Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Grup Çalışmalarında Sosyal Kaytarma Davranışlarına İlişkin Görüşleri: Nedenler ve Olası Çözümler

Grup çalışmaları, birçok bakış açısından ve yönelimden yararlanarak inovatif çözümler üretmeye ve çok yönlü bir anlayış kazanmaya yardımcı olması nedeniyle üniversite öğrencileri için oldukça elverişli bir öğrenme ve gelişme ortamı sunabilmektedir. Buna karşın grup büyüklüğü, görevin anlamlılığı, grup üyesinin gruba katkı sunmada yetersiz kalabileceği düşüncesi, grup üyelerinin farklı özgeçmiş ya da deneyimlere sahip olması gibi nedenler, grup üyelerinin daha az bedensel ya da bilişsel çaba sergilemesine ve/veya görevini ihmal etmesine zemin hazırlayabilmektedir. Davranış bilimleri alanyazınında 'sosyal kaytarma' olarak nitelendirilen ve iş yavaşlatma, kayıtsızlık, kasıtlı olarak düşük performans sergileme, görevi ihmal, geri çekilme, savsaklama ve kendi kendini sınırlama gibi biçimlerde ortaya çıkan davranışlar, grubun ve grup üyelerinin performansı üzerinde doğrudan etkiye sahip olabilmektedir. Bu doğrultuda, bu araştırmanın amacı üniversite öğrencilerinin grup çalışmalarında gözledikleri ve deneyimledikleri sosyal kaytarma davranışlarına ilişkin görüşlerinin belirlenmesidir. Veri toplama aracı olarak Jassawalla, Malshe ve Sashittal (2008) tarafından geliştirilen, üç ölçek ve üç anket olmak üzere altı bölümden oluşan Grup Çalışmalarında Sosyal Kaytarma Anketi Türkçe geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışmaları yapılarak kullanılmıştır. Araştırmaya, bir devlet üniversitesinden yedi fakültede 26 farklı programdan 374 üniversite öğrencisi katılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçları, grup üyesinin sessiz kalması ve gerektiği şekilde katkı sunmamasının en sık karşılaşılan kaytarma davranışı olduğunu; bu davranışların sonucunda diğer grup üyelerinin zaman kaybettiğini ve daha çok çalışmak zorunda kaldığını; grup üyelerinin çoğunlukla kaytaran kişiye ima yoluyla tepki gösterdiğini ve öğretim üyelerinden ise bireysel çabaları farklı yollarla değerlendirip 'kimin ne yaptığına ilişkin' dönem ortası raporu sunma gibi beklentilerinin olduğunu göstermiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Grup çalışması, sosyal kaytarma, takım çalışması, üniversite öğrencileri

Social loafing behaviors of university students in group works: The reasons and possible solutions

Group works provide a highly convenient learning and development setting for university students as it helps them to develop innovative solutions by utilizing multiple perspectives and orientations, and deriving integrated insights. However, some reasons such as group size, task meaningfulness, the belief that one's contribution will not make much of a difference, and group members with diverse backgrounds/experiences may lead group members to lower their physical or cognitive effort and/or trigger them to loaf. The behaviors, identified as 'social loafing' in behavioral sciences literature and arise in the forms of slowdowns, carelessness, putting forth less effort, neglecting, withdrawal, inattention and self-limiting, may have direct effect on the group and its members' performance. Regarding this, the aim of the current study was to investigate the opinions of university students on social loafing behaviors observed and experienced in group works. The Survey of Social Loafing in Classroom Teams of Jassawalla, Malshe and Sashittal (2008), consisting of three scales and three questionnaires, was utilized as the data collection tool after Turkish validity and reliability studies were conducted. A total of 374 university students from seven faculties and 26 different programs of a public university participated to the study. Results of the study indicated that being mostly silent during group meetings and not participating in group's final presentation were the most disruptive loafing behaviors; those behaviors mostly wasted other group members' time and caused them to do more than their share of work; group members mostly tried indirect ways of letting social loafer that they did not approve of his/her behavior, and university students wished faculty members to evaluate individual effort on groups in more ways like making the group report mid-semester on 'who is doing what'.

Keywords:

Group work, social loafing, team work, university students,

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