I try to push the group activities back a small amount in the class so I can get a feel for each students strengths/weakness in the subject. This makes it easier to achieve the diversity covered in this section which I believe to help in multiple ways such as students can relate the information to their peers easier because of common experience. This usually works great as long as the students respect and listen to each other.
I allow the students to choose their own groups. Often, the last group will consist of those students that are not affiliated with other students and are in that last group by default. I will note this when writing down the groups and will purposely and consciously give this group a disproportionate amount of my time in the beginning of the task to help them get started and to make sure they are all comfortable participating.
Random selection, formal selection and self selection.
Roberto,
this is a good suggestion & we definitely need to take the purpose of the group work into mind. Are the groups for studying, working through case studies/problems, or project oriented--these factors can help us determine the best makeup of groups.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I would suggest making small and heterogeneous groups so they can help each other in the activities.
Brian,
this is a great idea & can really help them learn to appreciate what each person brings to the situation.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Laura,
this is a great strategy to get all involved & help keep them accountable.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I will organize students into groups based on strengths and weakness, previous understanding (based on pre-assessment) or even by different backgrounds and majors.
I agree. I favor smaller groups as well. I generally divide my groups based on where the students are located in my classroom. I pick four students were group. I don't think three is productive in that it is an odd number and occasionally someone gets left out. I give an equal assignment to each and then have them cross check each other's answers.
I like to keep the groups small otherwise there may not be enough participation. Also by selecting members that will feed off of each other...dynamic group, in other words.
Martha,
this is a great strategy as it balances the groups & helps them learn to work with the different personalities.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I try to organize students into Groups based upon their abilities. I try to include someone with a strong set of skills in each group and then someone with a medium skill set, etc.. When possible, I organize a competition between the 2 groups to keep things lively and the students attentive. Everyone usually has a good time and expands upon their skill set in the process.
Richard,
this is a great idea as it does help build that sense of community & "common language."
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Since I teach a class that has students that are generally in the same type of work, I try to select groups based on occupation. I work with students from the manufacturing and machining industry. I thus try to select groups of students based on their individual roles within their company, i.e lathe machinist, mill machinist, inspector, supervisor, tool & die maker. This way they already have a common ground with which to begin working together, although still coming from different companies and having never met.
walter,
yes, this system works well & can help them learn that they will sometimes work with those they don't know well.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
since I am teaching an introduction course I find it the easiest to use the count to a certain number system and then pair the up with whoever has the same number.
Diversity is key with respect to background, gender and knowledge of the topic.
I like to put the students into "informal" groups to work on in-class exercises. My normal group sizes are any where from 4 to 8 people in a group depending on class size. I usually just ask those around each other to gather into a group.
I find that this works effectively most of the times. On rare occasions when students complain about another member of the group, I usually do not have to intervene. Somehow, they always work it out.
I've noticed that some wonderful friendships, student buddies and tutoring pals have developed between students as a direct outcome of their informal group. I find the group style of learning is a great instructor teaching technique.
Pauletta,
yes, the random assignment is a good method as it reflect real life in not always selecting your work partners.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Some ways to organize students into to work groups is random assignment, self-reflection, assign to a group to complete a specific task, informal groups and formal groups. Groups should have no more than 5 or 6 students.
