Organizaing Student Learning Groups
One of the most important dynamics I've come to appreciate during my tenure as an adjunct instructor, is the effective use of "Learning Groups."
Although this particular course made several excellent points, one point in particular greatly resonated with me. "Impart students with the skills that they need to succeed in groups. Many students have never worked in a group setting. They need some practice in areas like discussion, active listening, giving and receiving constructive criticism, and managing disagreements."
Just curious, what learning group methods have you found to be successful?
Melissa,
I too have found this to be true & this is definitely more reflective of actual work environments.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Organizing random groups has always worked well. There is more working going on then socializing.
William,
yes, the temptation for socialization is very strong & when groups self-form they tend to go with pre-established social groups. The random groups are also a much better representation of what they will experience in the real-world work environment.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I have to agree with this, that the groups that are allowed to form themselves seem to take longer to accomplish tasks and the overall results are never as good as randomly set groups.
The most effective student groups I have had are the ones most randomly formed. As they walk in the room they receive an index cards with random words or numbers on them. These words/numbers determine their groups. Each time I do this I do not tell the students which I will select. This prevents them from swapping cards to be with their "friends" and allows the more diversity withon the groups each and every time
Tom,
this is true & I've found it helpful to help the students learn to trust & build trust with one another as they will need to do this in the work environment.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
David,
you are right that we should equip the students with these skills. Personally I've found it helpful initially to discuss specific roles & tasks as then students can focus on developing the group skills to fit these roles.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
The most effective learning groups are ones that contain students that trust each other. It makes them more attentive to help from the other students and those helping are reinforcing their learning by "teaching" fellow students.
