抄録
Object : In cooking practices, some students are seen to be chatting and idling during the group study which should be done by all group members. The author made this investigation in order to get some knowledge of how the number of study group members would influence the proportion of idle hands or the way of their participation in the group study. Procedure : The author took up the case of liberal course freshmen who attended the course of general home economics. All the freshmen were divided into two classes, one of which consisted of several groups of three students, the other consisted of several groups of five students. Each group had a practice, making use of the same teaching materials, under the same teacher, on the same day. The author analyzed the students' practice activities and measured the proportion of idle hands and examined the general tendency of their group activities. Result : As several students were absent from school, it so happened that the number of the group study members became two, or four. So the author also got a survey of the study groups made up of two or four students. As a result, the following facts were obtained. As the study group became larger, 1. the proportion of idle hands became greater, 2. the degree of the students' dexterity became smaller, 3. each group member became more dependent upon the other members, 4. the students' participation in their group study was apt to be concentrated to some specified activities.
