Get Your Students Hired
i always use groups. i like to make them as diverse as possible, so they all can get different points of view and learn from each other.
Teaching communication and critical thinking courses, I find it essential to do some activities in groups. Especially in my small group communication lesson, I break most of the 4.5 hour lecture in to small groups and try to vary the people who are working together. Being that my students are going into the medical profession, they will need to be able to work with people from all different backgrounds so I like for them to experience different group dynamics. In small group day, I have them practice nominal groups, brainstorming groups, task oriented groups and problem solving groups. This way they will have the opportunity to experiment and determine which type of group works best for them.
In phase 2&29 I use 4 person groups.I let them select their groups. It works quite well.some students have worked together in other phases with one another, and some have not.If there is grumbling or commotion I address the situation letting everyone know that not everyone will get along all the time you must work through differences and work toward a common goal, and not let feelings for each other stop each of you from completing a task. for me this works very well.
Hi Errol!
Once the students are in their respective groups, what strategies do you use in ensuring successful outcomes.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
Hi Adam!
Great idea and what students learn from this exercise is very valuable. thanks for sharing.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
I use a deck of cards that the students pull from each day to decide who they work with. Most of the time it works great. Other times there is one student in the class that no one wants to work with. This way each day, hopefully, everyone gets to spend one or two days with that student. It also reinforces that you don't get to choose who you get to work with in the field, & you better at least get along at the job so you can keep yours.
I employ the use of groups with every phase. The students groups are made up from the table that they share, generally three students in a group. From time to time they change the order or migrate towards another group, this doesnt cause any inconvenience to the other group members and usually allows them to be more efficient. I may group stronger students with weaker ones so that they may help each other.
In our program we have used groups for years, they work out good and I use a deck of playing cards to make up the groups, by the luck of the draw. We have had great success with this proceedure and the students like drawing the cards.
Greetings William!
You make a really good point! As a society, we have many more distractions than ever before in our history. Children and young adults were less involved and less interested than they are today. So I really like your approach of staying connected with groups ensuring that they stay on track.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
Learning groups work very well in my phase. I like keeping groups small, 2 maybe 3 per group. I have found by keeping the groups small it minimizes the temptation of students riding the shirt tails of others and requires them to participate in the task at hand.
I use learning groups in lab and in class and have foound for mysself that the groups work well if you stay with them and help them stay focused on the task at hand. Today's student have somany things on there plate that if left unattended many will drift to other things that seem more important at that time.
We use work groups of no more than 4 students every phase. For a group to be sucessful they must remain on task and do their share of the work. If a problem arises, I will make the decision to switch students from one group to another, although this rarely happens. In the 9 years I have worked here, I would say that students have performed quite well in this enviroment.
I use work groups every course for lab and class. I let the students do most of the process on their own but sometines i select them when i see a problem.
Yes, in Ford we use learning group a lot. We have the students in groups on the computers to go through a problem and to talk over their solutions before we go over as a class. This work well with most groups but the instructor must know their students or a group that is formed may not work well together.
I generally use learning groups for lab. I have used both ways of selecting the groups, randomly and letting the students choose. Letting the students choose sometimes leads to some students taking a backseat to the learning because they sometimes will join in with a very ambitious group and let them to all the work while the just coast and don't really learn. When I see these situations I generally task the student to do something specific to get them more involved with the group.
I find the students pick their work mates because they do not get to pick in the field thet are going to.They also know that it will not be up to them who is working beside out in the real world.This also brings very interesting topic to the table.A broader scope of what the subject matter is.
Audie Toney
TTL 35
Avondale AZ.
I use work groups every course for lab and class tasks, when slecting work groups starts, I let the students do most of the process on their on and they base their selection on attendance of their fellow students and future group members for the two courses that they will be together...works well for me.
I use learning groups all the time and was very successful with them I will say that it is true picking the small groups is better then letting student pick groups the groups are more balance when teacher picks
Hi Terry!
Good for you! I use learning groups often as well. I believe using small groups regularly is a great way to reenforce daily topics of discussion.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator