Mayo’s Clinic: Expanding the Range of Activities—Small Groups
30 November 2010By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT
Less easy than it might seem, there’s a strategy to forming small groups that makes group activities in class more effective and enhances student learning.
Last month, we discussed ways of expanding the range of activities in a classroom by using pairs. This month, we discuss small groups and small-group work. Most of us have developed a series of individual, small-group and large-group activities that work for the courses we teach, and we are always looking for more ideas. This Mayo’s Clinic may help you think of some new ideas.
To make small groups successful, we must consider how we create the small groups, what we ask them to do, and what resources they need.
Creating Small Groups
One of the most common ways to put students together in groups involves the neighborhood model. “Please turn to your neighbors or the persons beside you and become a group” is an often-heard request made by teachers who have not thought about how to create groups. That strategy works well with pairs when we do not want to take a lot of time with organizing groups or when the assignment is a quick one, but it rarely works well with small groups. This strategy also does not provide much variety, and it tends to keep students together who have already chosen to sit together.
Some faculty members ask students to count off and then divide the groups that way. While this method works, it does not add any magic or excitement to the classroom situation. You might want to try grouping students according to month of birthday, months of work experience, height, distance of home from the classroom, number of credits taken in college, number of meals eaten in white-tablecloth restaurants, or number of cookbooks that they own. Any of these and other categories can be used to place students into groups in ways that mix them up and encourage them to get to know one another.
Sometimes, I ask the students to place themselves on a line from January birthday to December birthday or from shorter to taller and then divide them into groups of four, five or six (depending on the activity and the number of students in the class). This activity can be done across one part of the classroom or in the hall; it gets them to move around in the room and used to noticing other students.
Giving Directions
Perhaps the most difficult part of working with small groups involves providing them with clear directions and a timeframe. Once you have them in small groups, give them clear directions. (Posting them on a PowerPoint slide also helps students review the assignment.) Giving them the assignment before putting them in groups only means that you have to repeat the assignments since most students spend time getting into groups and saying hello, introducing each other and then are ready to work. Then they can hear your directions.
As part of the directions, give them the task, a timeframe and a reporting expectation. Will they report to the large group or are they given time to work on a long-term project? Will they need to report orally or using transparencies? Will they report out at the next class period or within this class?
Often we do not clarify what we want them to do, which lessens the power and usefulness of small-group class activities. And some of us are less clear what we want in a report out to the large group. Giving small groups timeframes in which to work and a timeframe or clear expectation about reporting out helps them to be productive in their work.
Even when they are given time to work on a semester-length project, I often bring the students back to a large group meeting to see if there are any problems or questions that they have. Since they will ask their questions out loud, you have a chance to clarify, in front of the whole class, anything that is not clear. I have also had students who are working on semester-length projects provide a quick class report—five sentences or two minutes—on their progress. This technique encourages them to stay focused on their task.
Resources
One way to make small-group work more productive involves clarifying the resources they have. The task can involve asking them to inventory the skills among their group or to state their task and list the resources that they have to complete the task. In a culinary classroom, that assignment helps them to think about ingredient and equipment mise en place. In other classrooms, it improves their attention to organizing the work before jumping in to accomplish the task and then later realizing that they forgot to ensure they have the resources to complete it.
Summary
Thank you for reading this column. If you have other ideas or suggestions about using small groups, let me know and I will share them in future Mayo’s Clinics. Next month, we will talk about peer evaluations and then, after that, the challenges of large classes.
Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT, is a clinical professor at New York University and a frequent presenter at CAFÉ events nationwide. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..