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Contents :

Title page
1. Acknowledgements.................................................................................2
2. Abstract....................................................................................................3
3. Introduction.............................................................................................3
4. Literature review......................................................................................4
5. Method.....................................................................................................7

6. Findings and discussion...........................................................................8

7. Research indication / Implication............................................................8
8. Conclusion.............................................................................................14
9. Preference..............................................................................................15
10. Appendix...............................................................................................16

Acknowledgement
We would like to thank the following individuals who offered helpful feedback
and suggestion for making this research :
Collective second-year students of research method class, English Department,
Hue University.
Group 5 of research method.
Especially thank to thirty students contributed in our investigation.
And we want to express our deep gratitude to Mrs. Truong Thi Nhu Thuy, who
teaches us in research method subject.
 Abstract
The research is processed with HUFLC second year students. It focuses on the
definition, profits and disadvantages of studying in groups. Questionnaires were
used to get opinions of participants. The research consists of these following parts:

1. Introduction
2. Literature review
3. Method
4. Findings and Discussion
5. Research implication
6. Conclusion
7. Reference
8. Appendix ( Questionnaire )

Following on the researched results, most of the students like studying in groups.
In short, studying in groups has some profits and disadvantages. Therefore, the
most important thing that concentrated is finding the way to get the best results.

Introduction
Group studying may not strange to the students at Universities, but to the
other pupils, who are at primary or secondary schools this is absolutely a branch
new word. The transition from high school to the fist-year student at any college is
rather difficult. It is a hard turn with many changes such as the changing in life-
style, environment of studying, friends, finance problem,. and so on, Especially,
the different in managing with a new learning type. That’s why this topic is chosen
to be presented. All of the purposes just concentrate on getting to know well about
group studying, the advantages and disadvantages of this kind of studying. This

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help to improve students’ method of studying and also help them to gain the best
result by starting using this kind of studying.

Literature review
Studying in Groups

I. Definition

Learning in groups is known as co-operative or collaborative learning and it

has been shown many times that students who get actively involved in what they
are studying learn more than those who are passive (only taking information
through lectures etc.).Indeed entire approaches to learning are being developed
which rely almost entirely on small groups of students (8-10) learning all relevant
material through collaboratively addressing a particular ‘problem’ or trigger, with
the lecturer playing the role of a facilitator.

Studying in group is working on an university task in group by exploring

ideas and subjects with others to work out your ideas and understand the topic
better

Furthermore, a group is a good setting to develop your ability to work with

others, to be part of a team, an ability that is essential for many life activities, and
many values by employers

It can also a good way of learning about yourself and other people in order
to find that being able to make use of interpersonal skills and being able to further
your understanding of a subject go hand in hand. A group can not be together
effectively if there are tensions among its members.

II . PROFITS

1. Provides opportunities for higher order thinking as opposed to passive

listening.
Reinforces listening to others and gives opportunity for immediate feedback

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and adjustment of thought.
Students talking together provide for input and listening. Students often have
to assess the thoughts/ideas of peers, determine whether they “fit” their own,
whether they disagree, or partially agree. Students have an opportunity to speak
their ideas/thoughts for better formulation.
2. Promotes greater student-faculty and student interaction.
Students assist each other in understanding material/content. This may even
help students broaden their perspectives on issues or problems.
3. Increases students’ retention and limits anxiety. Students are not overloaded
with information. Students actually get time to think about, to talk about, and
process information.
Improves interaction and “talk” (Vygotskian Constructivism) and provides
opportunities for students to think about and process the information.
4. Permits opportunities to connect the content to real life.
Students can provide real life examples of the content being discussed, thus
increasing the relevancy of the learning.

5. Builds self-esteem in students.

Students help each other as discussion occurs. Students are more likely to
respond to the whole class after discussing thoughts with a partner or small group. .
Students may even discover that they understand the information because they
must articulate the content to another.
6. Provides for improvement of social interaction skills, greater acceptance of
others, and a greater sense of “community” in the class - in part by addressing
learning style differences.
Students may even begin to create study groups for greater learning. Students
who teach or tutor each other learn more about each other and how to better
communicate information to others. Students benefit from building group skills by
working together.
7. Encourages alternative forms of assessment.
Professors have greater opportunities to observe actual processing of
information, seeing the results of group projects or field experiences. The
applied projects indicate true knowledge.
8. Promotes higher levels of achievement, greater depth of thought and
improved attendance.
Enjoyment of interaction and relevancy of content tend to encourage students
to master the content.
9. Encourages innovation in both teaching and student involvement.
Technology is easily incorporated by students and/or professors. Students
may e-mail each other, join chat rooms, and collaborate on group projects

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effectively using the technology, rather than meeting face-to-face.
Students may present projects, activities, etc. using a variety of approaches
rather than the typical paper. They have more freedom to use their own strengths in
the final product. Students may determine the form of projects and often work
well beyond initial expectations.

