Group work is an important part of a college education. But it can be hard to get right, and many students are primed to dislike it. Recognizing that both the promise and challenges of teamwork extend far beyond one department, Addy and Hill also worked with a group of undergraduates to write a student-facing guide to group work and a related instructor manual. The student guide is free to download with the completion of a brief survey to collect data on its use.
The student guide is designed for groups to work through together at the outset of a longer-term class project; it includes exercises for them to do together. And it has a section on common challenges, like domination, ghosting, freeloading, and groupthink, along with ideas on how to tackle them.
When students are given a shared vocabulary for what’s often frustrating about collaboration and encouraged to talk about potential problems, they should be able to stop some problems before they begin and handle more of the rest without having to involve the professor. It reminded me a bit of the student guide to relationship-rich education I wrote about a while back, which similarly is meant to help students help themselves. (I was also interested to hear that students at Lafayette preferred to have the guide in print form and kept it on hand.)
Addy and Hill studied the guide’s use in nine courses in a mix of disciplines taught by seven instructors at Lafayette. They surveyed both instructors and students about how they used the guide and whether it was effective. They found that instructors used the guide for a variety of projects, including presentations, experiments, and group papers, and incorporated it in different ways, including as a reading assignment and as a reference. All of the instructors and 70 percent of the students agreed or strongly agreed that the guide was helpful. The students who didn’t find it helpful reported that their group didn’t follow the guide’s suggestions, said they already knew the information, or indicated a discomfort with group work.
The majority of students who did find it useful pointed to both the content on effective teamwork and the practical strategies the guide includes.
Do you find that students are often resistant to group work? If so, how do you set them up to have a successful experience of it in your course? Let me know at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com and your example may appear in a future issue.
First things first
I’ve been featuring some reader responses to my recent question about how you start off the semester.
Sarah E. Reed, an associate teaching professor of economics in Villanova University’s School of Business, wrote that she focuses on building relationships from the beginning of her courses, which are mostly freshman-level.
“I begin the class by circulating around the classroom and introducing myself personally to each student in the room. This allows me to greet each student individually and learn their name (and preferred name/nickname if applicable). I feel this goes a long way in building a good relationship with each student and building community within my class. I tell them that I will continue doing this for the first 2-3 weeks until I have learned all their names,” she wrote.
After that, Reed wrote, she will spend some time discussing a relevant current event to capture students’ attention before addressing key course policies.
“But, I don’t end the class with that. Again, I want to build good relationships with my students, so before leaving, I ask my students to fill out a notecard with the following information:
- Name
- Preferred name/nickname and preferred pronouns
- Hometown
- Any past experience with Econ
- Fun fact
Before the next class, I review each notecard and make a brief note on my roster of something they listed. Then, when circulating the class the next day for attendance, I can have a quick conversation about what they offered on their notecard. This has been very effective in building relationships with students in my classes!”
Rachael M. Hagerman, an assistant professor and director of the Medical Biotechnology Program in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department at Upstate Medical University, wrote about how she introduces students to the flipped classroom format she uses.
“Right after I take attendance, before I do anything else, I stand in front of the class (with no prelude) and read them Green Eggs and Ham, which is obviously very unexpected, then I ask them why I read that book to them,” she wrote.
“Many of them guess that it’s because the content is hard, or that they won’t like the content, both of which are typically true. After they’ve exhausted suggestions, I tell them it’s because I’m going to ask them to learn in a manner that is very different than what they’re used to ... likely, they’re going to want to resist it because it’s different, but they really need to give it a try. Then we have a discussion about the learning process and how each aspect of the class fits into that process. I know they read the announcement and the materials before they show up to class, it’s definitely a high-achieving population, but they don’t really seem to ‘get it’ with the course structure, until that first day. It’s a unique start to a class that has a unique structure (for them) and because of that, I think it helps get them to approach it with a more open mind. Plus, I always loved that book as a kid and my kid loves it as well!”
Thanks to everyone who has written in to share how they start their courses, it’s been fun to read all of your creative ideas.
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
—Beckie
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