Active learning advice - from students to students

The end of the term is a natural time for reflection.  During our last face-to-face meeting of the semester, I asked the students to discuss their active learning experiences with their small groups and then post advice to be shared with fellow students on a Padlet wall.  Advice is always more powerful when it comes from peers.  So, here it is, straight from students who have made it through the active learning trenches:

Student-to-student advice for classes based on active learning.

I am grateful to each and every one of them for being adventurous and their willingness to try new things.  Thank you, students - the class wouldn't have been the same without your input, suggestions, questions, or participation!

Options for students reporting out in class

There wasn't a class period that went by without the students working together in their small groups.  Having at least a couple of options for having the students/groups report out to the class has been indispensable.  Here is a rundown of what we used for reporting out in the classroom this semester:

Whiteboards located at each pod.  

The whiteboards are extremely helpful for brainstorming, making lists, etc. that we will refer to later in the class period.  I tend to ask the groups to write on the whiteboards when our goal is to compile the most complete list possible and/or when it is helpful for us to compare and contrast what the different groups have offered - these are great excuses for the students to roam around the room too.  As the instructor, I love being able to glance around the room and have a visual confirmation that we are ready to move on.

Google Forms 

A glimpse of a group assignment in a Google Form.

Quick and easy to set up.  I ended up using Google Forms later in the semester to collect some group work assignments completed during the class period.  Most of the time, these are a few questions that build on an individual assignment; the groups answer the questions together, and then we debrief as a whole class - the debriefing session is easy to do because the groups' Google Forms submissions are collected in a spreadsheet (Google Sheets) that I can look over quickly at the teacher station. 

Padlet

A blank canvas with a lot of potential!  We used Padlet a handful of times this semester to collect responses to a variety of prompts (one such example is discussed in this post).  I love how easy it is to set up a blank wall; with the default privacy settings, I can simply provide students with the URL/link, and students can contribute by simply double-clicking on the wall to add a post.  Students love seeing the contributions from their peers popping up in real time.  Plus, it is so easy to share links, documents, embed videos, add images, etc.   

Sets include either 40 or 63 unique Plicker cards.

Plickers 

We tried this out for this first time this week, and there is something magical about Plickers.  For anyone looking for a simple, free way to collect student responses to multiple choice and true/false questions, Plickers is worth a try.  The instructor is the only one who needs a smartphone or tablet with the Plickers app, making it a nice alternative to PollEverywhere and Socrative for classrooms that don't require each student to have a mobile device.  I decided to start out simple and printed out eight Plicker cards - one for each group; I was amazed at how easily the app scanned each QR code but quickly learned that the students wanted confirmation that I wasn't taking pictures as I used my iPad to scan the Plicker cards around the room.  Next time, I will be sure to explain what is happening on the iPad (or iPhone or Android device) before I start scanning the room.  Once we cleared that hurdle, the students were really into it.  I look forward to trying this in a larger class setting.     

Good ol' fashioned paper!  

I keep a stack of sticky notes in my folder to use for quick, short responses to impromptu questions.  Even in a classroom filled with technology, sometimes a small piece of paper can be a helpful tool.  At least once a week I find myself asking the students/groups questions that I didn't anticipate in advance, so scribbling a quick response on a sticky note helps us to move the class period forward in the most helpful way.

There are definitely other tools out there!  See the recent blog post from Richard Byrne on FreeTech4Teachers.com for his use of and perspective on Google Forms, Padlet, and Plickers as well as PollEverywhere and Socrative.

A case for the group exam.

The first exam of the semester took place in early October, and as soon as the students walked in the room and sat down at the tables, I knew it had to be said.

"A quick reminder that today's exam is an individual assignment.  That is, there is no collaborating with your group members during the exam."

This announcement halted the conversations in the room, and I was met with more than a few puzzled faces as I passed out the exam.  Not overly surprising given that this focus on working individually on the exam is in direct contrast to what the students have been asked to do every other time they walked into the classroom up until that point.  Plus, the tables cannot be reconfigured in this particular room, so the students were doing their best to ignore each other at tables designed to foster collaboration.

Time to rethink the exam format.

