Small Groups - Tend or Fad

Small Groups: Good Practice or Just the Latest Fad?
18 and 19 January 2006

We all know that putting students in small groups is a pretty popular teaching strategy, but is “just letting them talk” really doing anything for their learning?  Please join Ken Jones (History/LES) for a conversation about the strengths and pitfalls of small groups. You’ll come away with a better understanding of the pedagogical theory behind the practice and lots of concrete suggestions for using small groups effectively.

• Start in small groups. 
• Task for each group is to reach consensus on what they see as the biggest benefit of using small groups and the biggest difficulty/problem.   Have to agree; limit to one per group. 
• Solicit benefits from small groups and add if necessary–
  -- Opportunity for the quiet ones
  -- Chance to try out ideas in safer setting
• Gets everyone focused on topic for day
• Way for individuals to learn from peers, get insights/ideas they missed or create new understandings
• We learn by doing, by articulating ideas – actually embedding information in brain
• More you do of this, easier it is to use/manipulate information in new settings
• More accountability – have to acknowledge to 3-4 peers if you haven’t done reading versus taking chance that will get called on – which in lecture class is nil and in large group discussion can be small
• Also can increase accountability in attendance – responsibility to peers versus anonymous or responsible only to faculty
• Learn to work cooperatively
  -- Stress that this is a key aspect of workplace.  IBM for example hires people who are team trainers – don’t do anything but work with people on how to function in effective teams. 
  -- Employers want evidence you have done this
• Outside workplace, skills also critical – parish council, civic groups

We need to be explicit about these benefits and periodically slip them in.  Talk about small groups as helping them learn content AND teaching them skills that they will need.  If we can sell them on the idea that small groups benefit them, then they are going to be more likely to be productively engaged.

Also it helps that students generally like – and think they gain from them.   Dee Fink, -- just retired from full time position like mine at University of Oklahoma; guru in field.

Years of data from his classes – Asked “Compared to what you think would have been the case if I had used a more traditional form of teaching, did you enjoy this form of teaching (small groups) more or less?”  Same question with “did you learn more or less”. 

• No one said enjoyed or learned “a lot less”
• 1/6^th said “a little less”
• 1/3 said “a little more”
• ½ said “a lot more”

Ok, we’ve talked about benefits.  What are the difficulties/problems?

• Not on task
• Students not really learning
• Some prepared, some aren’t – free rider problem

I want to spend the rest of our time talking about best practice with small groups – and hopefully pointing to some ways to solve these problems.  First, however, I want to tackle the sentiment I hear occasionally that if you are doing small groups, you aren’t really teaching.  Using small groups does NOT mean that we aren’t teaching – yes, we aren’t lecturing, but IF we are using small groups appropriately, we are creating a high quality learning environment and that is hard work.

Mechanics

Let’s start with the basic mechanics, with the formation of the groups.  How do you improve the chances that you will have cohesive, effective groups?

• Size -- 3-5 with 4 optimum.  Three is too small if you have an absence; five  too big, in that it is easier for someone to hide         
• Creation -- Random at first; can structure later as you know students to achieve particular end.  Gender, cluster by ability, set of quiet ones.  Key principle – don’t have one of anything in group –
• Duration -- Keep them together for significant portion of course.  I change each third of the semester. Long enough for them to get to know each other; stability adds to accountability.   But not permanent because it may lock someone into a bad group, gets stale, don’t get to know others in class
• Peer assessment -- Make it clear from the beginning their peers will be evaluating their contribution. Combine this with your observations and report back (I do this three times as I change groups); sends message work in small group matters and really deals with problem of those who aren’t prepared or who don’t focus.  You can use a form like mine, or can ask each group member to identify who in group did most to make the project work, who did least – and reserve right  to adjust grade accordingly if group is nearly unanimous in responses             
• Roles -- Can assign – spokesperson, recorder, summarizer, includer.  If you do this, you need to make them rotate roles so everyone gains new strengths.  I talk about roles but don’t assign – do tell them that everyone in group has to be ready to speak for group and call on different people to report out.
• Bonding -- If you want to promote bonding in your groups, here are some suggestions.
  -- Out of class group work – group project or role play preparation
  -- Have them create group identities – simple as separate colors on name tags and allowing each group to come up with name
  -- Collect and return all group work in separate folders – one for each group
  --  If you have lots of time, you can do a inventory of learning styles so the students realize their best way of learning may be different from that of a peer

Creating a task

The second, and much more important faculty role in insuring that small group exercises create a quality learning environment is crafting the question/result you want them to achieve.                 

