When students hear the phrase “group work”, they often become concerned. Some questions that may rise from students internally (or aloud) are…
- Will I get stuck doing all (or a disproportionate amount) of work?
- Will everyone earn the same grade (regardless of output)?
- Will I have to speak to people regularly (as an introvert)?
Washington University at St. Louis shares that while collaborative learning through group work has been proven to have the potential to produce stronger academic achievement than other kinds of learning environments (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 2006), it can be challenging to implement successfully because many students come to college without the tools, they need to automatically succeed in collaborative learning contexts
The Bok Center at Harvard University offers the following advantages for having students work in small groups. They can allow students:
- to learn interactively.
- to generate a broad array of possible alternative points of view or solutions to a problem
- a chance to work on a project that is too large or complex for an individual
- with different backgrounds to bring their special knowledge, experience, or skills to a project, and to explain their orientation to others
- the opportunity to teach each other
- a structured experience so they can practice skills applicable to professional situations
One small group learning methodology where the use of group roles is well-defined and researched is the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) https://www.pogil.org/about-pogil/what-is-pogil method.
The POGIL method calls for groups of three or four students who work in a team on process-oriented guided inquiry activities in which students construct their knowledge through interactions with others. The POGIL approach has two broad aims: to develop content mastery through student construction of their own understanding, and to develop and improve important learning skills such as information processing, communication, critical thinking, problem solving and metacognition and assessment.
The Strengths Identifier https://teamwork.umn.edu/ at the University of Minnesota has tools and resources to help students identify their strengths, as well as a list of myth busters that can help students communicate better.
CATME https://www.catme.org/login/index provides instructor tools for assigning students to better functioning teams. In addition to the team-maker tool, it provides training for students to work in teams through the CATME Teamwork Behavior Training. It can also identify teams having teamwork difficulties and train students to rate teamwork behaviors by using CATME Peer Evaluations and the CATME Rater Practice tool.
Please let me know if you would like more information on best practices and strategies related to group work, or ideas to customize these strategies to your specific teaching context.
Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., and Smith, K.A. (2006). Active learning: Cooperation in the university classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction.
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