Two weeks prior to the second exam, the students submitted their vote in response to an exit ticket question:

Yes or No: Should we approach Exam #2 as a take-home exam (individual attempt) and use class time on 11/5 to collaborate on the same questions with your group (group bonus attempt)?

The vote was a unanimous "Yes."  The definitive response from the students surprised me initially; they raised concerns and asked a number of questions prior to deciding that we should vote.  Stepping back and reflecting on the structure of our class, the decision to incorporate a collaborative attempt at the exam questions makes complete sense.  It aligns with how we approach each class meeting: give it a try on your own and then collaborate with your group to see if you, collectively, can come up with something better.

Even then, I wasn't sure anyone would actually show up to class for the group attempt!

Not only did the students show up for the group attempt, they got right to work, and the whole room was filled with conversation.  I overheard quite a few comments that fit in the categories of "Oh I didn't even think of that!" and "That is a possibility too, but now we have to figure out which one is the best approach."  I wandered around the room for a few minutes just observing before groups took me up on my role as an available resource.  It was one of the most productive class periods all semester.  Not only were students looking back at the exam they already took, they were analyzing and discussing its contents with each other!  Most students walked away with a better understanding of the answers than I could ever convey in an exam score or feedback (which, by the way, took the pressure off of me in terms of grading the individual exams as quickly as possible - added bonus!).

I use an approach that is similar to the one outlined by Maryellen Weimer in her Faculty Focus post on the benefits of group exams and quizzes; the group attempt at the exam is offered as a debriefing activity after the individual attempts are submitted.  The group attempt for our second exam was framed as a "bonus" opportunity.  For groups who collaborated successfully (scored 80% and above), the contributing members received bonus points, awarded on a sliding scale, that added to the score earned on their individual attempt.  This approach is very much in line with the items that topped the students' "wish list" for group work compiled at the beginning of the semester: class time will be allocated for group work, there will be accountability for individual preparation, and group activities will provide opportunities for group members to pool their various strengths.  All eight groups scored at least 80% on the group attempt, so everyone earned some bonus points for their efforts.

Barkley, Cross, and Major refer to this approach as "Test-Taking Teams," and their book, Collaborative Learning Techniques, offers examples from Psychology, English, Statistics, and Music Composition and Theory.  The examples illustrate that a number of variations are likely to work; shorter tests or quizzes, for example, allow for both the individual and group attempts to take place in one class period while another example highlights this activity being used with practice exams as students prepared for a comprehensive placement exam.  For those who have access to the journal New Directions for Teaching and Learning, the Winter 2004 issue contains a few articles on group exams as well, including examples from the sciences and engineering.

There is a lot to consider when it comes to group exams - the necessary planning and the pros and cons, generally speaking, are similar to any other group work situation.  If collaboration and group work are already a part of your class, then a group exam or quiz might be a reasonable addition.  When I inquired about their group exam experience, one group left me with this brief summary:

"Three brains are better than one!"

References

Achacoso, M., and Svinicki, M. (eds.). (2004, Winter). Alternative strategies for evaluating student learning [Special issue]. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 100, 1-119.

Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Major, C. H. (2005). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

"Teaching without learning is just talking."

This statement, found on p.3 of Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo and Cross, adequately describes my fear when I end up speaking for an extended amount of time in class.  My fear was realized last week when my mini-lecture breached the 15 minute mark, taking up close to a third of the class period.

It is worth pointing out that I am not a lecturer by nature.  Speaking in front of people used to be a dealbreaker for me, and while it is no longer at the top of the list of things that make me uncomfortable, I simply lose interest in hearing myself speak.  I am interested in hearing what other people have to add, what questions are lingering in the room, and whether or not people have a sense of how to move forward with the information.   The mini-lecture, which is an abbreviated, focused lecture (I tend to aim for 7-10 minutes), is definitely my preferred approach when there is information to share.

My rambling "mini"-lecture left me feeling guilty - sheepish might be a better descriptor - after class that day, primarily because we ran out of time to finish one of our activities.  I spent two days (over)analyzing the situation and decided a discussion with the students was warranted.  (Did that extended lecture work for them?  Why or why not?)  The students were greeted with the graphic found on p.139 of Barkley's Student Engagement Techniques (below) on the large projector screens as they walked into class, and the first few minutes of class were spent discussing whether or not they agreed with the summary presented in the pie chart.  

