JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

When students work in small groups, it is expected that they experience five stages of group development to perform well; forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Yet, the duration of each stage namely, when particular stage starts and when it finishes was not investigated in the previous researches. Furthermore, all the stages have features that characterize them, most of the features describe emotional state of students, whereas motivational level of students is still not clear. So, taking into account of the previous research gaps, the aim of this thesis is to examine duration of group development stages, and how to characterize students’ motivation at the different stages of collaborative learning. The research involved 15 first-year teacher education students. Four small-groups (3–4 members in each) were engaged in collaborative learning tasks on math within six sessions. Except the tasks, they were assigned to discuss macro-level scripts: Orientation questions in the beginning, Checkup questions in the middle, and Reflection questions at the end of the each session. The data was collected by videotaping of students’ small-group work. For the data analysis of this thesis, the scripted phases were transcribed and coded based on the thematic categories. The results show that almost all of the group developmental stages may last one or two collaborative sessions. There are quite a lot of overlaps between the stages, when they are mixed in one session. Another point is that, not all five stages may be present in the group development. As this study shows, adjourning stage was not included in the analysis since none of the groups did experience it. According to the analysis, the groups’ motivational state vary from one stage to another. At the beginning of the course students are more motivated and at the end of the course students’ motivation is low. The thesis demonstrates which stage is specifically more beneficial for students’ high motivation. It can be concluded that the knowledge of groups’ development stages are useful for the teachers in designing the collaborative learning sessions. Taking into account the emotions and motivation that students are expected to have at the different stages, the teachers may enhance learning process.