Reducing free-riding is an important challenge for educators who use group projects. In this study, we measure students' preferences for group project characteristics and investigate if characteristics that better help to reduce free-riding become more important for students when stakes increase. We used a discrete choice experiment based on 12…

Social skill interventions are utilised by educational psychologists (EPs) to promote positive social behaviour amongst pupils. These have predominantly occurred for target populations, rather than at the whole-class level. Research into evidence-based, whole-class interventions for social skill development is warranted. The Good Behaviour Game…

Students at two universities were surveyed in order to determine if past experiences with classroom group work impacted attitudes about this pedagogical technique. Questions related to equitable distribution of effort (personal and of other group members), impact on learning and life skills, group structure, and fairness in grading. Business and…

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a classroom management system that employs an interdependent group contingency, whereby students work as a team to win the game. Although previous anecdotal data have suggested that this arrangement may promote prosocial behavior, teachers may have concerns about its fairness and potential to evoke negative peer…

Business school courses often require team projects, both for pedagogical reasons as well as to prepare students for the kinds of team-based activities that are common in organizations these days. However, social loafing is a common problem in teams, and peer evaluations by team members are sometimes used in such team settings to assess…

This is a case study report arising from a series of daily observations of the students' behavior made in a primary public school located near to the capital city, Manizales-Colombia, where it was possible to notice the difficulties students had in order to coexist due to the lack of respect with their classmates, in group activities or actually…

Challenging behavior in preschool is a serious concern for teachers. In recent years, positive behavior support (PBS) has been shown to be effective in reducing such behaviors. Class-Wide Function-related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) is a specific program for implementing PBS principles in classroom settings. CW-FIT is a group contingency that…

In this paper, we present a teaching proposal used in an Introductory Physics course to civil engineering students from Porto's Engineering Institute/Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP). The proposal was born from the need to change students' perception and motivation for learning physics. It consists in the use of an integrator…

The Good Behavior Game (GBG), a type of interdependent group-oriented contingency management procedure, was first introduced in 1969 and has been used with overwhelming success in classrooms and other settings. Since its inception, the "game" has utilized team competition and peer influence combined with reinforcement procedures. It has been found…

Examined group and individual factors that facilitate changes in cooperation and learning outcomes in trained and untrained work groups of elementary school-age children (N=192). Results indicate observable differences between student interactions in the two conditions. Trained students were more cooperative and helpful to each other, compared to…

Despite the increased emphasis on team work in the academic environment, managing a student team so that the team process is effective remains problematic. In fact, some professors believe students are being taught ineffective team behavior such as free loading or relying on star performers and procrastination . Most research on student team…

This article shows the extent to which pupils borrow information from one another. In the course of classroom observations, learning in groups appeared to be polyphonic and was based upon the ideas of others. Learning through plagiarism, however, must be interpreted not as negative interdependence, but as a way for children to construct new…

This ethnographic case study investigated the challenges of six elementary teachers who attempted to embrace, comprehend, and apply elements of cooperative learning. The study examined solutions that teachers found effective in dealing with problems they encountered when using cooperative learning. Over the course of 1 year, researchers collected…