Average Retention Rates from Different Teaching Methods;
Pie chart from Barkley, 2010, p.139; data from Sousa, 2006, p.95

The discussion started with small groups, and then the students were invited to share what they heard from others at their table.  Comments about several "slices" of the pie were offered; the conversation started with the 4% average retention rate associated with reading and then it moved on to details coordinating with the audiovisual category.  When I prompted for some thoughts on the 2% average retention rate reported for lecture, a student courageously raised his hand, and I nervously awaited the response.  

"We decided that it depends on what happens after the lecture."

The relief washed over me when I heard this statement.  He continued:

"The lecture on Monday worked for us because we did something after it.  You know, something that used the information, so we could try it right away.  That helped us figure out whether we understood it or not."

It is one thing to read through the literature and to understand, as an instructor, the importance of this approach to teaching and learning, but it is even more powerful to hear this outlook directly from the students.

In hindsight, I often feel guilty for having lectures, even mini-lectures, prepared for anything since we meet in an Active Learning Classroom which, by its very design, presents challenges to the traditional lecture.  However, if those mini-lectures paired with activities are working for the students, then there is no need to avoid them.

References

Angelo, T. A., and Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Sousa, D. A. (2006). How the brain learns. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Achieving "flow" with classroom activities

What factors affect whether or not students engage with an activity in the classroom?  The level of challenge associated with the activity is is one factor.  Another factor is the difficulty level of the coordinating content.  The combination of these two factors is also important.  If the activity and the content are both too easy, then students will be bored, disengaged.  If the challenge level of both the activity and the coordinating material are high, then students may give up or, worse, not even try.

The goal is for students to be engaged with the material through the activity.  This immersion is sometimes referred to as "flow" - I have been intrigued with the simplicity of this idea since hearing about it in a workshop a few weeks ago (see discussion, for example, in this short article from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley).  Joel, our workshop presenter, pointed out that "flow" can be achieved by balancing complex with simple.  There are two basic pairings for classroom activities: (1) complex material with a simple activity, and (2) a more complex activity with material that is relatively simple.  Using the "Active Learning Continuum" conceptual framework as discussed by Bonwell and Sutherland (1996), a simple activity is one that is short in length and relatively unstructured while a complex activity can be described as one that is highly structured and has a longer duration.

Conceptual framework known as the "Active Learning Continuum" introduced by Bonwell and Sutherland (1996).

Pairing Complex Material with a Simple Activity
If students are being asked to dig into brand new material as part of an activity, then it might be wise to select an activity with easy instructions and/or one with a short list of tasks.  Learning new material often requires close attention, so a relatively easy activity allows students to focus on learning the content instead of learning the steps required as part of the activity. Classic examples of activities that are not-too-complex include brainstorming sessions, Think-Pair-Share, structured discussions (in which questions are provided), and a short writing assignment, e.g., Minute Paper.

"Flow" is achieved when complex is balanced with simple.  Either a simple activity for complex material or a complex activity paired with relatively simple material.

Complex Activity Paired with Material that is Relatively Simple

Drawing on our own personal experiences and review are two occasions when material is, generally speaking, "simple."  These are the times to pull out the activities that require a great deal of time and/or structure, including concept mapping, presentations, and debates.  When the material is familiar, students can focus on completing the tasks associated with complex activities.  

The simplicity of "flow" combined with the research documenting its potential for deeper learning is powerful.  This is my first introduction to the work of psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, who is credited with coining the term "flow," but I plan on digging in some more.  

Reference

Bonwell, C.C. and Sutherland, T.E. (1996), The active learning continuum: Choosing activities to engage students in the classroom. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 1996: 3–16. 

Staying on the perimeter to stand with the class

A number of our active learning classrooms have the teacher station located in the middle of the classroom.  The sketch below, for example, shows the basic layout of the classroom I am teaching in this semester:

Five out of the nine Active Learning Classrooms have the teacher station situated in the middle of the room.

