I would say, based on my experience in the classroom in the American southwest, that it is not selfishness, though that is one of the symptoms, but entitlement. I see it in the parents of the students, it crosses ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic backgrounds, and political and religious backgrounds. An extremely small handful of students have been taught by their parents any kind of work ethic. I have had students and parents tell me there kid shows up to class so they have earned an A. I've had parents demand I call home to remind their kid to do their school work. There is no sense of responsibility on the part of the students and parents. Those that do take responsibility, are few and far between.

I avoid group work(except my theatre classes) simply because students view it as permission to just sit around and visit, they flat out will not work in groups, they just talk. Partners I have a lot of success with.

When I did a long term sub history position I had a lot of success with telling stories and teaching the students how to research, with one of the end projects being the students had an iPad template (same size as an iPad) that they then created a New Mexico history app covering a topic of their choosing(from a list I provide partly based on the enthusiasm the students showed toward certain topics) and providing me a list of the resources they used.

When there are no consequences for ones actions there is no incentive to put out an effort.

Rob