Group Work & Team-based Learning
When designed, supervised, and assessed properly, group assignments can have many benefits for students, such as:
Increased learning
Improved communication skills
Exposure to diverse ideas
More and more, we want our students to spend time working in groups. We read literature that says students learn better when they work collaboratively, and we tell them that most of them will spend a lot of their work-life working in a team or teams. But how do we help them build effective teams?
Good teams don’t just happen, it takes planning and work to build a successful team. There are things you can do that will help your students build successful teams quickly.
Start with a Team Building Activity - Have the class participate in a low or no stakes team building activity when you first form the teams. These icebreaker type activities will help them get to know each other and learn how to function as part of a team.
Require a Team Charter - Team charters give groups the opportunity to set expectations for communications and tasks. They help manage the common concern that “I’m doing more work than everyone else” by ensuring that responsibilities are appropriately and publicly distributed before any work begins. Additionally they can help set timelines and group check-ins, to ensure that work is completed on time.
Here are some tools to help students develop their own charters:
The Team Charter: A handout from Learning Technologies, Inc. that can be given to students.
Group Resume: An activity to run with students.
Leave Class Time for Team Meetings - Students have busy lives, and it is often difficult to schedule team meetings outside of class. Leave some class-time for your students to meet with their groups. Along with the benefits of meeting face-to-face, this also allows you to observe the teams and suggest ways the team can improve both their project and how they communicate with each other.
Assigning Students to Groups
One instructor offered the following idea: “On the first day of class, I hand out index cards and tell students to get together in groups of four. They fill out their cards with their team members and a team name that they choose. For the rest of the semester, they know who they will be working with whenever I assign in-class group work and they can get together and get settled quickly. Additionally, I can pick from that set of cards at any time when I want to ask a question in class. The students know that I’m being random in my selection, and it also makes them accountable to each other to ensure that the group will be represented in class on any given day.”
Catme.org is an online tool that facilitates assigning teams, as well as providing a framework for team members to give the instructor feedback about others in the group. Note, this is a fee-based service.
This blog post from Inside Higher Ed provides ideas on how to give students some agency in choosing their groups while allowing them to preserve relationships with friends who they may like, but not trust to do their share of the work.
Managing Group Work
5 Tips for Making Group Work Manageable from Edutopia.
Guidelines for Using Groups Effectively from the University of Michigan.
Group Project Resources from Carnegie Mellon.
Setting up and facilitating group work from Vanderbilt University.
Types of Group Work
Different types of small groups, from the University of Waterloo.
Four types of group work activities to engage students, from Faculty Focus.
Team-based Learning
Team-based Learning (TBL) is a type of collaborative learning that uses specific assessment techniques and social processes. TBL modules are taught using a three-step process: individual preparation, in-class readiness assurance testing, and an application-focused exercise.
Individual Preparation: This is done outside of class. Students must learn the material which can be text, video, and/or other content formats.
In-class Readiness Assurance Testing (RAT): Students first individually complete a multiple choice “quiz” called an individual readiness assurance test (IRAT). After they submit their individual answers, student form into their permanently assigned teams and take the RAT again as a group usingImmediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT) cards. These cards give students several opportunities to come up with the correct answer and instantly let them know if their answer is right or wrong.
If students feel a particular question is poorly written or that their initial answer was correct, they are able to appeal during the class. The instructor may also take time at this point to review any material that is still problematic for the students.
In-class Application Focused Exercise: At the conclusion of the RAT, students spend the rest of the class applying what they have learned and extending their knowledge. Each team is given a challenge scenario, and they must reach a consensus on what is the best solution. Teams then share their information with the class and discuss.
Four Principle Underlying Team-Based Learning
Groups should be properly formed (e.g. Intellectual talent should be equally distributed among the groups). These teams are fixed for the whole course even if several students drop the course, the groups are not reformed.
Students are accountable for their pre-learning and for working in teams.
Team assignments must promote both learning and team development.
Students must receive frequent and immediate feedback.
Resources
Past CLT Event - workshops led by Billie Franchini, Interim Director of the Institute for Teaching, Learning and Academic Leadership (ITLAL) at the University at Albany. - Morning Session - Overview of Team-Based Learning Presentation, Afternoon Session - TBL Task Design Presentation
The Essential Elements of Team-Based Learning, an article by Larry K. Michaelsen and Michael Sweet.