This document outlines a study on attribution theory that examines how students perceive their peers when working in groups. The researchers hypothesize that high-performing students will blame low-performing peers for bad grades but take credit themselves for good grades. They will conduct the study by forming groups of middle school students based on performance and surveying them after a group project to understand how they attribute outcomes and perceive their peers. The anonymous surveys aim to get truthful answers about peer perceptions and their role in the group work.
2. Have you ever been put in
a group with individuals
who you felt did not work
as hard as you?
did you GIVE YOURSELF ALL
OF THE credit WHEN YOU
EARNED A GOOD GRADE?
3. Importance of Research
Our group was interested in this
subject to find out the
perceptions of other people
what do people blame for a poor
“grade” or performance when
working in a group?
Do they give credit to themselves
for a good grade received or
blame their peers for a bad
grade received?
4. RESEARCH QUESTION/HYPOTHESIS
does working with low
performing peers cause a
person to blame their peers
for their own performance?
if they receive a good grade,
do they attribute
themselves?
if they receive a bad grade, do
they blame the group?
5. in articles prior to our own
study, we learned about:
internal and external emotions
impacting the outcome sports games
perceptions of subject’s own and their
others behaviors being attributed to
either external or internal forces
INDIVIDUAL TEAM MEMBER’S INTENTIONS TO
HELP OR PUNISH being RELATED TO POOR
PERFORMER TRAITS
6. WHY IS THIS STUDY IMPORTANT?
● we can see the way that “high-
performing” students perceive their
“low-performing” peers
shows how group work may negatively
affect the outcome of grades if the
low-performing students bring down
the high-performer student
● can Improve educational methods for
teachers
7. how will we conduct our study?
We will talk with the teachers of two middle
school English classes about their students and
break them into groups based on grade
performance
● 4 groups of 5 students in each class
1 group= 1 high-performer and 4 low-performers
We will grade the group projects
we will survey the students
8. how will we pick people to be in the study?
2 middle school English
classrooms
We will talk to the teachers in
each class to determine who
the “high performers” are and
who the “low performers” are
based on grades and
performance in the class
prior to the study
9. survey questions
1. Do you believe that you deserve the grade that you received for
this assignment?
2. What was your role in the group?
3. What were your other group member’s roles in the group?
4. Was the work split up evenly throughout the group?
5. What do you believe caused you to earn the grade that you did?
6. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being terrible and 10 being helpful and
productive), rate the rest of your group: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10. why a survey?
TRUTHFUL ANSWERS
Being interviewed, for example, may
scare the student into answering
things that they don’t really feel
STUDENTS WILL BE outside of the
classroom alone to answer the
survey
NO fear OF other students looking over
their shoulder to see their surveys
11. how will we protect the identities and
information of the people who participate in
the study?
first name only
the other students will never be
exposed to the other’s surveys
survey monkey
only the teachers and us will ever
have access to the information
Student names and surveys will not
be exposed
SURVEY MONKEY
12. What do we hope to learn?
how students
perceive their peers
if students attribute
good grades to
themselves and bad
grades to their peers
13. outtro
We hypothesized that the students
will blame their group members
for a bad grade and credit
themselves for a good grade
important because this study helps
us understand how people
perceive those that they work in
a group with
