Factors affecting awareness and attitude during group work of students of foreign language faculty at dong thap university

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGDONG THAP UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY ASSIGNMENT ON SCIENTIFIC STUDY FACTORS AFFECTING AWARENESS AND ATTITUDE DURING GROUP WORK OF STUDENTS OF

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

DONG THAP UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY

ASSIGNMENT ON SCIENTIFIC STUDY

FACTORS AFFECTING AWARENESS AND ATTITUDE DURING GROUP WORK OF STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY AT DONG THAP UNIVERSITY

Name of student:

- Lê Ngọc Trâm

- Nguyễn Huỳnh Như

- Nguyễn Thanh Thảo

- Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Trâm Supervisor: Trần Thị Hiền

DONG THAP – 2023

FACTORS AFFECTING AWARENESS AND ATTITUDE DURING GROUP WORK OF STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY AT DONG THAP UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Teamwork is a soft skill that is essential for learning as well as for later work Teamwork performance has a huge impact on learning outcomes However, the consciousness and attitude of the students seemed to have been ignored The study

of the consciousness and attitude of students in the Foreign Languages Faculty during teamwork is the study used to measure the attitudes of students towards teamwork It also addresses factors that influence the awareness and attitude of foreign language students toward teamwork The results will provide insights into the relationship between the consciousness and attitude of students in the working group and the factors that influence it

Introduction

The Background to the Study

Study the consciousness and attitude of students of the Foreign Languages Faculty

in the process of teamwork Teamwork has been and is growing rapidly in most educational institutions around the world and at various levels The high effectiveness of the method, the benefits it brings, and the introduction of this method into Vietnam have been tested by the history that formed the method Originating from the notion that “collective intelligence is always wiser than individual intelligence,” it is considered that teams are the fundamental factors that make the effectiveness of human capital in an organization

The Significance of the Study

This study is important because it responds to the consciousness and attitude of teamwork of students in the Foreign Languages Faculty With extensive use of teamwork in the fields of study, work and life, understanding the consciousness and attitude of students will help to make teamwork more effective This study will give

us a broader view of the consciousness and attitude of the group of students of the

Foreign Languages Faculty Besides, finding the factors that influence the consciousness and attitude of teamwork will help us to become more aware of the problem From there, find solutions to improve the quality of teamwork

The Purpose of the Study or a Statement of the Problem

1 Aim

- The objective of this study is to identify the factors that influence the awareness and attitude of students in the Foreign Languages Faculty during group work

- From the results obtained, suggest improvements to improve the quality of the students of the Foreign Languages Faculty in the process of teamwork

2 Goal

- Learn about the teamwork of the students of the Foreign Languages Faculty

- Identify factors that influence the awareness and attitude of students of the Foreign Languages Faculty in the process of teamwork

- Determine the level of influence of key factors

- From the results obtained suggested solutions to improve the quality of teamwork of the students of the Foreign Languages Faculty

Research Questions

- What is the reality of the students of the Foreign Languages Faculty in the completion of the task of group learning?

- What factors influence the awareness and attitudes of students of the Foreign Languages Faculty in the process of teamwork?

- The extent to which these factors affect the awareness and attitudes of students in the Foreign Languages Faculty?

- What solutions are there to improve the quality of teamwork?

Literature Review

Attitudes towards teamwork

The team was regarded as "a group of individuals with different skills who are dedicated to a common goal, performance objectives, and an approach for which they hold each other accountable" (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993, p 03) According to Jackson, Chuang, Harden, and Jiang (2015, p.29), teamwork is defined as "the actions of a group of individuals working towards a shared objective that requires communication, collaboration, and coordination; it is a process that involves

interaction between individuals who have some shared interests" Therefore, when individuals engage with their teammates, they also express their feelings about working in a team

There are many factors involved in the formation of attitudes toward teamwork in university students Pfaff and Huddleston (2003) found that the perceived workload, the time spent in class, the use of peer assessment, and the absence of

