Date of Graduation
1997
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to provide information concerning group dynamics and Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to school teachers and counselors to determine if student behaviors have any influence on acquiring skills and knowledge. In addition, self-esteem was measured and crossed with group dynamics. Prior to the research study, Consent and Assent Forms had to be signed by students and one parent or guardian. Students were provided an overview of the project including a packet of handouts which consisted of a project timeline of day to day activities, daily task assignments, and instructions on learning Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) and storyboarding. Students were administered a pretest on knowledge and skills in addition to a self-esteem inventory. Based on their rating of items on the knowledge/skills inventory, students were assigned to one of six team roles. During the problem-solving activity, students were taught how to use HTML and storyboards. Students were observed and behaviors were recorded using an observation checklist. Following the activity, students were administered a post test using the knowledge/skills and self-esteem inventory. Gain scores were calculated from the pretest and post tests for each team role. As a result of this study, students who performed roles such as Project Managers and Computer Programmers were on-task most often and tended to exhibit the highest frequency of Informative and Inquisitive Behaviors. Other results revealed that Talking Within Group and Teacher Interaction were the highest observed behaviors in both the Informative and Inquisitive Behavior categories. In addition, the knowledge/skills inventory revealed that students rated knowledge acquisition outside of their team roles higher than knowledge consistent with team responsibilities. In relation to self-esteem, those students that were more conservative on rating their knowledge acquisition on the knowledge/skills inventory had higher perceived gains in self-esteem. The final conclusions of this study revealed that students benefited from problem-based learning activities and had perceived gains in knowledge/skill acquisition. In addition, students learned to interact with each other by sharing ideas and knowledge when given the opportunity to solve realistic, ill-structured problems. Students were active participants and problem solvers in the learning process.
Recommended Citation
Dombrowski, Lynn Allison, "Implementation of collaborative problem-based learning in the classroom: A focus on group dynamics in relation to self-esteem and skill acquisition through the generation of a Web page." (1997). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 8770.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/8770