I now make a conscious effort to stay on the perimeter of the room when students are sharing, reporting out, etc.  Ideally, I even try to locate myself on the opposite side of the room from the student who is sharing.  Staying on the perimeter has made a noticeable difference.  For one, no student is located behind me; everyone is included in what is happening in the room.  Plus, the students seem to project so that at least the instructor can hear what they are saying, so when I remember (or am able) to locate myself on the other side of the room from the student, it is easier for everyone to hear the information being shared.

This particular classroom is spacious, and at first, I reveled in the fact that I was in the middle and could move about the room so easily.  A very different experience from the classrooms I am used to.  The more traditional classrooms always left me feeling stuck in one part of the room, like the rows of desks created a barrier between me and the students.  Even if we rearranged the room for small groups or an activity, the fact that so many desks were packed into the rooms left very little space for accessing different parts of the classroom.  So, being centrally located in the active learning classroom and having the ability to move around freely is awesome.

So it wasn't until a few weeks ago when a colleague shared his approach of standing with the class on the perimeter of the room that I even thought to pay any attention to where I locate myself when students are speaking.  At the beginning of the semester, I was simply following my instinct to move closer to the student.  Reflecting back, I suppose I did this as a way to acknowledge the student's contributions and, sometimes, to hear someone more clearly.  I admit that I am taken aback by both the simplicity of the suggestion to stay on the perimeter and the fact that I hadn't considered how my actions or location might be impacting the classroom environment, especially as students are speaking up as part of Q&A sessions or whole-class discussions.

I am grateful that a fellow instructor shared this insight with me while there is still time left to try it out this semester, so I am now sharing the tip with all of you.  The freedom to stand with the class when someone is speaking is now one of my favorite things about the active learning classroom.

Why I continue to incorporate active learning

Our focus in class last week was on specification bias.  A challenging topic if you ask me - I have no doubt that my students will agree.  Our textbook offers a nice discussion of specification bias, including common causes, steps for detecting possible bias, and an equation for determining the sign of the expected bias.  The equation is handy but seems to suggest that identifying the sign (positive or negative) of the bias is a pretty simple process.  It isn't, especially for those new to applied econometrics.

But this post isn't about econometrics (I promise).  It is about the power of active learning in the classroom - a single example of why I continue to incorporate active learning strategies in my classes no matter what type of classroom I am scheduled in.

Here is what I have learned from students over the past few years when it comes to this particular topic:

• Students find an intro to why and when we might encounter this topic/issue to be helpful.
• They appreciate an expanded discussion of this "simple" equation from the textbook.  (What, exactly, does each component represent, and how do we determine whether a component should be positive or negative?)
• Practice with applying the equation is helpful.  

I planned accordingly for Monday's face-to-face meeting.  The students completed a "warm-up" exercise prior to the start of class; the exercise asked them to apply the decision-making process outlined in the textbook.  Our class meeting then started with a Q&A session followed by a "Go to Your Post"-inspired activity in which the two sides of the rooms represented the two available conclusions with students out of their seats, casting their "vote" and discussing their reasoning with one another (Silberman, 1996, p.61).  

Then it was time to dig into the details of this equation from the textbook.

I offered a mini-lecture, complete with scribbles, in an effort to clarify some of the details that coordinate with this innocent-looking equation.  Or so I thought.  I paused for questions after about 5-7 minutes of talking about the components of this equation and was, for a moment, happy that the students seemed to be satisfied with my explanations.  

Some of my "clarifying" scribbles from the mini-lecture.  Not all that enlightening in hindsight!

Time for practice.  I presented the students with two scenarios to analyze plus a follow-up question and instructed them to work in pairs on the first scenario.  Usually, the classroom starts to hum with activity as students start to work, but the room was silent.  Finally, a brave student spoke up and asked which two variables they were supposed to be focusing on.  I could feel the relief in the room; it was apparent that she wasn't the only one wondering how to get started.

So we switched gears and analyzed the first scenario together as a class which provided an opportunity for the students to see how I applied the process and used the equation within the given scenario.  This inspired a handful of questions (good ones!), and then the students got to work on analyzing the second scenario in pairs.  We reconvened as a class to brainstorm possible responses to the coordinating follow-up question.

