{"id":7392,"date":"2018-10-30T09:30:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T09:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/tel\/?p=7392"},"modified":"2018-10-30T15:33:24","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T15:33:24","slug":"5-ways-to-make-groupwork-work-in-your-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/tel\/2018\/10\/30\/5-ways-to-make-groupwork-work-in-your-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"5 ways to make groupwork work in your teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Learning from academics is important to students\u2019 learning, but so is working with their peers. The types of communication that peer-to-peer work requires provokes forms of <\/span>motivation, reflection and criticality that cannot be generated any other way.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the main stream cohort of students may engage in topic-based discussions within their own social groups quite naturally, but those on the periphery of the cohort (such as part-time students, those with caring responsibilities, mature students and others) may not get the same opportunities. Getting peers to work in inclusive groups can help redress this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Canvas gives student groups a space of their own, where the participants have the ability to create their own pages, discussions, collaborations and even online conferences. \u2018Groups\u2019 \u00a0is a very strong feature of Canvas, but the success of any group work is likely to be dependent on the tutors\u2019 involvement, because although s<\/span>ome groups <\/span>just<\/span><\/i> work<\/span><\/i>, many don\u2019t -sometimes the group doesn\u2019t gel or the participants do not see the point. <\/span><\/p>\n

As educators who are concerned with inclusivity and equality, we need to be concerned about those groups and give every opportunity for them to work. <\/span>So what can we do to encourage group work?<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Align the group work objectives with the module learning objectives <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Students are more likely to get involved if they know what they will get out of their participation. If tutors signpost how group activity will contribute to their module learning objectives and their final assessment, this will be a great motivator in getting students to work together. <\/span><\/p>\n

Designing assessments to include a reflective element where \u00a0students discuss what they learnt during their group work is one way to meet this aim. <\/span><\/p>\n

2. Embed group work in face-to-face teaching <\/strong><\/h3>\n

In order to get group work to happen outside of the classrooms it is useful to get the group familiar with one another inside the classroom. Whilst it is not desirable to get all work done in the same group, it is recommended that your group does at least one task together during a seminar or face-to-face teaching session, either as a starter activity or as a concluding activity to a piece of work they have done outside class. <\/span><\/p>\n

For different types of group work see 4.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Pre-empt challenges in group work<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Working in groups is not easy. Some people dominate discussion and others do not get involved at all. Sometimes there are disagreements or personality clashes. In order to reduce these types of problems, there are a number of things to consider:<\/span><\/p>\n