tameral,
great observations. I especially have noticed the "forcing" of one idea or solution onto other students. This can be a great aspect of groups too, as students can learn to value the opinions of others. But clearly they have to be taught how to do this.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Some challenges that may rise from group activities are fair work load and knowing if each student is comprehending the material. I feel that monitoring groups and participation from the groups is ery important. Having group outlines may help with specified instructions for each student may help in providing a fair work load for each student.
from 1 day of our lab classes we used to devide class bu small group with groop leader, who nels more weak student with learning and understanding material, of course with my nelp
When students work in groups, the diversity of personalities can cause problems. Some students will take charge and not allow others to talk or engage. There are other issues like these as well. It is important to move through groups, monitor them, and engage or intervene when necessary.
Some challenges of using students groups are those stand byers tend to be looked over when students are allowed to select their own group. I have also found that those over achieving students tend to force group members to only use their ideas for the group. This causes the other students to be upset, but afraid to address it. I have also noticed, when students work in groups, it's another way for the less participating students to hide behind other students. They tend to agree and repeat everything that the other students say without giving it their own thought and opinions.
Alan,
I too use this approach in my group projects & have found it to be somewhat helpful in distributing the work among the group members.
Dr. Ryan Meers
It is challenging to get students to balance the work load in student groups. Some students clearly carry the group when others slack and show no interest in the project. I tend to limit using student groups because many students end up complaining that they did the majority of the work while their fellow students did nothing.
When I do use student groups, I have them grade each other on their performace as part of the overall grade.
Hello Kris
I have experienced what you noted about the "Alpha" taking over the group and others sitting back. I like using a 50% rubric for the team outcome, which might be a paper and or presentation. The other 50% is for each individual's participation into the group activity.
This can be observed through learning teams created in the classroom portal and or by observation in the classroom. In some instances I have had student's assess their team members and themselves in a written document that is only between the individual student and me.
When a team delivers an oral presentation each team member knows that they are responsible for presenting their part of the assignment. This means that each student must speak for approximately the same amount of time. As an example if a team has four members and the presentation is to be 20 minutes, each team member must present for approximately 5 minutes.
Al
There are a number of challenges in having students working together in small groups.
First, the forming of a group is in part paramount to its success. Informal or short-term group involvement will allow for an easy passage for most students through this activity. Formal groups on the other hand have probably different consequences of interaction and grading. Thus student diversity, personality and his or her interactions skills can individually or collectively contribute to challenges and or issues for the group. This can be the storming part of a group’s relationship. Ultimately the objective is to have each member of the group perform, as the Musketeers would say, “all for one, and one for all.â€
Second, some group members will contribute effectively and others might be “slacking†or incomplete in his or her work effort along with their responsibility to the team. Having the team draw up a charter of rules or a contract with each other might be an effective method for focusing on the “what if events†that can and do happen when teams enter the storming relationship zone.
A third challenge is how student’s with work, life’s obligations, and college study find time to do their own work and now need to be coordinating this “hectic schedule†with others who have the same challenges. Giving teams class time to work is essential and allows us to observe the behavior, interaction and dynamics. As a coach, mentor and instructor we can interact with the teams in furtherance of the team’s objective using this as another method of our own interaction and connection to ours students.
Al
Thomas,
Great explanation & synopsis & I wholeheartedly agree with your final statement. Our job is to prepare our students for life & careers & generally that means working with those you don't know at least at first.
Dr. Ryan Meers
What are some challenges of having students work in groups?
I work in a technical school with a lot of hands on learning. We have lab groups that work through their lab tasks throughout the course. Some instructors let them pick their own groups, as I have started assigning groups for them. Too many times they will pick their own friends and leave out the weaker, leaving the weak coming up with their own group. (Remember back when we were kids, elementary school, dodgeball… I think you get the idea.) By the instructor assigning groups it breaks up the cliques and redistributes the strong among the weak for more balanced teams. I do this in an effort to have a couple of strong students or leaders in every team, which leaves followers in every team. I will let them decide who will be team leader of the group. If someone in the team does not produce I will hear about it from the leaders.
It is usually the stronger that will worry about having to carry the others and I explain to them that this is a golden opportunity. First, if you’re thinking you going to have to teach the others, this will only make your understanding of the material that much stronger. In order to teach, one has to learn it twice. Once to understand the concept, twice to understand it well enough to teach it to someone that does not get it. Second, it is a chance for you to develop or strengthen your management skills. As a leader you will want to make sure all of the work is done, on time, as well as can be done. If you have a person in the group that doesn’t get along or won’t perform, it will help to find some common ground amongst the team and help motivate the underachiever.
There are times when I will get pushback and I explain that in real life when you take on a job you, more often than not, will not get to pick who you will work with. This is just another opportunity for you to strengthen a skill of working with people you do not know.
Some people don’t want to get along. Others let personal feelings get in the way of business. Their business is to learn and acquire skills needed to be successful in life. Remind them of that, in the grand scheme of things, working with others you don’t know or particularly care for is just another bump in the road of life.
shavene,
It's also helpful to have a distribution of work as this is more reflective of the actual work environment that most of our students will experience.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Some challenges that may arise if they are not monitered closely is that there may be an individual or two that don't want to help with the assignment, but take credit for it. If you give each person one particular thing to do for the assignment, then you can alleviate this problem and everybody works.
Miriam,
I identify with this as I have been a participant in online groups & you are right these are definitely challenging. I think a lot of it is helping our students learn how to set expectations & norms within their groups so they are better prepared to move forward.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Maksuda,
I agree with you. When I utilize groups, I generally have a group grade as well as an individual grade & I seek input from the group members on each other so I have a better feel for how to grade.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Scheduling and time management was one of the biggest challenges I experienced when working with groups, especially in an online environment. Having to wait for one person to finish their part of an assignment before continuing was difficult at times especially if a deadline is looming. Open communication is also a challenge because the students may or may not know each other well enough to express their opinions and thoughts without hesitation.
Students usually like working in groups, but a problem that rises, is work dividing evenly. Students feel its not fair when one or two people do the work and the rest get a free ride. One way to avoid doing this is giving a seperate grade per person. Also by assigning roles and seperate things to each group member. Another challenge is keeping them on task, to avoid, this its important to make sure to tell them what they are supposed to work on that day or the time they meet. Make each member responisible for each share.
Billy,
I think that is a great idea as it can potentially be of benefit for the students to provide that strong feedback to one another regarding their use of punctuation.
Dr. Ryan Meers
One of my challenges in teaching English is twofold: a)to teach students to rewrite their own papers before they give them to me, and B) to teach the rules of comma and semi-colon use. I have corrected their own errors. They are not learning the rules to them. I am considering group work for this project.
Dana,
You are right that there always seem to be a few who emerge as the leaders & as the doers in each group. While I try to balance this by having the group grade each other, the truth is it's still frustrating if someone isn't pulling their weight.
Dr. Ryan Meers