• NOT – “talk about what you read” Needs to be more focused, preferably something debatable or confusing and central to the idea you want to convey in that period
• Needs to be a task or question that is better accomplished by group than individual.  Decisions to make or problems to be solved where multiple brains are helpful.  Not relatively mechanical things like conjugations or looking up information
• You get better, deeper thought if they are encouraged to think about the question when preparing for class. Tell them at the end of class what you want them to think about for the next – for me it is usually some kind of debatable statement, but it could be how does a particular process work or what is the author’s thesis? Then start the next class (either small or large group) with that question. Can also push for more accountability/generate more focus by assigning pre-discussion questions as short papers or doing a brief in-class writing on the question of the day – and then sending to small groups to discuss individual answers.
• Another effective way of getting their attention is to take the general question your gave them to think about, shape it into a test/paper question, and say, “If this were a question  on the next test, how would  you answer it.”   Work on it in small groups.

I believe one of the absolutely critical things we need to do to make small groups good learning environments is to insist that on a PRODUCT – a specific result that that signifies completion of task.  This might be group answers to a set of specific problems in a Natural Science class.  In other areas, it might be the group’s tentative answer to a big question

Product can take the form of a verbal answer from the group, but here are some other options

• Have group figure out an equation or a reaction and then call on one person, whole group, or multiple groups go to board and put up solution.
• Have small group prepare a transparency with their answer to question, and  then explain to the entire class
• Drawing.  I periodically pass out big sheets of newsprint and ask the small groups to draw an answer to whatever question I have posed (for example, draw the Cold War).  As with the transparencies, the small groups then present their “answer” to the entire class.   
• Role plays – have to prepare a character’s response
• Student teams/student run debates

The more concrete/visible the product, the more pressure there is for them to work productively and collectively.

When to Use Small Groups

The third key factor in making small groups work effectively is deciding when to use them.   Let me make two points here. 

First, while I obviously like small groups a lot, I would suggest that you do NOT use them every day.  Students love variety – or the illusion of variety.  If we use small groups frequently, they almost always complain in the evaluations about the predictability.  One way to counter this is to use the variety of reporting processes I just outlined.  For some reason, they see these as different.  The other is to mix in some classes where all the discussion takes place in large group.  At least for me, it seems to work if about a quarter of the class meetings are straight large group of some form.  

My second point on when to use small groups is much more important.  I am totally convinced that if small groups are going to be effective learning environments, they have to occur BEFORE we talk about the topic.  In other words, I am saying DO NOT start class with a mini-lecture that lays out the key points or clarifies what they read and then send them to small groups to discuss. 

There are two problems with this fairly typical practice.  First, when we talk at the beginning of class, we are often summarizing the readings.  If we do that, we are basically telling them there is no need to do the reading before class.  It not only absolves them of responsibility for their own learning, but makes them dependent on us -- opposite of independent learners we saw we want to produce.

Second, even if the opening mini-lecture doesn’t simply repeat the readings, the “lecture and then discuss model” has problems.  It might work with older learners, but it misses a key point about the stages of intellectual development for traditional age students.  Most of our students see us as the authorities who know the “truth.”   They see the mini-lecture as laying out the truth, so there is no point in them as novices discussing that material – just have to memorize what they have been told.

So, my mantra is that if you are going to use small groups, MAKE THEM WORK FIRST. Let me repeat that: MAKE THEM WORK FIRST.  Start them on a question based on the readings or lab or service learning or whatever and get them to go as far as they can on their own – collectively.  Then spend the rest of the class time clarifying, pushing them to understand/explain more deeply.

Faculty Engagement

The fourth key faculty role in making small groups a good learning environment is what we do while they are talking.