‘free riders’ (team members who benefit from the effort of others in the team without contributing themselves) are significant predictors of favorable attitudes toward teamwork. Hall and Buzwell (2012) found that free-riders is the factor that causes university students the most concern Likewise, if, during the process of teamwork, there is mature communication, responsible interdependence, psychological security, a common purpose, clear roles and goals, then the experience will have a positive effect on individuals’ attitudes toward teamwork (Ruiz Ulloa and Adams, 2004) Recent studies have found that concerns about the results of the assessment of teamwork and perceptions of the teamwork environment affect students’ attitudes toward teamwork (Beigi and Shirmohammadi, 2012) Similarly, Ekimova and Kokurin (2015) found that the qualification received by the team is the most significant predictor of students’ attitudes toward teamwork another study of the influence of race, age, and the presence of “social-loafers” on students’ perceptions, Payne and Monk-Turner (2006) found no significant difference in attitudes across gender and age groups However, their results showed that “working with ‘slackers’ has a strong influence

on attitudes” (p.132)

Students also stated that they benefitted from knowledgeable colleagues because when contents remained unclear after the teaching part of the in-class sessions they

"discussed these issues in the group, which was very helpful" (GI 2, orthoptics students) One student stated that the group discussion "was a pleasant experience, very different from the usual didactic lectures" (GI 1) (Konak, A., Kulturel-Konak, S., & Cheung, G W (2019)

Each team member exhibited various behaviors when working in teams According

to a study conducted by Tucker and Abbasi (2016), some individuals found working in a team to be exhilarating and enjoyable This implies that people generally have a positive perception of working in teams The study also revealed that there were others who held a negative viewpoint on teamwork due to past negative experiences with collaboration Hillyard, Gillespie, and Littig (2010) discovered that young people had positive attitudes towards working in teams when they were provided with an environment that facilitated the formation of new

friendships However, they also found instances of negative behavior in team projects When social loafing and management issues were present within the team

or group, people's perception of teamwork tended to become negative (Lizzio & Wilson, 2005; Scott-Ladd & Chan, 2008)

According to Ajzen & Fishbein (1972) and Yakasai & Jusoh (2015), the Theory of Planned Behavior divides human behavior into three elements: perception towards behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control Ferdous (2010) and Abun, Magallanes & Incarnacion (2019) stated that perception is associated with assessing individuals' behavior Specifically, students' behavior on academic assignments reflects their perception of education (Abun, Magallanes & Incarnacion, 2019) Previous studies on students' perception toward teamwork have utilized the Theory of Planned Behavior as a research framework (e.g., Pfaff & Huddleston, 2003; Beigi & Shirmohammadi, 2012) Therefore, the present research employs the Theory of Planned Behavior to investigate student perceptions of teamwork

According to research Tarricone, P., & Luca, J (2002) has provided a number of attributes required for successful teamwork Many of these attributes have been consistently identified in the literature: Commitment to team success and shared goals - team members are committed to the success of the team and their shared goals for the project Successful teams are motivated, engaged and aim to achieve

at the highest level; Interdependence - team members need to create an environment where together they can contribute far more than as individuals A positive interdependent team environment brings out the best in each person enabling the team to achieve their goals at a far superior level (Johnson & Johnson,

1995, 1999) Individuals promote and encourage their fellow team members to achieve, contribute, and learn; Interpersonal Skills includes the ability to discuss issues openly with team members, be honest, trustworthy, supportive and show respect and commitment to the team and to its individuals Fostering a caring work environment is important including the ability to work effectively with other team members; Open Communication and positive feedback - actively listening to the concerns and needs of team members and valuing their contribution and expressing this helps to create an effective work environment Team members should be willing to give and receive constructive criticism and provide authentic feedback; Appropriate team composition is essential in the creation of a successful team Team members need to be fully aware of their specific team role and understand what is expected of them in terms of their contribution to the team and the project; and Commitment to team processes, leadership & accountability - team members need to be accountable for their contribution to the team and the project They need

to be aware of team processes, best practice and new ideas Effective leadership is essential for team success including shared decision-making and problem solving

Vietnamese university students have a limited number of studies that focus on their attitudes towards teamwork Previous research has primarily focused on specific areas such as virtual teamwork, the hierarchical nature of teamwork interactions, and the roles individuals play within a team, rather than exploring the broader concept of teamwork itself For instance, Hoang et al (2020) examined the perceptions of MA-TESOL students regarding the hierarchical structure of group work and its impact on their satisfaction and interaction within the group The findings revealed that hierarchies within group work were common and had an influence on the equality and productivity of the team Pham and Nguyen (2018) conducted a study on the teamwork model and the roles of individual psychology in teamwork among scientists in universities Collins et al (2015) compared the human factors that influence virtual teams in Vietnam, Taiwan, and Indonesia They discovered significant impacts of individual cultural intelligence, cultural openness, and self-efficacy on the sharing of knowledge within virtual teams from these three nations

