EFL Instructors’ and students’ perception and motivation towards team learning: A case of Ethiopian public universities

The main objective of this study is to explore university EFL instructors’ and students’ perception and motivation towards one-to-five team learning in Ethiopian public universities. To achieve this objective, relevant data were collected using a five point likert scale close- ended questionnaire (filled out by 28 EFL instructors and 80 third year English Language and Literature students). Results of the quantitative data were analyzed via frequency, percentage, mean and two tailed Pearson correlation using SPSS version 20. The qualitative data gathered through the general open-ended questionnaire was thematically organized and analyzed. Similarly, results of the department heads and mentors’ interview, group leaders’ Focus Group Discussion (FDG) and the randomly selected low and middle achievers’ FGD were audio recorded, transcribed and thematically analyzed. The results indicate that most of the respondents show positive perception (with mean values of 3.15 and 3.44 for students and instructors respectively) and motivation (mean score of 3.37 for instructors and 3.17 for students). There is also strong correlation between students’(r =.615) and instructors’ (r = .660) perception and motivation respectively. Results of the qualitative data show that many of the student respondents believe team learning is important; however, almost half of them do not think this approach is better than that of the teacher centred approach and they complained that team works are usually done by group leaders and do not help the team members as expected. Similarly instructor’s responses show that though learning in teams is pedagogically acceptable, some of them reflect that one to five grouping becomes a means by which clever students help others to score better grades but has limited academic contribution to group members for different reasons. Most of the respondents appreciate mixed ability grouping; however, most of the team members do not actively participate and develop dependency on team leaders.