Enhancing Small Group Teaching and Group Projects Cheryl Kozina, Math and Science Department Melissa Jones, Teaching & Learning Specialist

Why Groups? Most jobs are collaborative Practice communication of science <insert your subject here> with peers Learn to work with different personality types Practice conflict resolution Reduce the student workload

Different Types of Group Assignments Daily, in class Long-term assignments Groups together for a few weeks, shuffled after each exam Work ideally completed in class Students get a say in their group Everyone must work in a group One group, stays together for the entire semester Work may be done outside of class Completely the students’ choice Option to work alone

In-Class Groups Teams that stay together for short periods of time (between exams) Complete daily assignments – case studies, modeling, etc. Submit one assignment for the entire group Teams are set up by professor

In-Class Group Selection – Students Get a Say Choice 1 Mike K. - Yes Bobby(dark hair)- No Choice 2 Your Name Cheryl K. Your name goes in the middle – this is kind of important! Each corner you get a choice – someone that you would like to work with, or someone that you would prefer not to work with One choice per corner Include last names??? I will only guarantee to satisfy one corner, but I will try to do as many as possible No is more important than yes (more on this in a second) Suzie(swimmer) - Yes Frank – NO!!! Choice 3 Choice 4

In-Class Group Selection – I Get Final Say Several Approaches Satisfy as many student requests as possible Personality clashes – “no” more important than “yes” Your Name Cheryl K. Mike K. - Yes Bobby(dark hair) - No Suzie(swimmer) - Yes Frank – NO!!! Student requests – this will make the students very happy, creating “dream teams” Personality – I always try to satisfy as many of the NO requests. Those suggest underlying drama that I do not want to have to deal with daily.

In-Class Group Selection – I Get Final Say Several Approaches Satisfy as many student requests as possible Personality clashes – “no” more important than “yes” Class grades? Student requests – this will make the students very happy, creating “dream teams” Personality – I always try to satisfy as many of the NO requests. Those suggest underlying drama that I do not want to have to deal with daily. Grades – May choose to organize the groups by their grades on the last exam/in the class. Stratify or captain approach Student Performance

In-Class Group Selection – I Get Final Say Other Considerations Slackers not pulling their weight Slackers – may want to keep these folks in different groups, or punish them by putting them all together

In-Class Group Selection – I Get Final Say Other Considerations Slackers not pulling their weight Students with poor attendance Slackers – may want to keep these folks in different groups, or punish them by putting them all together Poor attendance – don’t put too many of these together or it may affect the dynamic of the team

In-Class Group Selection – I Get Final Say Other Considerations Slackers not pulling their weight Students with poor attendance Classes with high withdraw rates Slackers – may want to keep these folks in different groups, or punish them by putting them all together Poor attendance – don’t put too many of these together or it may affect the dynamic of the team Drop-out – groups may rapidly change due to withdrawals, so bigger groups may be better in these classes

In-Class Group Selection – I Get Final Say Other Considerations Slackers not pulling their weight Students with poor attendance Classes with high withdraw rates Small classes with lots of personality clashes Your Name Cheryl K. Mike K. - No Bobby(dark hair) - NO Suzie(swimmer) – NO!! Frank – NO!!! Slackers – may want to keep these folks in different groups, or punish them by putting them all together Poor attendance – don’t put too many of these together or it may affect the dynamic of the team Drop-out – groups may rapidly change due to withdrawals, so bigger groups may be better in these classes Small classes – how to handle when the students come to class with existing relationships

Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning Student-centered, group-learning instructional strategy and philosophy Each student gets a role: Manager/Facilitator Speaker/Presenter Reflector/Strategy Analyst Recorder Roles can rotate each class meeting www.pogil.org Roles can be selected by birthday, rotating each day, whatever works best

POGIL - Manager Make sure team starts quickly and remains focused during the activity Takes care of time management Make sure all voices in the team are heard

POGIL – Speaker Communicates team questions and clarifications with the professor or other teams Ensures all team members have had a chance to respond before asking outside sources Ensures that everyone in the team agrees on what to ask if an outside source is consulted Presents conclusion of the team to the class, as requested

POGIL - Reflector Guides consensus-building process; team must agree on responses to questions Observes team dynamics and behavior with respect to the learning process Reports to the team periodically during the activity on how the team performs Be ready to report to the entire class (or professor) about how well the team is operating

POGIL - Recorder Records the names and roles of the group members at the beginning of each class Records the important aspects of group discussions, observations, insights, etc. The recorder’s report is a log of the important concepts that the group has learned Recorder submits the final assignment to the professor

Division of Labor Why bother with POGIL roles? Students will tend to divide work up, rather than working collaboratively “You do 1-3, I’ll do 4-6, she can do 7-9.”

Peer Grading Distribute 60 points among your group members (Don’t grade yourself) Grading 2 people: ± 30 Grading 3 people: ± 20 Grading 4 people: ± 15 Group members who went above and beyond – give them more of the points Group members that didn’t pull their weight – give them fewer points Total to all group members, not to exceed 60

Peer Grading An assignment where the group earned 90%: Group members may get 90% or may get 80% or may get 105% etc… All depends on peer assessment of contribution

Peer Review 

Benefits of Peer Review Faculty  Students Reduces Workload Offers Feedback as a Constructive Dialogue  Creates Classroom Community Develops Critical Reading & Analysis Skills Allows for More Critical Discussion of Assignment  Encourages Communication  Supports Learning as a Process Reinforces the Importance of Audience 

Effective Peer Review  Blind Transparent 

Effective Peer Review Clarify Clarify the importance, expectations, and value Provide  Provide instructions, specific questions, and sample peer reviewed paper Model Model the peer review experience 

Effective Peer Review Formative Focus on Revision On-going Emphasis on Higher Order Neutral and Objective  Questions

Peer Review Guides

Peer Review in Your Classes

Can Courses Make My Life Easier with Groups? Set up Groups Set up Assignments by Group Grade once per group – distributes to all

Setting up Groups in Courses Groups Tool # of Groups – No Auto Enrollments Pick a name Lockers, Discussion, etc. Enroll Users

Setting up Assignments by Groups Create Assignments as Group Assignments Link to Grade Item Any group member can submit the assignment All members can see that the assignment has been submitted

Grading Group Assignments in Courses Grade once per group The grade distributes to all members of the group Numerical score and comments Can tweak individual grades/comments after distribution

Beyond Courses for Collaboration This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA. This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC.

Beyond Courses for Collaboration

Thank You!