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How do you feel when you teacher asks you to work on a group project with other student? Do you like to work together with others or work alone?
The Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, carried out a survey of student's ability to work together in groups. They found that students who do well on tests by themselves are also likely to be better at working with other people. This finding was true for many countries. Students in Japan, South Korea, Finland and Canada, where test scores are high, also did well in working together to solve problems.
But this was not the case for every country. Chinese students, who have high scores as well, displayed just average collaborative (合作的) skills. "One reason might be that Chinese parents and teachers focus too much on grades," said Zhao Zhongxin, former vice president of the Chinese Family Education Association. "Students have a lot of exam pressure and they see schools as places for competition." "However, collaborative skills are very important for preparing students for today's society." he added. "Luckily, more Chinese parents and teachers are realizing the importance of this and are thinking of ways to help students improve this skill."
Another interesting finding from the PISA survey was that girls can be better than boys at working together. They said girls show more positive attitudes (态度)to wards relationships, which means they are more willing to listen to other' opinions.
PISA also found that the classroom environment can influence how well students collaborate. In classes where there are a lot of activities that require communication such as class debates, students might have better attitudes towards collaborating.