III . DISADVANTAGES

1. Individual students will have less control over the overall task than if they
were completing it alone.
2. There is always a risk of group members who are overly dominant, who
contribute too little, who fail to participate effectively.
3. Individual students, especially high-achievers, often feel that they could
have attained a higher mark had they worked alone.
4. If only a group mark is used in group assignments there can be resentment if
all members did not contribute equally.
5. Students sometimes see group commitments such as meetings and agreeing
deadlines, deliverables etc as an added burden on top of having to complete
the task itself.

IV . HOW TO STUDY EFFECTIVELY

1. Each member should have some ideas to establish group lessons

2. Each group should have a suitable schedule to study
3. Students must have some methods to balance between group studying and self
studying
4. Group studying should act frequently

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 Method:

The research is carried out by following these steps. The topic of the research
is presented first. The second step is choosing the questions to form a
questionnaire. This form is given to thirty students learning in the Research
Method class in Hue University, Department of English’s second year students.
The data are discussed and illustrated the research after being analyzed from the
statistics. Finally, ending with making a conclusion- a short, brief and the most
effective one – the research come to an end.

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 Findings and discussion
[..I..]
%

60
50 Note :
50
40 a: Independently
40
b: In pair
30
c: In small groups
20
10 d: With the whole groups
10
0
0
a b c d

The most favorite way of studying

From this chart, there were 50% students who like to study in small groups,
40% ones wanted to study independently, just 10% in pairs and no body liked to
study with whole groups. It shows that most of these students find the benefits of
studying in groups. Studying in small groups helps them learn from each other and
they also have opportunity to give theirs ideas and contribute to discuss. However,
many students like studying independently because they can control their time
easily. But they have difficulty in giving ideas and there is no one who corrects
their mistakes. In summary, students like most by studying in small groups.

[..II..]

7
 %
60 53.66
50
40 Note :
40

30
a: 2-3 students

20 b: 4-5 students
10 c: More than 5 students
3.33
0
a b c

Number of students in a group.

When being asked their opinion about “How many students each group should
have”, 53.66% students assumed that each group should have 2- 3 students, other
40% students thought there should be 4-5 students and only 3.33% of them liked
to study in a group with more than 5 students. As for them, group of 2-3 students is
the most suitable to studying effectively. They can help each other by giving and
correcting ideas. Also, it is easy to accomplish their exercise without arguing
much.

[..III..]
%

50
43.33 Note:
40
a: Once a Week
30 23.33 23.33 b: Twice a week
20 c: Three times a week
10
10 d: More than three times
0
a b c d

The Frequency of group studying.

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 Talking about time of studying in groups there were 43.33% students who
want to learn in groups once a week, just 23.33% students want to learn in groups
twice a week. And the same number of students wants three times a week. There
were some students (10%) want to learn in groups more than three times a week.
With the students want to learn in groups once a week. In this case, if they learn in
groups once a week, they will have time to study on their own .In addition, they
think that studying in groups once, twice or even three times a week is suitable for
each member’s schedule. If more than three times a week, it is difficult to arrange
their timetable. Studying in groups should be more than 1 hour. In fact, the time
which they spend studying in class is much more that. So they want to learn in
groups once a week, feel comfortable and get better result.
%

60
50
50 [..IV..]
40

30 26.66 Note:
20
20 a: 20-30 mins
10 3.33 b: 30-35 mins
0 c: 40- 45 mins
a b c d
d: Over 1 hour
Time for studying in groups.

Following on the researched result, there were 50% students agree with that
studying in groups should last over one hour. Only 3.33% students choose “20-30
minutes” for studying in groups, 26.66% choose “30-35 minutes” and 20%
students choose “40-45 minutes”. Most of the students think over one hour is the
most suitable to studying in groups. Time of 20 - 25 minutes is not enough to study
or discuss their ideas. Other students want the time to study is from 20 to 45
minutes. They think study more than 1 hour is waste of time. Especially, studying
in groups which have many people attend, there are many ideas which they give to
discuss. . It is enough to discuss. So, the most suitable time is over 1 hour.
[..V..]

9
 80
70
60
Note :
50 a: Completely agree
40 b: Agree
30
c: Neutral
20
10 d: Disagree
0 e: Strongly disagree
a b c d e
gaining the best result from group studying

the necessity of group studying

hard to unify opinions

About “Studying in groups can gain the best result”, there were 10% students
completely agreeing and 53.33% ones who agree with this. There were 10%
students disagreeing. There were also 26.66 % others have no ideas about this. The
above results shows that most students think that studying in groups could gain the
best results. They assume that when studying in groups, a lot of ideas are given and
discussed while studying independently could not have. With each member’s
knowledge, they may supplement to others in order to understand their problem
deeply. So, they can find out the best solution.

