How Collaborative is Collaborative Group Work? A Case Study of Thai Undergraduate University Students’ Group Tasks

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how students collaborate within the group while working on a group task and what the pattern of the students' collaboration is when Thai undergraduate students perform a task. The data of this research study were collected from 38 volunteer Science and Technology students who enrolled in an Academic English course at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi in Bangkok, Thailand. Two research instruments were employed in the present study. The memo notes were primarily used to recall students' collaboration. After analyzing the data gained from the memo notes, a semi-structured interview protocol was conducted to further probe any ambiguous or unclear points mentioned in the memos.  The findings revealed that students did collaborate while performing a group task as they helped one another to complete the task. Two patterns of collaboration were identified in this study. The first pattern is that students separate the task and each team member work on his/her own on the part he/she is responsible for. After that they come back to the group and work together to finish the assigned task. The second pattern is that students work together from the beginning to the end of the group task.