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VOLUME XIll NUMBER 2

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

WITH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION

 

Improving the Small Group Approach to Learning

As an educator who has embraced her share of novel
approaches in the classroom, I am constantly on the
alert for new and effective techniques. Although
lecturing has its place in the process, too much lecture
makes the process too teacher-centered. Many students
seem satisfied to stare passively and jot down the
occasional note triggered by the vocal calisthenics of the
performer at the podium. Later these same students
may recall little of the content since they have not
grappled with it or manipulated it into a useful form.

To supplement introducing new material in lecture, I
have tried to use methods which force students to
participate. When small group work became “the rage”
years ago, I jumped in to experiment. I envisioned non-
threatening learning. This vision splintered as small
groups disintegrated into exchanges about the “ulti-
mate date” or “hot places for action” on Friday night.
Only when the “small-group enforcer” was approach-
ing did the conversation drift back to the assigned task
with a weak, “Joe, what was it that you thought?”

Although disappointed and frustrated by the results
of my good intentions, I was not willing to abandon
group work. I knew that I had to figure out how to tap
its potential. I struggled with ways to make the groups
real vehicles for learning, without my constant patrol-
ling. After some years of refining, I have discovered
two keys to small group effectiveness.

First, I have learned that directions to the groups
must be explicit, so explicit that each group could be
held accountable for completing the assigned tasks.
Instead of saying, “I would like for you to discuss the
article that you read for class today,” I have substituted
specific tasks. Now these groups are likely to receive a
list of tasks that might include, “Identify the thesis of
the article you read last night” and “List the three main
arguments that the author presents.” The groups
become task-driven and do not easily stray from the
focus of the discussion. Furthermore, groups could be
assigned writing tasks to be shared with the larger
group. If the focus of instruction had been on writing
an effective conclusion in a short literary analysis, I
could have assigned the task of writing such a conclu-

sion. But one problem remained—how to make the
groups accountable for accomplishing assigned tasks
without my becoming the visiting taskmaster.

Second, the key to group effectiveness and the
answer to my policing was the overhead projector. By
using a simple procedure, I found that I could avoid my
dizzying circling around the room. After each group
formed, I distributed a blank overhead transparency
and a water-soluble pen to the designated leader of
each group. This leader appointed a secretary to record
the group’s responses on the transparency. Then, I ex-
plained the magic of placing a sheet of lined paper
beneath the transparency to create straight, more
readable lines. If all groups were assigned the revision
of the same thesis statement, a different color marker
quickly ensured group identity. It also helped me to
identify which group’s response had been projected.

This process works very well. It allows the students
to collaborate while writing, to review the works of
other groups, and to discuss their differences. Students
respond more critically to the class-generated writing if
they have struggled with the same assignment. They
are more willing to labor with writing since their
audience is their classmates. Finally, they seem to
remain “on task” because the transparency is collected
and reviewed by their peers.

These steps have relieved me of constantly monitor-
ing groups, provided an atmosphere for student
interaction, and made students accountable for using
class time to really learn. With a little twist on an old
technique, I have achieved some obvious improvements
and feel much better about using small groups for
classroom instruction.

Jo Ann Buck, Department Chair, English/Humanities
For further information, contact the author at Guilford

Technical Community College, Jamestown Main
Campus, P.O. Box 309, Jamestown, NC 27282.

 

EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD)
Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin

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