• This is NOT the time to get a cup of coffee or review notes.
•  We must be engaged, moving from group to group.  Two –three minutes in each group is usually sufficient.  If you are letting the groups portion go on for more than 10-15 minutes, I believe it is better to make a second or third circuit rather than staying longer with each group.  If you are moving from group to group, you have a better sense of how the conversation is proceeding, plus there is more incentive for them to stay on task.
• Our task is primarily listening.  Do NOT jump in as soon as you get to group.  Remember, this is their conversation.  Listen to find out where  there is good understanding, where there are problems so you can focus what you do with the rest of your class time
• If they are stuck, do not tell them answer; ask a question or suggest that they look at page xxx in the text
• If a group seems content with what you see as a superficial answer, ask a question that challenges their assumptions and then leave group.  Make sure you follow up when you go to big group – if you don’t find out how they dealt with your bombshell, next time they will just ignore you and  talk about what they are doing Thursday night

Ending and Moving On                      

In my view, small groups are an important, but in most cases they form only a small portion of a quality learning environment.  So, let me talk for a minute about how much time to devote to them and what to do next. 

• Give them less time than they need!  It depends on what task I have assigned, but most days we don’t spend more than 10-12 minutes in  small  group.  Certainly some days more, but push the time frame so they have to move right along to finish task.
• Don’t wait for all the groups to finish.  As soon as a two or three are done, announce that the rest have “a couple of minutes” to finish.
  

If we require some kind of product and give them barely enough time to complete it, we dramatically reduce the potential for them to stray off into extraneous topics.  Doing this from the beginning sets the tone –you have to buckle down and stay focused – and you don’t have time to thumb through the readings trying to remember an answer!

• When time is up, get response from groups.  Use that as base for next stage of class
  -- Use their responses as starting point for learning the day’s info
  -- Correct misconceptions
  -- Use follow up questions to push deeper understanding
  -- Add information
  -- Point out differences between groups and provoke a debate/probe for reasons
• Make sure you call on all groups.  If they don’t have to report their product, you are encouraging them to get off track in small group.  Can occasionally skip a group, but has to be rare.         

Grading

If we don’t count group work in some very obvious way, we encourage them to blow it off.   I count group work as part of their overall participation grade, which is 20% of the course grade.  (The other parts are their contributions in large group and the quality of their work on pre-discussion papers and in-class writing.)  Their actions in small group therefore don’t matter a whole lot on a day to day basis, but cumulatively they do have an impact.

I arrive at the small group grade in two ways.  First, by my observations as I go from group to group to group and second, by peer evaluation.  They are usually fairly generous with their peers in this, but this is often merited because knowing that they are going to be evaluated deters a lot of bad behavior.  And when people do slack off significantly, the peer evaluations are generally say so.

If you want to make group work a more visible/significant part of the grade, there are lots of options.  One is larger projects that result in a collective oral presentation or paper.  If you do this, you need to make sure that the project benefits from collaboration – for example, having a group of computer science student’s work together as a programming group to solve a problem is more appropriate than having a collective research project.  The latter too often turns out to a bunch of individual efforts stapled together.  Obviously, the other thing you need here is a structure for individual accountability. 

A more common approach is some kind of group quiz.  Typically, faculty have the students answer the questions individually, and then again as a group.  The idea, obviously, is to get them to articulate their understanding, and to learn from each other.  You can assign points so that if the group gets more correct answers than the individual, everyone gains some.  I’m lazy so I don’t bother with the group grade.  I collect and count individual responses as part of discussion grade but find that they work hard in groups to figure out the answer even without any points out of curiosity and competitiveness.  I try to foster the latter by going over the answers after the group work and praising whatever group did the best.

The most interesting model I found for shared quizzes for grade comes from Neil Williams (in National Teaching and Learning Forum, vol 13, #4, 2004)

Williams’ Process --

• Almost every day
• On key ideas/concepts from previous class; designed to encourage review of notes
• Work in pairs or some groups of three; regular partners - If come late have to do alone
• Have to talk – can’t respond to a question without first discussing with partner
• Ok for groups to share with other groups but not encouraged
• Have six minutes to do; class begins with quick review of quiz
• Both partners get same grade; even if absent class before can partner and get credit
• Drops three lowest quiz grades from average for semester; absences count as zero and are included in average
• Quizzes account for 10-15% of final grade

Benefits

• Discussion during quizzes helps them learn material; pushes review of notes
• Cooperative element seems to make taking them fun
• Frequency reduces test anxiety
• Creates sense of community as they work with each other
• Gives instructor daily feedback on what they are learning