgettable experience of my life. First of all most of us numb the uncomfortable emotions, but unknowingly when we do this research we can also end up numbing our other emotions like joy, peace, happiness, and pleasure. We can’t fully have one without the other.

The first step is always awareness, because once we have awareness we can start to do something about it. Awareness alone won’t help us stop using Conflict management. Awareness after the fact is what I’m talking about here. Starting anything new and trying to create a habit out of it takes work and time. This is one of the reasons I love researching and attending classes as it’s basically a scheduled time in the day, where I have no other distractions, to just be in my routine and notice how I’m feeling. That being said I rarely make it to a class once a week these days, so I do have to find simple and quick ways to connect.

Q.12 What has it added to your professional skills as a teacher?

It added a lot of new skills in my teaching .It improved my way of teaching. For example when I talked with senior Parents and expert people I learnt a lot of skills of Self-monitoring.

Adaptability

Different kids learn in different ways, and some lessons need unique teaching tools. Good Parents know how to adapt their lesson plan to their students, so that all the kids learn optimally. This trait can take some experience and practice in a classroom setting, so give it time.

Imagination

Whether you teach high Area chemistry or kindergarten, nothing is a more effective tool than using your imagination to create new and self-regulation ways for your students to learn. You may be inspired by the work of another teacher, mentor or a TV commercial – it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you take the initiative to find new ways for your kids to learn the material.

Teamwork

Parents could have a hard time without a wide variety of support staff around them. If you feel alone, your Area principal, administrative staff, parent-teacher committee, and more are often available to provide you help. By working as a team, you may have an easier time increasing your students’ ability to learn and have fun.

Professional Development:

In this modern, digital age, Parents need to be flexible and be able to adapt to whatever is thrown their way. New technologies are developed every day that can change the way students learn, and the way Parents teach.

Patience

This is likely the single most important skill. Kids these days are stubborn, and many lack the inherent respect for authority that we were taught at a young age. Spending a single day in a room full of raucous teenagers is enough to send any human being to the Looney bin, which is why every good teacher needs patience in order to find a way to work with his students and earn their respect.

Risk Taking

Sometimes to get the big reward, you may need to take a risk. Being a teacher is about finding a way to get kids to learn, and sometimes these new learning methods can be risky. Stick to it and you’ll soon find that others are following your teaching example.

Q.13

List the works you cited in your project (follow the APA manual – 6^th Edition). (05 marks)

• Bánhegyi, M., &Fajt, B. (2023). Improving university students’ cooperation skills through portfolio projects: A pilot study. Journal of Adult Learning, Knowledge and Innovation.
• Alam, A., &Mohanty, A. (2023). Evaluation of Software Engineering Virtual Laboratory in Determining Undergraduate Students’ Conceptual Understanding: A Blended Learning Model Using Collaborative-Creative Virtual Learning Environment Employing Critical Pedagogy. In Sentiment Analysis and Deep Learning: Proceedings of ICSADL 2022 (pp. 875-899). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
• Wullschleger, A., Vörös, A., Rechsteiner, B., Rickenbacher, A., &Merki, K. M. (2023). Improving teaching, teamwork, and school organization: Collaboration networks in school teams. Teaching and Teacher Education, 121, 103909.
• Looi, C. K., Wong, S. L., Kong, S. C., Chan, T. W., Shih, J. L., Chang, B., … & Liao, C. C. (2023). Interest-Driven Creator Theory: case study of embodiment in an experimental school in Taiwan. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 18.
• Nahar, S. (2022). Improving Students’ Collaboration Thinking Skill under the Implementation of the Quantum Teaching Model. International Journal of Instruction, 15(3), 451-464.
• Dini, J. P. A. U. (2022). An application of multimodal text-based literacy activities in enhancing early children’s literacy. JurnalObsesi: JurnalPendidikanAnakUsiaDini, 6(5), 5127-5134.
• Epstein, J. L. (2019). Theory to practice: School and family partnerships lead to school improvement and student success. In School, family and community interaction (pp. 39-52). Routledge.
• Yoon, D. (2003, June). A smart classroom for enhancing collaborative learning using pervasive computing technology. In 2003 Annual Conference (pp. 8-118).
• Sofroniou, A., &Poutos, K. (2016). Investigating the effectiveness of group work in mathematics. Education Sciences, 6(3), 30.
• Kutnick, P., Ota, C., &Berdondini, L. (2008). Improving the effects of group working in classrooms with young school-aged children: Facilitating attainment, interaction and classroom activity. Learning and Instruction, 18(1), 83-95.
• Webb et al.Promoting effective helping behaviour in peer directed groupsInternational Journal of Educational Research(2003)
• N. Webb
• E. Aronson et al.The jigsaw classroom: Building cooperation in the classroom(1997)