Bringing Students Together to Learn Alongside Each Other
Many avenues of research converge on the core idea that learning is more substantially a social process than an individual one. Learning outcomes, student retention, student professionalization, metacognition, and a more inclusive classroom environment are all improved when students are challenged at the edge of their abilities in a supportive peer environment.
“Without interactions with their peers, learners may well not realize where they stand”
(Zull 2002, 239).
Benefits of group work are...
Promotes diversity and inclusion:
Avoid creating homogeneous groups or isolating minorities.
Supports large or complex projects:
Fit the size of the group to the task.
Stimulates creativity:
Interaction affords improvisation and access to new perspectives.
Allows students to teach each other:
Peers often understand what fellow students misunderstand better than instructors.
Group work improves students’...
Metacognition & Self-Awareness
Students reflect on their own reasoning processes through peer-discussion, feedback, and evaluation.
Attendance, Satisfaction & Attentiveness
Structured Participation forces students to be more engaged and reinforces the relevance of class meetings more than lecture alone.
Teamwork & Social Skills
Essential for the job market and engagement in the public sphere.
Overcome challenges to implementing group work by...
- Providing clear instructions and expectations.
- Breaking complex group work into manageable assignments.
- Making the work productive and relevant (avoid “busy work”).
- Giving students roles (note taker, speaker, mediator, timer, etc.).
- Assigning peer evaluation (see tips at the bottom of the page).
- Discussing and modeling civil discourse and respectful conflict resolution.
“...if students [are allowed to] disagree among themselves, they mostly change their minds when confronted with good reasons. So, when they change their minds, they are more likely to understand why they did so. Students can be each other’s best teachers”
(Mercier & Sperber 2017, 295)
Types of Group-Work
It is important to consider what types of group work will best support your learning outcomes. In addition to the types and formation of each group, make sure to consider what role each group member could have based on the kind of thinking and final product you expect the group to produce.
Incorporating regular short-term group work into a course structure can support:
- Participation from students who might normally be quiet in a whole-class discussion.
- More personal and engaged conversations.
- More opportunities for practicing course content alongside each other.
- Increased preparation from students who expect participation and peer-engagement to be a normal part of class meetings or assignments.
Pose a problem or difficult question. Give students time to think about it individually. Then have them share their thoughts or solutions in pairs. Finally, ask (some) students to share their ideas with the class. Hint: use technology to collect as many student ideas or answers as possible.
Place multiple posters with questions, texts, or images around the room or in a shared digital space. Students (In small groups) walk around the room to discuss and write on the posters.
Students answer a question individually, find a student who answered differently, and debate their reasons before answering the question individually again.
Jigsaw
Groups are assigned a topic on which they become “experts”; new groups are formed with one member from each expert group; topic experts in each new group teach each other their topic of expertise.
Circle of Voices and Circular Response Discussions
Each group member speaks for a set amount of time (e.g. 1 minute) without interruption.
A Circle of Voices in which students begin by paraphrasing and making connections with the comments of the previous speaker.
- Extended group work should be well-conceived, included in the syllabus, and students should be given sufficient notice to plan their time accordingly.
- Group expectations and guidelines should be clearly delineated.
- Groups should be monitored, either directly or by peer-feedback, to encourage engaged participation and disincentivize social loafing.
- If students will be required to coordinate outside of class time, finding common meeting times may be difficult. Instructors should consider providing (optional or mandatory) virtual project meeting spaces, such as Canvas forums, Nectir, Slack, Discord, or Unhangout.
- Reading course materials is typically assigned as a solitary activity. Collaborative learning can be supported by asking students to process course materials together either in designated forums, or, more potently, using social reading platforms, such as Perusall or Hypothes.is.
- Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in Google Drive allow for collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows.
- Canvas has special tools for group collaboration.
- Gradescope, which can be integrated into a Canvas course, has a Group Assignment feature that may be useful for organizing and assessing group work.
Forming Groups
You can form groups in many different ways, as described in the table below.
| Random Assignment | Self Selection | Based on Criteria | Task Preference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Method | Students assigned randomly to groups | Students assign themselves to groups | Students assigned to groups based on instructor criteria | Students assigned to groups based on preference for a particular task |
| Pros | Easy; Fair; Breaks up affinity groups; Good for short-term groups | Easy; Offers students choice | The instructor can sculpt group membership | Puts together students with similar interests |
| Cons | No instructor or student choice; Lack of criteria | Groups are more likely to be homogeneous or affinity-based | Instructor biases; lack of student choice; takes time | May result in uneven group sizes or memberships |
“Students often judge what instructors value by what we choose to grade…[and] many students are strategic: They allocate their time and effort to tasks based on grading requirements.”
(Hodges 2017)
Evaluating Group Work
- How much of the course grade will be based on group vs. individual assessments?
- Will you grade students’ group work based on the final product, the process, or both?
- Will you provide a grade for individuals or for whole groups, or some combination of both?
- Will you assign points based on participation, quality of work, or both?
Methods of Group Evaluation:
Team-Based Learning (TBL) suggests pairing individual examinations with group examinations. Students take an exam individually, then in a group where they can debate answers. Students receive a grade for both assessments.
- Ask groups to periodically submit meeting minutes or records of their group digital collaborations. You don’t have to read them all, but you have them as a record, when needed.
- Periodically use some class time (10-15 mins) for group meetings so you can monitor group dynamics and progress.
Asking students to evaluate each other’s participation and contributions to group work will help you monitor groups, makes students feel more accountable, and increases perceptions of fairness. Some questions you may want to include could be:
- Was the distribution and completion of group work even/equal across group members? If not, please explain.
- Did each group member actively participate in discussions, communications, meetings and decisions? If not, please explain.
- Did each group member provide useful and complete contributions to the group work? If not, please explain.
- What were your specific tasks and contributions?