The research comprises mainly of three areas within cooperation in groups. The first area is about students’ levels of ambition and their influence on the group’s patterns of behaviour in cooperative situations. The students’ different ambition and academic ability influence the construction of their diverse roles in the cooperation. In turn, the diverse role constructions create different emotions, from frustration to contentedness among the group members.
The second area is about assessment of knowledge and ability when students cooperate in small groups. Assessment of students’ individual and the group’s joint knowledge and abilities in cooperative situations are experienced among many teachers as a challenge and my research confirms that the assessment frequently takes place more informally than formally. In an ongoing research project me and my colleagues investigate how a short educational effort influences teachers’ and students’ abilities to assess at cooperative situations.