I am grateful for last Monday's experience because it reinforces my reasons for incorporating "work time" into our face-to-face meetings in the classroom.  What if I had assigned that set of problems as homework instead of as in-class work?  I may have not realized until days later that some of the students were struggling with how to get started.  Instead, by working on the problems in the classroom, I was able to respond to what the students needed right when they needed it.  

I have revised my list of what is helpful for students for this particular topic.  The second bullet point now looks something like this:

• They appreciate an expanded discussion of this "simple" equation from the textbook and a demonstration of how to apply the equation within a given scenario.

Reference:

Silberman, M. (1996). Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. 

Getting started with Padlet

My collection of Padlet walls (or pages) is growing by the day.  My previous post highlights a few reasons why, but for a few ideas on how others are using Padlet in the classroom, check out this post on the Padlet blog, this short article from Education World, or this example from TeachingHistory.org, just to name a few.

Since I have been broadcasting my newfound love for Padlet, it is only fair that I offer a brief overview of getting started.  And it is brief because it really is that easy!

• The first step is to visit Padlet.com.



The Padlet homepage.

• The link to "Features" at the top of the page provides an overview of what can be done, all on a Padlet wall!
  
• When you are ready to try it out, either click on the orange "Create something" button in the middle of the page or the green "Sign up" button located in the upper-right corner.
• When your Padlet wall is ready, the toolbar area on the right will guide you to either post something or modify the wall:

The Padlet toolbar will prompt you to post or modify wall settings when wall is created.

• You can always modify later – layout, background, privacy, URL, etc. – by clicking on the gear/cog icon that appears in the toolbar hanging out on the right-hand side of the page. 

In my experience, it really is that easy! Of course, these are just the basics, so if you are interested in more detail, I recommend this video from Richard Byrne at FreeTech4Teachers.

Using Padlet to initiate in-class (and out-of-class) discussions

I knew they had questions.

There had only been four class meetings and less than two weeks for us to get comfortable with the class structure and one another.  Plus, our first stretch of online activities for our hybrid class was quickly approaching.  Despite all of this, the discussion area on D2L reserved for general Q&A remained quiet.  Zero posts.

Addressing questions, concerns, and requests was likely to alleviate some of the uncertainty that can accompany the initial “online days” in a hybrid class, especially on a campus like ours in which hybrid (blended) courses still are not all that common.  On a whim, I set up a Padlet page for questions – any kind of questions, no names attached – and set aside three minutes near the beginning of class for the students to chat and post questions.  Within those three minutes, we had a whole collection of things to address, with each group posting at least one question and some posting four or five.  I spent the next few minutes directly addressing a handful of the posted questions, focusing on the ones that were likely to benefit most from the students’ input (e.g., a question about assignment due dates) or repeating an important message (e.g., yes, asking questions and contacting me via email during our online stretch are both part of the deal).

A glimpse (screen shot) of just part of our questions page on the Padlet site.

Three things I love most about Padlet include: 

•    The ease of setting up a page with just a moment’s notice.
•      The fact that no login is required for students to post and/or view – I just have to provide them with the URL.  Double-clicking on the background is all it takes to add a post once you are on the page.
•       Its collaborative nature, especially when students can see the other posts appearing as they make their own contribution.

Maybe it is the third item that really wins me over - there is something reassuring about putting yourself out on a limb when you can see others doing the same!  Padlet is like a wiki-meets-online-bulletin-board that is just plain easy to use.  It seems much more organic than the discussion area available in the LMS (which has its own usefulness), and I appreciate that the conversation can continue outside of class too.  Several questions were added to the board after class was over, and I was able to go back and post responses to the questions we didn't have time to elaborate on while in the classroom.  Once this was accomplished, I simply re-posted the URL as part of an announcement alerting the students to the updates.

I have no doubt that we will be using Padlet to jump start in-class conversation again in the near future!  In the meantime, I will be looking around for ideas of how others are using Padlet for teaching and learning.

What I learned from my first week teaching in an active learning classroom

In short: The active learning room changes almost everything.

I listened to our instructors who shared their experiences last semester, and I heard what they were saying, including:

• The environment is great for students working in small groups. 
• Even better if the students have something to do/work on together.
• Planning, organization, and clear instructions are a must for activities (and takes a lot of prep time!).
• Groups finish at different rates so need to have something planned for those who finish earlier.
• The teacher station being located in the middle of the room is a new experience to get used to.
• Students' attention is focused inward to what is happening at or in their groups/pods.
• Giving a lecture, even a mini one, can be a challenge (see all of the above for explanation as to why!).

