Why groups? Alan Boyle

That ah-ha moment My colleague Jim Marshall mentioned the group word to me in 1990 – he had attended a staff development session… My experience since then is that getting students to work in formal groups makes a big difference. Illustrated by some quotes:

One student view - OK I liked the idea of the group work, not wanting to let people down pushed me on to do more work, and really helped in mineral identification and analysis. Loners Copiers Ditherers Absentees

One student view – problems! The module has been weighted unfairly. 35% of the module was based on a group exercise, this is far too high percentage. An individual could produce good work but be let down by the input of other members of the group. A third of the marks of this module were dependent upon who you ended up getting in your group.

Group dynamics 1 We're having problems within our group that have only become apparent today. XXXXX has just sent us a message while we were finishing our report to say the only thing he is coming back to the department for is to tell you he's leaving.

Group dynamics 2 I just emailed to say that only 2 of our group [of 5] turned up to write up our project and so it is going to be difficult for just the two of us to write up the whole thing as we don't have full sets of information. The other 2 are not including us in their discussions and we are worried they will submit something without us. I think everything is back on track now; I think there was just a lot of confusion!

One Academic’s view I like running group projects I ALWAYS impose groups. Students can talk to each other without threat of plagiarism/collusion problems – easier and more pleasant for me as good cop, not bad cop. Students decide how to divide up the work – take advantage of strengths etc. Students get experience of group dynamics – closer to real world of work. I get much less marking to complete   

Some important points Set the group project up so that The data collection part can be divided up into group member size chunks. Preliminary analysis can take place before all data have been collected. Groups have to meet up to discuss evidence, synthesise models and decide what further data to collect. Iterate 3. Tightly constrain the report (word and page limits) so that groups have to think hard about what is important. Make the group self-assess their project (including individual contributions) and use this as a starting point in end-project group interview.