I find that small group work is very useful as one of the many methods that should be incorporated into the classroom to provide variety and keep students engaged in the lesson. It also provides a great opportunity to incorporate some teaching methods that will serve students who are more independent kinesthetic in their learning style.
Small group work also benefits students in that it allows them to exercise their social and teamwork skills, forcing them to work cooperatively with some other students who may have conflicting ideas from theirs or whom they may not get along with. Overall, small group work is invaluable in the classroom from my experience.
the groups are given a topic to discuss about in pro and cons and various other possible methods
of reaching the goals.the students are encouraged to come up with the ideas related to the topic.
I encourage small when having the students prepare case studies. This also helps the one's who would otherwise skip the assignment
Crystal, love that technique. If done correctly, having students provide input into the level of achievement of their classmates is incredibly motivating.
Regards,
James Jackson
Susan, one technique I have used when working with diverse and small groups is to setup a grading rubric that focuses on what is required to achieve different levels of grades. For those students looking to just achieve the minimum you have the standard learning outcomes required by the course. For those that want to earn a higher grade, their efforts will need to be greater than others in the class so you may have different assignments that can be completed once the minimal requirements are achieved. A student that is interested in earning the highest score in the class will of course be expected to achieve the highest level of understanding and demonstrate that high level understanding. This is a very helpful technique with you have a large gap of skill sets you need to accommodate in a single group of students.
Regards,
James Jackson
Megan, there are many ways to protect against cheating. If students feel they can cheat they will. The trick is to setup your class environment where cheating is not possible or carries such heavy consequences that students are afraid to even attempt. One advantage of the smaller groups is you can create more unique assessment tools. Assessments can even be unique to each student depending on your situation so cheating is just not an option or at least you will notice it immediately as you are grading each individual work. I highly recommend working with your curriculum group to investigate the best tools to work with small groups and me cheating close to impossible. It can be done.
Regards,
James Jackson
Another technique I've used is to tell the group as a whole that it is there responsibility to divide up the work in a way that ensures that all members do their share. This way it will be more obvious if someone has not done their part as there will be a "hole" in the project.
One issue I've found with small groups in the classroom is that students who have not done the work will simply copy the work from another student. I group the students before I review test materials, and I notice a few students copying. I ask that the students discuss the questions that all have not answered as that will help them learn the material better.
Yes I use small group activities. It seems to help if I set up the parameters and expectations up front. Additionally I lead off the small group project explaining why it is an important activity and how it ties in with real world situations they will encounter in their careers.
I have frequently used small group practice activities in the learning laboratory. Timing the activity can be a challenge; some students rapidly complete an assignment while other students need more time. When possible, I level the activities (beginning, intermediate, advanced). The students are provided with the learning expectations and criteria for completion of each level. (Clear directions are essential.) Students demonstrating proficiency at the beginning level (the minimum requirement for the learning session) are expected to move on to the intermediate and then advanced levels as time allows. I circulate from group to group to monitor progress, facilitate engagement, answer questions, provide feedback, etc. Students typically maintain active engagement throughout the laboratory session. Occasionally there are students who proficiently complete all the levels during a session with time to spare. As appropriate, those students may serve as peer coaches or participate in another default activity.
Putting students in small groups and having the most success receive bonus points for a quiz makes them work hard and effectively
During any class there is always an oppurtunity to involve some type of group exercise. I usually do group projects and/or activities and have the group grade themselves as well as every other person in their group. This seems to work very well!
Amdanda, do you provide any type of explanation to the students why it is important they experience working with different partners versus always working with ones they already know? What other techniques do you use to bring awareness to your students as to the advantages of working in groups?
Regards,
James Jackson
Lisa, do you find that you spend more time keeping the more gregarious students in line or more time working with the quiet student group to share with each other?
Regards,
James Jackson
My small group activities usually involve the entire class as the small group, I normally only have 3-4 students per class. Most of the classes I teach have a lab portion so I have them split into pairs to complete them. I also play games with them to break up the lectures for review times. One of the main challenges I have found is that most of the students want to work with the same partner every time we split into groups. When they work with the same person each time, they are not learning to work with different types of personalities and are not expanding their personalities. I have now been drawing names for the groups so it is random. It seems to work pretty well.
I occasionally do small group activities. When I do, I divide the groups up into either 1) students who are getting similar grades in the class or 2) put studnets who are more gregarious together and group the quiet students together - depending on the activity. It seems to help quite a bit, getting all the students to participate about equally.
Donald, you will find various levels of participation in group activities. One technique is to setup a system where students grade each others participation in some type of anonymous way so you do not get into peer pressure to provide a higher grade than some of the students may deserve. Once students know that part of their grade will depend on how their peers grade their participation, you should see a higher level of participation.
Regards,
James Jackson
Jodie, sounds like you figured things out. Each group of students will bring its own set of challenges so in the case you mention, you were able to focus the group activities during a time in class where after the group activity is over the students are reading to move on to the next class session. You can also establish some ground rules before the group activity even starts. You can even share with the students that the activity is so engaging that they will not want to break away from the activity but in order to achieve the course objectives, students must all agree that once a group activity is over, it is time to get back to other work. There are many techniques available. It will be interesting to come back to this post from time to time and read what others are doing with their group activities.
Regards,
James Jackson
The course I teach has hands on training involved. This creates the group activities for my classroom. Some students participates more than others but usually all do participate on some level. They realize if they don't practice then they will not retain the information. Group activities and hands on experience engages the students and helps them remember the information.
I try to utilize some type of small group activity, even if it is just a paired activity, in every class. One of the challenges that I have had is bringing the groups back to the large group or class. Sometimes the students are excited with the idea of working in groups and do not want to settle back down to move forward.
I had one class in particular that struggled with moving from group activity back to the class every time we did group activities. I ended up making sure that we did the group part close to the end of class and the whole class portion took place at the next class.
