1. Lorna Jordan MSc in Learning and Teaching
Group work and Feedback:
Does the introduction of group average feedback impact on student opinion of group work in a mathematics class?
Lorna Jordan
MSc in Learning and Teaching

2. Aims of the study
Group work has potential to be an invaluable learning tool encouraging communication and sharing of mathematical ideas among peers.
Students often complain of an uneven distribution of work and responsibility with some students choosing to opt out of or being forced out of discussions.
The aim of the study is to influence students’ opinions of group work by providing a cooperative incentive in the form of group average feedback to termly learning reviews.

3. What do MAS maths feedback sheets look like?

4. What does the research say?
Group Study:
Students work together on topic/concept towards common goal (result on quiz/test)
Can be group or individual accountability
Jigsaw group work:
Each student given topic/concept
‘Expert’ teaches rest of group
Students assessed on knowledge of group as a whole

5. Implications
By introducing a cooperative incentive (in this case a group average result) student motivation and likeliness to contribute increases
Prior attainment seems to affect opinion on group work as well as motivation to contribute with with a clear correlation between social anxieties about group work and lower prior attainment.