Using Small Groups 

Self-Assessment Question:

Do you know how to use small groups in class, in ways that promote more higher level learning and add more energy and motivation to student learning?

Quick Take:

If and when a teacher decides to incorporate more active learning into his or her teaching and have class time consist of something other than "teacher talk," the handiest alternative is "student talk." However "student talk" in the form of carefully constructed small group activities is generally educationally more productive than a free-floating whole class discussion.

Teachers can use small groups to engage students in collaborative problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, creative thinking, etc. To do these effectively requires teachers to do some advance planning on a number of key factors:

• Identifying a significant purpose for the activity: What is it you want student to learn as a group, that the students can see as important and significant?
• Constructing effective group assignments: Assignments for small groups must be the kind of task that an effective group can do better than one or two good individuals.
• Group size and formation: Generally it works best for teachers to create groups of 4-8 individuals, by distributing students among groups according to various relevant prior experiences and knowledge, not by GPA.
• Time for group work: The groups need time to learn how to work together and how to accomplish their learning tasks. Generally this means giving them time in-class to work as a group, and keeping the group together as long as possible (the whole term if possible).
• Grading: For all but the most casual forms of small group activity, you will need a feedback and assessment system that ensures:
  (a) individuals prepare for group work,
  (b) the groups know when they are working effectively,
  (c) the groups are rewarded for working effectively, and
  (d) grades are adjusted for individual students who are particularly hard working or who are particularly lax. This task is usually accomplished by peer evaluations done at the end of the term.

References:

1. "Why Some Groups Fail: A Survey of Students' Experiences with Learning Groups," by Susan Brown Feichtner and Elaine Actis Davis, in The Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, Vol. 9, No. 4 (1984-85), pp. 58-71. The authors surveyed students about both their positive learning experiences with small groups and their negative experiences. The resulting list of "Do's" and "Don'ts" offers valuable advice for anyone intending to use small groups in their courses.

2. Cooperative Learning for Higher Education Faculty by Barbara J. Millis and Philip G. Cottell, Jr. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1998. A valuable summary of the values of teaching with small groups, the general principles that need to be followed, and an extensive list of specific kinds of small group activities.

3. Team Learning. A powerful form of small group teaching called "Team Learning" has been developed by Larry Michaelsen, a professor of management at the University of Oklahoma (email: lmichael@ou.edu). Now used in a variety of disciplines by teachers around the country, "Team Learning" calls for changing the structure of a course in order to (a) allow groups to become "teams" and (b) take advantage of the ability of teams to engage in powerful forms of higher level learning.
Some of the key publications related to "Team Learning" include the following:

4. Small Group Problem Solving. A group of professors in the Physics Department at the University of Minnesota have been developing many guidelines for small group problem solving that professors will find useful in other disciplines as well.
They have a general website at: www.physics.umn.edu/groups/physed/. Two particularly useful sections are the ones on: