Abstract:

In our study, we wanted to foster values-oriented behavior using small group work in an elementary school. The main purpose was to investigate, whether small group work was effective in order to foster knowledge about values-oriented behavior. Therefore, a lesson on water protection in science education was conceptualized in a fourth grade. In this lesson, first, students individually had to read a specific text on water protection and generate action tips based on the text. Secondly, they collaboratively had to discuss in small groups of four kids their tips and to come to a joint solution about all tips which are relevant for water protection.

We analyzed the tips of one group of four students, two girls and two boys. Data sources were based on individually created tips of the four group members, and on collaboratively mentioned tips. All tips were analyzed according to their units of meaning. Same meanings were taken together to one dimension. Overall, there were five different dimensions detected. These dimensions could be sub-divided into specific tips. Overall, individually the first member mentioned 3 tips, the second 8, the third 6, and the fourth 4 tips. All in all, the individual group members had 14 diverse tips.

The single tips were further assigned to three levels of quality regarding their implementation impact adjusted to the three levels of elaboration (King, 1994): The first level included tips that students could not realize themselves very well, like well-considered shopping. The second level comprised all tips students have partially influence on, like sparing the consumption of strawberries from countries in which they must be watered. And the third level included all tips students could implement themselves, like sparing paper consumption or preferring seasonal products. According to their level of quality, all tips received a score from 1 (low quality) to 3 (high quality).

When looking at all 14 tips that were written down by the students individually, they received a quality score of 2.18. When looking at the eight tips which were transferred into the group product, the score was 2.38 with a difference of 0.20. This indicates that the quality of the tips increased during small group work.
When further analyzing the quality of the six tips which were mentioned individually only, the score was 1.67, so quite low. This result shows that the group omitted tips with a low-quality score regarding their implementation impact. When calculating the difference between the quality of the tips which were included into the group product and the tips which were missing in it, but mentioned individually, the score raised up to 0.71. This shows that during collaboration, the quality of the tips regarding their implementation impact increased.

Even though, this is a small case study with only one student group of four students, the fine-grained analysis of individual and collaborative work shows an increase of knowledge regarding values-oriented behavior: the quality of tips regarding their implementation impact raised. This is an important result as it shows that students in elementary schools can be sensitized for environmental issues and can transfer their knowledge into behavior.

References:
[1] King, A. (1994). Guiding knowledge construction in the classroom: Effects of teaching children how to question and how to explain. American Educational Research Journal, 31, 338-368. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312031002338

Keywords:

Values-oriented behavior, small group work, environmental consciousness.