Research Hypothesis

1 Perception of Environmental Facilities

The educational environment is critical to the performance of an educational program as well as the success, achievement, satisfaction, and motivation of students well (Bakhshialiabad, Bakhshi & Hassanshahi (2015) The educational environment includes the perception of environmental facilities that are tools that the university supports its students studying Environmental facilities were recognized as “everything that is happening in the classroom or department, faculty, or university and it refers to the diverse physical locations, contexts, and cultures in which students learn” (Bakhshialiabad, Bakhshi, & Hassanshahi, 2015,

p 195) The environmental facilities could provide students with learning environment that includes lighting, temperature, studying space, noise, classroom, faculty, university’s departments, physically and psychologically institution (Leung

& Fung, 2005; Jawaid, Raheel, Ahmed, & Aijaz, 2003) Robbins and Judge (2013,

p 166) defined perception as “a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment” Generally, the perceptions of environmental facilities are the sensory expression of students on the facilities of university The students’ perception on learning process

was measured by the factors of learning outcomes such as 6 cognitive, affective or behavioral (Lizzio, Wilson & Simons, 2002) These three outcome factors related to the measurement about individual’s reactions on the objects which were based on theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1993; Abun, Magallanes & Incarnacion, 2019) The cognitive element expressed the thinking, ideas or perception towards the object (Abun, Magallanes & Incarnacion, 2019)

Fisher (2001) discovered that color, air and temperature, noise, and furniture all had

an effect on university student teamwork Colors, for example, have an impact on students' learning attitudes, behavior, and absenteeism, whereas air quality and temperature have an impact on students' achievement and behavior Noise from other classes, transportation, or the university's mechanical systems could all have

an impact on students' attitudes, stress levels, and learning outcomes (Fisher, 2001) Leung and Fung (2005) discovered a link between environmental facilities (lighting, temperature, studying space, noise, campus, and classroom) and student teamwork effectiveness Beigi and Shirmohammadi (2012) discovered that students' views toward collaboration in Iran are positively influenced by perceptions of environmental facilities The first hypothesis is established based on these evidences

H1: Perceptions of environmental facilities have a positive effect on Vietnamese student attitudes toward teamwork

2 Teamwork Evaluation

The teamwork evaluation or peer-assessment is defined as “students are making assessment decisions on other students’ work such as essays, reports, presentations, performances and practical work” (Race, 2001, p 4) The Peer evaluation is called

as the evaluation method that giving efficiency and effectiveness feedback to students’ performance (Double, McGrane & Hopfenbeck, 2019) The teamwork evaluation plays a crucial part in measuring students’ performance and knowledge mistakes (Double, McGrane, & Hopfenbeck, 2019) According to Willey and Gardner (2009), applying peer-evaluation due to working in teams could increase the motivation of students’ performance and diminished students with poor performance Moreover, what teamwork evaluation could develop students’ skills such as professional skills, increased collaboration, learning commitment and team members’ engagement (Willey & Gardner, 2009) The teamwork evaluation, on the other hand, had a negative element Members of a team who do not contribute 7 lot

to collaboration assignments may receive a lesser mark than other members As a result, students are concerned about grading equality in collaborative evaluation

(Beigi & Shirmohammadi, 2012) They also discovered a negative link between teamwork evaluation concerns and attitudes toward teamwork

H2: The concerns about teamwork evaluation have a negative effect on Vietnamese student attitudes toward teamwork

3 Perceptions of workload

According to Bravo, Catalán, and Pina (2018, p.4), “workload is a clear determinant of attitudes toward teamwork: the higher the amount of work, the worse the whole experience will be” Kember (2004, p.166) defined “students’ perceptions of workload are the manifestation of a perceived heavy workload is a feeling in the form of pressure or stress” The large amount of workload could lead

to low performance, diminish studying motivation and negative attitudes such as depression, tension and burnout (Hernesniemi et al., 2017) Zhang and Ng (2012) argued that behavior could impact on the way how individuals and their intention to behave They found that time-limits with excessive workload could diminish contribution and knowledge sharing of team members

