working in small groups
working with small groups I believe is esenial. I let my students pick their own lab groups and they all sit together. I feel this removes some of the tension. They are more at ease when we do reviews or studying. The answers are very often collective and if it is incorrect I just say ok lets find the answer together. Usually my class is very at ease and that takes the pressure off of the student and me.
I agree with small groups working together to learn, and review from eachother. IT gives them a sense of security while learning the subject matter.
Working in small groups is very effective. I disagree with allowing the students to always pick their groups. I think sometimes I should do it and other times the students do it. You need to the strong to pick up the weak to make the body stronger.
Brian, I tend to agree. Group assignment should be by design to ensure a diverse set of experiences for students. Learning is by design outside most comfort zones. Students should always feel they have a safe learning environment but there is value in taking them out of their comfort zones.
James Jackson
Small groups work well in my class but i do change them often.
I find small groups make it much easier for me to assess each students understanding of the topic. By visiting with the groups while they work on the activity I can converse with each student and get a handle on where they stand.
I agree. I enjoy having the students break off into small groups. Usually the groups will produce better, overall results for the grades. Each student has something different to contribute based on their strengths. It is important to also stres personal accountabilty as a group memeber to avoid the social loafer.
I agree with working in small groups. I believe it helps them learn from each other and learn what helps maintain the information. I also get them to work in small groups and work on study guides together and write the page references down so that they are utilizing the text book as well.
I have also found that a great practice is to utilize small groups. Sometime the first week of class can be daunting. I have found that groups allow students to feel secure among a small group of peers while presenting their ideas to the entire class. Individuals are given an opportunity to present ideas safely from the group rather than individually. Once they feel more secure, I have found that initially shy students are more apt to jump in to a discussion during class if they were given the opportunity to break the ice with classmates by being part of various small groups. The students seem to feel that the small group of classmates will not judge their discussion topics as perhaps a larger group might. Once they have partnered with most of the class, we can have a safe, open discussion.
Small groups work well in our medical classrooms. It serves as a means for students to get to know each other at the start of the class. I've found it very helpful for review work....especially for medical terminology. It alows for "quizzing" of the material & our students respond very well!
Michele, small groups can be beneficial. Have you experienced any struggles between small classes that promote learning and being asked to teach larger groups to enhance revenues to the college or cut down on costs? Thanks for anything you can share.
James Jackson
