I believe student group work can alter or change the pace of the classroom setting for variety. It is possible that they learn more and retain it longer if they are actively involved in their learning process. It is important to establish clear guidelines from the start. There must be a clearly defined project, and explanation of how they will be graded. They may self-select their student group, up to 6 participants, and divide up the labor or tasks. I believe the process helps them apply what they have learned.
Most of my classes range from 3 - 9 student, with 5-6 as a common size. In this instance the class as a whole is student group and the roles seldom change. As a class they are with each other for the duration of the college career with little variation in size.
Group activities can be a challenge. I teach medical assisting and I teach my students we are a team in a health care setting. That being said I pick topics and turn the class into debates and the students dont realize there working in a group cause they are all to busy trying to express there opinion..
QUINTIN,
yes, this can be a typical problem in lab settings & as you said, must be monitored to ensure that all are participating.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Josef,
I think this is a great strategy & helps bring diversity to the groups.
Dr. Ryan Meers
For example, making sure that all students are engaged. If the task is a specific hands on assignmant, all students should get their hands on the task. Otherwise, you will have only one or two doing the task, and the rest fall into "secretary syndrome", and do not get the full value of the lesson.
The sporadic attendance does present a challenge when grouping teams. I am experiencing that in the current course that I am teaching. I will have to make adjustments to the current teams to better match their individual progress.
I also have a mix of student, ranging from High School graduates to retiree’s looking to start a new career. I try to find the level of experience from the students early on and then form the groups to try and equalize the skill level and knowledge base. I then monitor the groups as they work their projects and look at the individual’s participation.
William,
these are definitely challenges & I believe also great learning tools. These are the same challenges groups/teams face as they work together in the professional environment.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Kathy,
I think this is a great example of how we can help our students with the maturing process as they come to realize that you don't always work with your best friends. But you must know how to be friendly with all those with whom you work & how to work effectively.
Dr. Ryan Meers
The biggest challenge for me is to make the group assignment relevant and conducive group activity. Most of the didactic portion of my class is very black and white which would not be conducive to group work. My laboratory section may be aided by making more formal groups The students form groups naturally in this part of the class, however the groups are very uneven. By random selection of the members the groups may become more effective.
Several of the challenges I have encountered are:
Accelerating the ice breaker to get the group started on topic.
Keeping the group on course (minimize the sidebar discussions).
Resolving any conflicts between the idea generators and those that want to quickly come to closure on the group topic.
With my current class, there is a definite divide between 2 groups of students. On the first day of class, I always do an ice breaker activity that also doubles as a pre-assessment tool for me. The class divided into the 2 distinct groups, and the discussion time after the activity turned into a turf war. For the next group work, I picked the people for each group. It was a positive learning environment for all involved, and I think it really sent the message that they don't have to like each other, but they do have to work with each other effectively.
Angela,
these are definitely challenges that accompany group work & somewhat reflect real life situations the students will be facing.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Renee,
I would agree with you & sometimes I think we need to spend a little bit of time helping our students learn how to be good group members.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Daniel,
yes it is helpful to all our students if we maintain some type of presence & monitoring of the groups.
Dr. Ryan Meers
if groups aren't well-balanced when constructed, students may experience frustration when dealing with "lurkers" (group members who are willing to "ride the coat tails" of more pro-active and high-achieving group members)
group dynamics (presented as balance and diversity) must be considered when constructing groups or the result for the student may be more frustration that the intended value of the assignment
Sometimes it can depend on the class size. If you have a small class where you can only put the students in pairs, there is not much diversity. A factor that has been an issue for me in the past is that sometimes a project group will consist of students who do not live close by one another. This can create a problem if any of the group work has to occasionally be completed outside of the classroom setting. Another possible issue is attitudes. While it is best to keep the groups as diverse as possible, there always seems to be A.) A student who takes charge and has to "control" everything, B.) Students who do not pull their own weight, or C.) General procrastination.
As a former student who used to work within student groups, I noticed that it was particularly challenging to work with group members that dominated the group with too much leadership (became bossy to the other members or took control of most of the workload). I also found it challenging to work with group members that did not contribute their fair share to the assignments that needed to be completed. Keeping this in mind, I believe that it's important to try and encourage a productive student group balance while forming and monitoring groups.
By Eddy Mojena
Those certain students may stress because some may not carry their weight in the group work.
