Small Groups Tips
Why use Small Groups?
Small group experiences foster:
- Active learning rather than passive listening.
- Personal engagement, dialog, and interaction rather than
mechanical procedures.
- Higher-order reflection on problems and concepts rather than
recitation or memorization.
- A sense of collaborative purpose, mission, and accomplishment
rather than an isolationist approach to individual research.
- Student-teaching rather than over-the-head teacher-talk
(sometimes a student who has just understood something is a better
teacher than the teacher who already knows too much about the
subject to remember all of the initial stumbling blocks and
possible misconceptions).
Monitoring Small Groups
Small groups need constant monitoring to succeed!
- Try setting up groups of 3 or 5 members each. An odd number of
students in each group will diminish pairing off or the dominance
of just one self-appointed leader.
- Number off students to form groups that do not reflect social
cliques and to help break the behavior patterns of the habitually
shy and naturally domineering, which are often aggravated by
student groups formed from self-selection.
- Groups should arrange their seats in circles to facilitate
face-to-face contact and discussion.
- Provide clear and specific, step by step instructions. Group
work is not idle chit-chat. Establish a mission for the group by
setting them a problem to solve or clearly defining their group
tasks. Make sure your instructions answer the following questions:
- What is the requested outcome of the group work?
- Are any specific roles to be assigned in the group?
(Reporter, secretary, moderator, etc.)
- Is there relevant assigned reading matter?
- Provide a structured sequence of questions for group
discussion, rather than expecting students to address a problem
from scratch.
- Suggest time guidelines for each step of group activity, so
that group members can estimate the degree of thoroughness
required and pace their deliberations without experiencing
uncertainty about the nature of the assignment.
- Move from group to group to detect when any group becomes
stuck on some aspect of the assignment, and to ensure that all
students are participating in each group. Group time is
on-the-feet time, not time for catching up on deskwork!
- Snowball group work from individual tasks to groups of
steadily increasing size.
- For example, begin with individual work (reading,
preliminary problem solving), then move to pairs for initial
dialog and higher-order problem-solving on the basis of the
individual reading. Then each pair may report their conclusions
to another pair in a small group of four, with ensuing give and
take discussion between the two pairs. Then each group of four
may report to the entire class, etc.
- A snowball strategy may encourage more students to
participate in group discussions, since everyone will have
completed some individual work to use as a basis for the
discussion.
- It works well when students have not had prior preparation
for the task, since all students will bring approximately the
same level of background to the group discussions (although the
individual readings do not all have to be the same).
- Other small group formats:
- "buzz groups" or discussion pairs for rapid consideration
and quick feedback
- brainstorming groups
- role-playing groups
- modelling groups (e.g., acting out the roles of chemicals
in a reaction or structures in a cell).
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Kerry Magruder, Planetarium Director,
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