Finding learning value in working with others

Manal Raoui  |  manalraoui.com

This motivational regulation strategy helps a student who sees little learning value in group work look within the task for a personal learning gain they could achieve through interaction. They may want to understand a different method, test an explanation, notice something overlooked, or receive feedback that improves understanding. They choose a benefit that matters to them and participate in ways that allow them to pursue it.

This is our proposed classroom formulation. The cited studies did not test it in this form under this name. It draws on motivational regulation research, which describes learners' active efforts to influence their reasons for engaging or persisting (Wolters, 2003), and positive interdependence research, which shows how the organization of work can connect individual outcomes with others' efforts and contributions (Johnson et al., 2014).

Why the strategy matters

A student may understand the task and know that group work is required without seeing what interaction adds to their learning. They may expect discussion to slow them down, believe they can solve it alone, or consider dividing the work faster than thinking together.

Telling them to participate may miss the obstacle. Their question may be less “How do I join in?” than “What will I gain from working this way?”

Johnson and colleagues' meta-analysis (2014) combined 629 independent studies from 26 countries. Positive interdependence was associated with greater motivation and achievement than negative interdependence or no interdependence. Members' efforts are connected: progress toward an individual's goal also depends on others' work and progress.

This does not mean that students automatically recognize what they can learn from classmates. Positive interdependence concerns the organization of the situation. The strategy here concerns the learner's search within that situation for personally meaningful learning value.

These functions complement each other. The teacher creates a task in which interaction has a substantive role. The student learns to recognize what others can add to their learning through that interaction.

The learner gains a personal reason to listen, question, and compare, beyond compliance. The group may also benefit from the questions, explanations, and comparisons generated by participation focused on learning.

Identifying a learning benefit to pursue

The strategy begins when a learner notices that the value of working with others is unclear. Instead of stopping at “I’d rather work on my own” or waiting for the task to become more attractive, they look at the task and classmates' contributions for possible learning opportunities.

Questions might include:

• “Does someone have an idea I have not considered?”
• “Is there a different method I could understand?”
• “Could explaining my idea help me test it?”
• “Might a question or challenge reveal something I have missed?”

The student selects one benefit that matters in this task. Members need not pursue the same benefit. One may want to understand a method, another to test an explanation, and another to understand why answers differ.

Turning value into participation

The learner then participates in ways that make the benefit available. Understanding another method involves listening, asking questions, and comparing it with one's own. Testing an explanation involves presenting it and allowing others to question or challenge it. Discovering overlooked possibilities involves treating classmates' ideas as information that may extend one's view of the task.

During the activity, the student checks whether the benefit is materializing. Another method may add little, or a classmate's question may reveal something previously unnoticed. The learner can continue searching within the interaction or adjust their focus.

The process involves noticing unclear learning value, exploring what working with others could add, choosing a personally relevant benefit, participating to pursue it, and checking what is actually being learned.

The support helps students practice an action they can use to regulate their own motivation when they see little value in working with others.

Keeping the search grounded in the task

Repeating that group work is important or persuading oneself to enjoy it does not perform the same function. Wolters (2003) describes different forms of motivational regulation, including increasing enjoyment or situational interest and making reasons for persistence more salient. Here, the focus is a particular learning benefit available through interaction.

A general belief that cooperation helps learning is also insufficient. Regulatory value emerges when students identify what this task could mean for them: an idea to understand, an explanation to test, or a method to compare.

Positive interdependence itself is a feature of how the situation is organized. Finding learning value is the student's activity within it.

Nor should students be asked to invent a benefit the situation does not provide. If members can complete isolated parts and assemble them without needing one another's thinking, difficulty seeing the value of interaction may be justified. The task must make that value possible.

Why students may need support

Recognizing a possible benefit does not ensure participation that can realize it. A student may think another method would be useful without listening, questioning, or looking beyond their assigned part.

Wolters (2003) describes motivational regulation as active effort. Using a motivational strategy cannot be equated automatically with greater effort or attainment. His review notes that some interest-enhancing strategies had been associated with greater effort and higher perceived value, while their relationships with achievement were not consistently clear.

The strategy therefore moves beyond “Working with others might help” toward a benefit the student can actively investigate: “I want to understand why my classmate used that method.” This intention begins to guide listening, questioning, and comparison.

Prior experience also shapes expectations. If some members usually do most of the work, or everyone completes an isolated part, students may have little reason to see classmates' contributions as learning resources. Development of the strategy needs experiences in which another person's idea, question, or method can actually change one's understanding.

What teachers can do

The teacher cannot decide what will make the work meaningful for every learner. They can first ensure that the task provides substantive opportunities to learn from others.

Gillies (2004) compared structured and unstructured cooperative groups in a study involving 223 ninth-grade students. Those in structured groups were more willing to work with others, provided more elaborate assistance, and showed stronger perceptions of group cohesion and responsibility for one another's learning.

Begin with task design: Are different ideas needed? Can a member offer information, a method, or an explanation others do not have? Does the task require listening, comparison, explanation, and decisions, or can it be completed by dividing and assembling parts?

Then help students notice learning opportunities without imposing one benefit on everyone:

“You might hear a new idea, see another method, or discover something while explaining your thinking. What would you like to learn from working with your classmates?”

If a student thinks they already know the solution, ask, “What might you learn from finding out how others reached theirs?”

Offer support to the whole class first, then increase it where necessary. Some students will quickly identify a personally meaningful benefit; others may need examples or questions that make the opportunity visible.

Talking about benefits should not silence objections. “I don't learn anything from this group” may reveal a real problem in the task or interaction. The teacher then needs to review the situation itself, rather than ask only the student to change their view.

The strategy in practice

A group must compare two methods for solving a mathematics problem, select the more appropriate method, and justify the choice. One student says, “I can already solve it myself. Why do we need a group?”

“Cooperation is important” does not address the student's difficulty seeing value in interaction. The teacher can instead open a learning possibility: “You may know a correct method. Could you find out why the other method works and when it might be more suitable than yours?”

The teacher presents something the student can examine, rather than a ready-made benefit they must accept.

The learner may choose, “I want to understand why the second method works.” They now have a reason to listen, request explanations of steps, and compare methods. Both may be correct, while one is shorter for a particular type of problem. A question raised during comparison may also reveal a step that others had not justified clearly.

The learner pursues a personal learning benefit while their questions and comparisons give the group opportunities to examine and develop its ideas.

“Some tasks need more than one idea” makes possible contributions visible: a new idea, a question that opens thinking, or another method.

It also recalls conditions that allow these benefits to emerge: staying involved, listening, addressing what was said or done rather than attacking the person, making room for others, and helping the work continue.

The aid does not represent the motivational strategy itself or prescribe a fixed sequence. It makes possible benefits and supportive interactional conditions visible, helping each learner search for something personally meaningful within the activity.

The central idea

A student reluctant to work in a group may simply not see what interaction will add to their learning. The strategy helps them move from “Why must I work with them?” toward “What could I learn with them that I do not yet see?”

It does not guarantee greater motivation for every learner or replace tasks that provide substantive opportunities for collaboration. It gives students an approach when perceived learning value is weak: identify a personal benefit, participate to pursue it, and examine whether it helps.

The goal is to discover when and how others can add to one's learning, and how pursuing that benefit can also contribute to the group's learning.

References

Gillies, R. M. (2004). The effects of cooperative learning on junior high school students during small group learning. Learning and Instruction, 14, 197–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4752(03)00068-9

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., Roseth, C., & Shin, T. S. (2014). The relationship between motivation and achievement in interdependent situations. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 44(9), 622–633. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12280

Wolters, C. A. (2003). Regulation of motivation: Evaluating an underemphasized aspect of self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(4), 189–205. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3804_1

See it in a classroom situation: When students only want to work with friends