On-task and off-task behaviour during small-group work

This dissertation aims to find, on the one hand, those aspects that lead students to on-task behaviour and, on the other hand, what are the sources that cause learners to be off-task. This is a long-standing issue in educational research and this thesis presents both a review of the major works that...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: González García, Sara
Formato: tesis de maestría
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:211092
Acesso em linha:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/211092
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Distracció (Psicologia)
Atenció -- Aspectes psicològics
Tecnologia educativa -- Aspectes socials
Ensenyament assistit per ordinador
Educació secundària obligatòria
Estudiants d'educació secundària obligatòria -- Aspectes psicològics
Avaluació educativa -- Catalunya
Educació -- Investigació -- Catalunya
Treball en equip -- Educació secundària obligatòria
Descrição
Resumo:This dissertation aims to find, on the one hand, those aspects that lead students to on-task behaviour and, on the other hand, what are the sources that cause learners to be off-task. This is a long-standing issue in educational research and this thesis presents both a review of the major works that have been carried out in the last decades as well as the results of a field study carried out during student placement. While previous studies including Godwin et al. (2016) have suggested some common aspects that make students go off-task, which correlates to the decrease in academic achievement, the present study not only evaluates which of these aspects are observable in the data but also what motivates students to keep on-task. In order to conduct research, qualitative data was collected in a public high school in the metropolitan area of Barcelona during the master's internship period with students from year three (3º ESO, in the Spanish Education system) by making video-recordings of learners during small-group work. This research shows that, consistent with previous studies, peer and self-distractions are the most common sources of distraction during lessons. Nevertheless, a new positive tool for on-task behaviour has been found: the use of technological devices such as laptops and mobile phones for academic purposes. The findings of this study indicate that students' engagement rate is quite high when working with digital devices, because the screen of the devices seems to hold their attention more than if they were using traditional materials.