Interaction dynamics in classroom group work

Abstract

Group work in classrooms is employed by teachers across all levels of education. For group work to be effective, all students should participate equally. Why some students engage in interaction and how group size and composition influence interaction dynamics is a research gap. We employed dynamic actor-oriented models on a sample of 145 Czech lower-secondary students in 62 small groups and pooled the results from the groups with a meta-analytical procedure. We found bursty behavior resulting from endogenous structural mechanisms of reciprocity, transitivity, cyclicity, and preferential attachment. Students gave preference to initiating interactions with those they initiated interactions with before and off-task interaction contributed to the development of on-task interaction. Students strongly preferred interactions with friends. Those students who talked a lot during regular whole-classroom lessons and students with high levels of literacy tended to both initiate and receive more interactions in group work, and students similar in these attributes preferred to interact with each other. Group size did not affect preferential attachment tendencies in interaction, but smaller groups made the effect of friendship ties on interactions stronger, and communication group norms shifted with changing group composition. Our study shows the suitability of dynamic actor-oriented models for studying interaction in education and small groups.