Elevers tillvägagångssätt vid grupparbete Om ambitionsnivå och interaktionsmönster i samarbetssituationer

Sammanfattning: The aim of the dissertation is to add to our knowledge and understanding of how groupwork and group tasks are construed among students. This is accomplished be creating a model, which describes the pattern of interaction and the experience that emerge as students try to handle the group-work situation. An additional aim is to use the outcomes of the study as a basis for discussions about how to carry out group-work in the classroom.The methodological point of departure is grounded theory and the theoretical perspective is symbolic interaktionism. A theoretical model - Students’ creation of trust in group-work - has been constructed from observations and interviews in grade 7 and 8 from a local school. The model describes what happens when students with different social and academic ambitions meet in a group assignment and become interdependent. The students have to consider their own and others’ ambitions, the composition of the group, as well as the task, and they have different possibilities to influence these factors. Easiest to influence are the construction of the task and the group composition, which they also try to do so as to diminish the differences in ambitions and the interdependency. They do not always succeed and they handle the remaining differences in ambitions and dependency through creation of trust, by constructing different behaviours during the group-work.The insights derived from the theoretical model - Students’ creation of trust in groupwork - could have practical implications when group-work is applied. This means that teacher could assist the students in their efforts to create trust among group members. This study has pointed out construction of the task, clear goals, and group composition as import pre- requisites for the use of group-work as a means of instruction. The dissertation ends with a discussion about teachers’ possibilities to contribute to collaboration in group-work through the construction of tasks, composition of the groups and to the construction of goals which creates situations of trust in group-work.