Stimulation
At my institution we are required to lecture 15 minutes then a hand-on activity for 15 minutes (preferably a group assignment). I have noticed that this is effective but can cause distractions depending on the group which you may have. For those that have used groups discussions, which is more effective, working in pairs or 3s.
For the types of courses I teach, I generally have either pairs, or small groups. That way, you can have people working on different aspects of the assignment, such as programming, art, animation, etc.
I see this concept repeated almost as a mantra around our campus, and then see almost no one actually implementing it.
I've considered it many times, and just can't figure out how to make it work with my subject matter.
Paulette,
there can definitely be a risk in adding more, but I've found that if you have clearly defined roles for the group this can be helped. Most work teams/groups will have more than two people so it is helpful for the students to start to learn to work in these teams now.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I think working in groups of two helps. when there is three, there will be one that is not very paticipating, but rather acts as the distractor to the group.
