Prepared by- Prof. Dr. Muna Abdulwahab Khaleel<br /><br />Group work is used as a means for learning at all levels in educational systems. There is strong scientific support for the benefits of having students learning and working in groups. Nevertheless, studies about what occurs in groups during group work and which factors actually influence the students’ ability to learn is still lacking.<br />Even if group work is often defined as “pupils working together as a group or a team”, it is important to bear in mind that group work is not just one activity, but several activities with different conditions. This implies that group work may change characteristics several times during a group work session and / or during a group’s lifetime, thus suggesting that certain working modes may be better suited for different parts of a group’s work and vice versa. It is also important to differentiate between how the work is accomplished in the group, whether by working in a group or working as a group.<br />From a group work perspective, there are two primary ways of discussing cooperation in groups: working in a group (cooperation) or working as a group (collaboration). Situations where students are sitting together in a group but working individually on separate parts of a group assignment are referred to as working in a group. This is not an uncommon situation within an educational setting. Cooperation between students might occur, but it is not necessary to accomplish the group’s task. At the end of the task, the students put their separate contributions together into a joint product. While no cooperative activities are mandatory while working in a group, cooperative learning may occur. However, the benefits in this case are an effect of social facilitation and are not caused by cooperation. In this situation, social facilitation alludes to the enhanced motivational effect that the presence of other students has on individual student’s performance<br /><br />Working as a group, on the other hand, causes learning benefits from collaboration with other group members. Working as a group is often referred to as “real group work” or “meaningful group work,” and denotes group work in which students utilizes the group members’ skills and work together to achieve a common goal. Moreover, working as a group presupposes collaboration, and that all group members will be involved in and working on a common task to produce a joint outcome. Working as a group is characterized by common effort, the utilization of the group’s competence, and the presence of problem solving and reflection. According to recent studies working as a group is a more uncommon activity in an educational setting. Both approaches might be useful in different parts of group work, depending on the purpose of the group work and type of task assigned to the group. Working in a group might lead to cooperative learning, while working as group might facilitate collaborative learning. While there are differences between the real meanings of the concepts, the terms are frequently used interchangeably.<br />