Teamwork lessons slowed the usual drop in how hard students tried in class

The study

1. 01

   Who took part

   1,890 students in 15 rural middle schools in the Pacific Northwest, USA, followed from 7th to 8th grade. About half were girls and about three in four were White. 7 schools (875 students) got the lessons and 8 schools (1,015 students) waited.

2. 02

   What they did

   Over two school years, trained teachers ran regular lessons where students worked in mixed groups of 2 to 4. Each student had a role. The group made one shared product or earned a group reward. Each student was also checked on their own part. After each lesson, students named something good each group member had done. The paper doesn't say how many lessons there were.

3. 03

   What happened

   Students rated how hard they tried in class. This dropped over the two years in both groups, but it dropped less in schools with teamwork lessons. It was the same in both groups at the start and higher in the teamwork schools at the end.

What the study found

1. Helped

   Over two years, students taught in small teams with set roles kept up their effort in class better than others.

   • Action: Team up on a shared goaltested
   • Rule: Practise with a groupused

   Large randomised trial of 1,890 7th and 8th graders in rural US schools · vs schools still waiting for the lessons · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole groups were assigned, not people

Source