Designing Groupwork Chapters 1-3

Chapter 1:
If we delegate authority to students while having them do group work and we make sure to design a thought-provoking task that students cannot accomplish alone, group work can be very valuable. Students are also more engaged in the work and develop communication skills. Although group work can have many benefits, it is important to supervise groups since many problems can arise.

Last semester, I taught at a school that encouraged group work so I incorporated it into my class. If you don't choose groups well, group members may not want to work with each other or may simply talk the whole time about an unrelated subject.

Chapter 2:
Learning by discovery is a great group activity to give a class. Another benefit is that students are prepared for the adult world, learning how to make their own decisions about planning and executing a task as well as the ability to work well with others. Group work is also a great tool for differentiation.

Last semester, I grouped students in heterogeneous groups, where they were able to teach each other a bit of what each had learned in their homogeneous groups.

Chapter 3:
Just as there are many benefits of group work, there are also many problems with it such as unequal participation and unwanted domination. A few things that influence these problems are status, who starts participating first, and the task itself. Thus, it is very important to have a plan in mind when implementing group work.

When I had my students do group work and I did not assign the groups, it often did not go as well as if I had. I would strategically select people who worked well together without distracting each other.