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Working in groups
- group learning, or working in groups, involves shared and/or learned
values, resources, and ways of doing things.
- effective groups learn to succeed by combining these factors.
- each group, and each individual, will only be as effective as they
are willing to embrace and/or respect differences within the group.
The two major objectives of a group project are
- what is learned: factual material as well as the process
- what is produced: written paper, presentation, and/or media project
Role of instructors/ teachers/ tutors
- the success of the outcome depends on the clarity of the objective(s)
given by teachers, as well as guidelines on expectations. The group's
challenge is to interpret these objectives, and then determine how
to meet them
- the process of group work is only as effective as teachers or instructors
manage and guide the process. Group projects are not informal collaborative
groups
- students must be aware of, and prepared for, this group process.
Co-operative group projects should be structured so that no individual
can coast on the efforts of his/her team-mates
Scoring
- rewards ideally should be intrinsic to the process, with group members
deriving their reward from their contributions to the group and project
- external reinforcement (grades, etc) for individuals can be based
upon improvement, as opposed to comparative scoring. Evaluation based
upon improvement rewards the group for an individual's progress
- students can benefit from co-operative learning in may ways including
the development of leadership skills, self-esteem gains, conflict
resolution skills, and role-taking abilities that become part of the
leaning process
