Groupwork

Organising students into groups provides an opportunity for students to work closely with their classmates. The group(s) can be asked to solve a problem, perform a certain task, or to debate a topic.

Benefits of group work

	Involves students actively in class
	Facilitates the exchange of ideas and opinions
	Develops communication skills
	Promotes team working skills
	Develops leadership skills
	Demonstrates the value of exchanging ideas
	Highlights how to consider more extreme/radical opinions and negotiate for a consensus opinion
	Requires students to deal with conflict, or establish ground rules for managing disagreements
	Enables students to discuss course content in the specialised language of the subject
	Encourages students who may be reticent about presenting their ideas in large group/class situations
	Requires students to divide work/task into manageable blocks
	Ensures co-operation on the delegation of tasks
	Allows students of mixed abilities to work side by side and draw on individual strengths to complete the task

Allocating groups

Groups can be allocated in a number of ways.

Randomly allocated groups can be easy to organise, e.g. count the class members in blocks from 1 to 6 - have all the ones work together, all the twos together, etc. This ensures class cliques are broken and that students get an opportunity to work with other class members with whom they may not ordinarily mix. This can be seen as a fair way to divide the group and ensures everyone is allocated to a group and no one is sidelined. However, it may place the more difficult individuals in the same group, which might result in personality clashes and the need for greater tutor intervention.

Self-selecting groups requires that the students organise themselves into groups. This enables friends to work together and may ensure more harmonious groups. However, it may produce homogenous groups with like-minded people working together who all have similar ideas and opinions. Diverse groups allow for broader discussion and expose students to different perspectives and negotiation styles. Students who may be a little aloof, and not have a set group of friends in the class, may find themselves isolated if groups are to self-select. Once a tutor is familiar with a class, he/she may wish to allocate groups so as to ensure a range of abilities, skills and experiences in each group.

Managing group dynamics

As you work with groups you will be able to identify how well the group is gelling.

	Who is leading?
	Who is excluded? Why?
	How can this be dealt with?
	Is there a difficult group member? How is he/she being difficult?
	Can the group members take control of the situation?
	When is it necessary or appropriate for the tutor to get involved with a group disagreement?

Managing Group Work

Before setting a group task, the tutor needs to decide:

	The purpose of the exercise
	The desired outcomes
	How many groups to form
	The optimum group size for the exercise
	The best way of breaking the larger group into smaller groups
	How long the group are to work together - for the duration of the class or on an exercise for the duration of the term?
	What is the time length for the activity?
	Is the exercise being assessed and, if so, how are marks to be allocated?

In order to manage group exercises effectively, it is important that:

	The task should be explained clearly, particularly when there may be students involved who are more accustomed to chalk and talk methodologies and unaccustomed to student participation
	Students are given some advice/information on how to work and behave in groups
	Groups are not too big so that everyone has a fair chance to participate
	Everyone understands the importance of good group dynamics and appreciates the need to listen to each other and co-operate
	Everyone understands what is expected and knows the timeframe for the assignment/discussion
	Students have the necessary information/resources to discuss the topic, or work on a problem
	Everyone participates equally so that the workload is shared equally
	The tutor acts as a resource/support person for the group(s) and is available to discuss ideas, encourage students and assist with planning.