According to Kyndt, Dochy, Struyven, and Cascallar (2011a), a high perceived workload has a detrimental impact on students' learning Excessive workload, in particular, may have a detrimental impact on students' learning (Kyndt, Dochy, Struyven, & Cascallar, 2011a) Students also believed that doing the task during class time would be preferable since they would have more interaction with lecturers (Kyndt, Dochy, Struyven, & Cascallar, 2011b) Furthermore, reducing the amount of burden may have a good impact on students' perceptions of the task and workload Pfaff and Huddleston (2003) discovered that excessive workload improves collaborative performance

H3: Perceptions of workload has a positive impact on Vietnamese student attitudes toward teamwork.

4 Absence of a free-rider problem

"The behavior of a team member who deliberately limits the work that he or she puts in, knowing that they will still benefit from the efforts of the other members" (Levin, 2019, p.01) The free rider was regarded as social loafing, which reduced team performance effort (Lam, 2015) The free-rider problem was identified when a team member was unfairly performing their workload (Prasad & Kumar, 2018; Brooks & Ammons, 2003) According to Hall and Buzwell (2012), social loafing reduces student learning outcomes in cooperation However, the free-rider had a

significant benefit to develop students' problem-solving skills and the method to deal with difficulties (Hall & Buzwell, 2012) had a significant benefit to develop students' problem-solving skills and the method to deal with difficulties (Hall & Buzwell, 2012)

The study will also use Latane's (1981) Social Impact Theory to identify the free-rider as an independent variable in student collaboration According to Latane (1981), the Social Impact Theory is concerned with "the great variety of changes in physiological states and subjective feelings, motives and emotions, cognitions and beliefs, values and behavior, that occur in an individual, human or animal, as a result of the real, implied, or imagined presence or actions of other individuals" (Latane, 1981, p 343) According to the hypothesis, a free-rider occurs when an individual in a team evaluates other team members and is evaluated by other team members When a team has a free-rider problem, the other team members incur a great amount of effort while the free-rider contributes very little (Prasad & Kumar, 2018) Free-rider concerns would cause friction among members and reduce their effort or good attitude toward collaboration The third hypothesis is tested based on the debate

H4: Absence of a free-rider problem has a positive impact on Vietnamese student attitudes toward teamwork.

5 Collectivism

Collectivism was defined as "the degree to which an individual values interdependence and prioritizes group goals over individual goals" (Mustafa, Glavee-Geo, & Rice, 2017, p.2) The term "collectivism" was defined as "a set of feelings, beliefs, behavioral intentions, and behaviors related to solidarity and concern for others" (Lo, So, & Zhang, 2010, p 11) According to McAtavey and Nikolovska (2010), collectivism is vital for team performance and the proper method to approach collaboration Collectivists felt that community aims and benefits were more important than individual interests, and that collectivists might sacrifice their personal interests to contribute to group benefits (Gundlach, Zivnuska, & Stoner, 2006) Furthermore, Eby and Dobbins (1998) discovered that collectivist persons were more likely to engage in team assignments, boost motivation to collaborate, put in more effort to contribute to the team, and focus on team goals

According to Walumbwa, Lawler, and Avolio (2007), collectivist members would put in greater effort to contribute to team goals and have high collaboration Another study of collectivist members found that they had high levels of

collaboration, which boosted team performance and team support (Kirkman & Shapiro, 2001) Collectivism improved views toward teamwork favorably through cooperation rather than competitiveness (Leung, 2008) Furthermore, when team members worked together to attain team goals, they were more likely to exhibit positive attitudes

H5: Collectivism has a positive impact on Vietnamese student attitudes toward teamwork.

Theoretical Framework

Environmental Facilities

Worry about Teamwork

Evaluation

Perceptions of Workload

Absence of a Free-rider

Problem

Collectivism

Materials and Methods

- Online survey:

 The study used a mixed methods approach to collect data through online survey questions with responses on a Likert scale from one (Strongly Disagree) to five (Strongly Agree) and answer format that selects 1 or more answers

 The questionnaire includes 20 random questions for 50 students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages from year 1 to year 3 The content of the questions will include the status of group work; whether factors such as

Team work attitude