Teachers can use many resources to help students learn in the classroom. It is important to know the best time to put students in groups as part of a learning activity. It can be used for projects, brainstorming, or such group activities.
What is a group?
Groups usually consist of more than two people that share a common goal or purpose. But it is possible that many times a group can be just a collection of people, such as a group of spectators at a football game. In the classroom setting, groups should be interacting individuals who share common goals and have a sense of togetherness. A group should typically have a degree of stability with a core group of members.
Maybe as a child, your teacher set up reading groups. It was possible to improve and move to a different group but the goals of the group remained the same. Before setting up a group or groups in a classroom it is important to decide the reason why a group is needed. Will it be a project, discussion, or mentoring group? Once the dynamics of the group has been decided the next decision would be to decide which students to put together.
Group Performance
Most people feel a need to get along in a group and can usually perform well in that manner; however there are some students who will not be comfortable in a group. It is important to not only considered academic similarities but also behavior issues when planning group activities. One hindrance to having successful groups is social loafing. Social loafing is the tendency for group members to exert less individual effort on an additive task as the size of the group increases. This means the larger the group the greater the opportunity for people to slack off and not contribute.
Slackers and Loafers
This often happens because students may not be individually identifiable because their performances are combined into a group score. Teachers should be aware there are three major ways to counteract a student’s tendencies to goof off in large groups. The first way is to increase accountability by making sure that each person’s performance can be assessed or evaluated. This can be easily done by using procedures that are designed to keep track of the work each person accomplishes. Another way is to foster group pride. Comparing the performance of one group to another is often a good way to keep loafers from slacking.
The final way to prevent loafers is to complement the accountability strategy with an effort to focus on the intrinsic merits of the task. If students feel that what they are working on is unique or challenging they may be motivated to make a unique contribution or just to rise up to the challenge. Putting students into groups is not feasible for all class time. It can be used throughout the school year whenever the teacher feels the students will benefit. Some researchers have argued that using groups for brainstorming of ideas is often a great use of classroom grouping.
Brainstorming in Groups
Brainstorming is a technique designed to enhance creativity in problem solving groups by emphasizing the free exchange of novel groups.
Brainstorming is a term that is often tossed around when describing groups. Studies, however, have shown that brainstorming in groups is not particularly effective. The problem seems to be that even if some good ideas are generated through brainstorming, teachers do not take into account what might have been generated by individual students alone.
Some general rules to follow if class groups are to brainstorm: Students within the group should feel free to express any or all ideas, no matter how off the wall. No limit to the number of ideas bandied around and no criticism or evaluation of ideas while they are being discussed are also important rules. Allowing students to work in groups is an important assignment for most classrooms. As students mature and transits out into the workplace, they will discover that many organizations involve groups of workers.
Working together towards a common goal is very important and a large part of most jobs. This is called teamwork and the foundation of most teamwork is knowing how to work in a group. Teachers should find opportunities to allow students to work in groups to prepare them for life after high school.
References:
Forsythe, D. L. An Introduction to Group Dynamics. Monterey Ca. Brooks/Cole 1990
Morgan, B. People, Work and Organizations. Boston, Allyn and Bacon. 1992
Brenda Gargus - Brenda Gargus has a Masters' degree in Psychology and an undergraduate degree in Education. She has taught for 29 years in a variety of ...
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