When being asked to give opinion about the necessity of group studying,
there were 73.33% students who chose “ agree”. Meanwhile, there were 16.66%
students choosing “disagree”, 6.66% students choosing “ neutral” and 3.33% ones
chose “ completely agree”. This mean that most of them think studying in groups is
necessary method. It helps them share opinions and knowledge with seeing others’
good points and limitation easily, they may help others develop advantages and
correct mistakes. Studying in groups is also the foundation of improving skills of
working in groups in the future.

Following to students’ opinions, they 56.66% mostly disagree that “Studying

in groups is hardly to unify opinions”. 3.33%students strongly disagreed with this.
There are also 16.66% ones completely agreeing and 10% ones agreeing with this.
13.33% others were neutral. The result above shows that most students think that

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unifying opinions is not a difficult question. They may unify opinions easily. They
do this by finding out the mistakes of each member’s opinion, and give perfect
answers. However, near 30% students think that it was hard to unify opinions.
Their opinions may be strongly different from others’. So, they spend a lot of time
arguing when learning in groups.

[..VI..]
%

60

50

40
Note :
30 a: completely agree
20 b: Agree
10 c: Neutral
0 d: Disagree
a b c d e e :Strongly disagree

Learning in group can save time

it is hard to choose time that is suitable to

the schedule of each member

It can be seen from the chart that there were over 46% students who disagree
with the opinion: “Learning in groups can save time”. However, there were 20%
students who completely agree and 16.66% ones agree with this. In addition, only
10% students have no ideas about this. It is easy to realize that most people think
learning in groups could not save the time. They mean that studying in groups is
waste of time because of arguments or jokes while they study or it cannot save the
time at all, but just as they learn independently. On the other hand, over 30%

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students (completely) agree with this. They think that they could divide parts of
their question for each member to do, then pick up results and have the complete
answers. Therefore, they can save the time better than studying independently. In
addition, when they study in groups, they have more ideas for a question from
group members. So they spend less time to do the questions. These students may
like studying in groups. 10% other students are neutral. They may have both of
above viewpoints. Conclusion, most students think that learning in groups can save
the time.

In the question: “It is hard to choose time that is suitable to the schedule of each
member”, there were 50% students agreeing: it is hard to choose time. That is
suitable to the schedule of each member. There were 26.66% others choosing
“neutral”, 10% ones choosing “completely agree” and 6.66% ones choosing
“disagree”. It is possible to realize that most students have difficulties in choosing
time to study in groups. Actually, the schedule of each member is different. That is
very difficult for then to arrange their time. Therefore, it might be a disadvantage
of study in groups.

[..VII..]
%

60
50
50
40
40
Note :
30 a: Yes
b: A little bit
20
c: Completely no
10
10

0
a b c

Influences of group studying on students’

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 Following to the researched result, there were 50% students thought studying
in groups affect on their own studying. 40% assumed that it affected a little bit and
10% ones disagreed with those students. It indicates that most of them find their
own studying is influenced by studying in groups. Because they have to spend
much time arranging, traveling to study with their groups. So they do not have
much time to self-study.

Research
Influences of group studying on students’ indication/ implication:
From the database collected, statistics show that all of these students ( thirty
students joined in the investigation) taked pleasure in this kind of studying and
realized its necessities. According to theme, studying in groups provides a lot of
benefits which outweigh the disadvantages. So, it should be applied more widely
( not only in classes but also in other places out of universities ).

Work out a suitable method of studying in groups:

- Each group shouled have 2 -3 students so that the ideas can be easily come
out and unified.
- When studying in groups, the ideas should be careful weighed the pros and
cons in order not to make unnecessary arguments. After all things
considered, the good points are remained.
- All the member should contribute the ideas to the groups’work. It the best
way to show a well-combined operation among each member.
- It is the transition from give and take ( learning and to be learnt )

Conclusion:
Following on the researched result, most of the students found the benefits of
studying in groups. They can share with group’s members to save time and not

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only finish the exercises earlier, but also gain the best result. They have
opportunity to give their ideas and contribute to discuss easily. Besides, it is the
basic foundation to improve skills of working in groups. In this case, studying in
groups can gain the best result. Each group should have suitable number of
students. However, many students have opinions that it was hard to choose suitable
schedule and unify the opinions among each member. Moreover, group studying
also affects on their own studying. These, perhaps explain why they like studying
independently

Reference
We have consulted some website to get some information related to our
research.

Literature review. Pp 4

Working in groups ( website http://www.dcu.ie/ExL/pdfs/working_in_groups.pdf , time

visited 03/04/2009 , at 8 a.m )

The Power of Study Groups--Two Heads Are Better Than One(Website

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/high-school/50432.html Time visited
03/04/2009,at 8:30 a.m)

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Appendix

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