I never doubted a word of this feedback, but it is a completely new thing to experience them myself.  I took these to heart when planning for the first day, and it went well.  Overall we used just about everything available to us - technology, group workstations, whiteboards, open space (for our mixer); we brainstormed, discussed, located info, reported out.  It felt like we pretty much did it all and that it went smoothly.

And then there was Day 2.

Let's just say that things didn't go according to plan.  A mixture of things contributed to Day 2 not living up to my expectations, and I have been mulling it all over since 12:50pm on Friday.  Here are what I believe to be some contributing factors (sharing just in case it becomes useful for others):

• Too much was planned for a 50-minute period.
• The questions I posed to the class were too many and not strategic enough.
• A pod computer died in the midst of a group activity, leaving one group stranded since the activity relied on each group being able to display on the monitor located at the pod.  This threw off the rhythm more than I expected it too.
• A student's input seemed to be a conversation killer following what was otherwise a useful brainstorming session.  (And in hindsight, of course, I realize I could have recovered better!)

I spent the weekend brainstorming ideas of my own: structure for class meeting times, classroom management, clearer ways to present instructions.  I know that it is possible for an active learning-based class to run smoothly - luckily I have insights from colleagues here on campus and my own first day experience to build on.  I am convinced that the planning and organizing is key.  Maybe I had fallen out of practice with doing this because my classes had hit a rhythm of sorts over the past few years; often times I could walk into the classroom armed with a couple of old standby _____ (fill in the blank here: applications, problems to solve, news headlines to analyze, data set to manipulate) and go with the flow.  Perhaps part of me figured that it is still the same content and structure (hybrid/blended) so this semester would be more about ramping up the student engagement and involvement that I have been working to incorporate over the past few years.  It is so much more.  In some ways I feel like I am new to teaching again even though it has been nearly ten years since I started.  (The level of detail I am now planning out reminds me of the days when I used to note when to use the overhead projector vs. chalkboard - just 5-6 years ago! - and how to transition.)  It is very possible that the Day 2 experience is exactly what I needed - a swift kick in the pants to make the rest of the semester as successful as possible.

Today, Day 3, was better.  Back on the upswing.  Days 4 and 5 will be even better.  It takes time to get a feel for what works best in the space during our allotted class time.  I will share a bit more about what worked (and what didn't) during Week 2 once it is complete.

*It is worth noting that if I would have reacted as if Day 2 was how it was always going to be in an active learning-based class, with group work, in that particular classroom, it wouldn't be very appealing to continue.  I am convinced that all days don't have to be like Day 2.  For me, at this time, it is worth it to keep trying, to find the balance between planning out class meetings - every activity (well, every 5 minutes of class time, really) - and going with the flow.  

Checking course resources & welcoming students

One week to go!  Summer always seems to accelerate as the start of the semester nears.  Good intentions are not always enough... I am combining the recommendations for two weeks and one week until the first day of class here - the days just got away from me.  Curious as to what I had potentially glazed over at the two week mark, I am relieved to see that the recommendations from McKeachie's Teaching Tips includes checking resources and starting a teaching portfolio or journal.  (I admit I had a slightly adverse reaction to the second recommendation until I realized that these blog entries could count as a journal of sorts.)  

Checking Resources

This is a good time to double-check the availability readings, video clips, etc. that students will need to access this semester.  I am also a fan of the suggestion to visit the classroom(s) in advance.  The visit will provide an opportunity to see the physical layout of the room, whether or not the tables and chairs are able to be moved, and to try out the technology (at the teacher station, for example) to make sure it is working as expected.  The advance visit can be important even for those of us who are scheduled for the same classrooms every term because room details can change.  One of my go-to classrooms, for example, received an upgrade this summer, and I will be making a trip over to see the new setup this afternoon.   

A welcome message greeting students in D2L.

Welcoming Students to the Course

A welcome message of some kind can help to set the stage for the upcoming semester.  The welcome message can be posted as an announcement in D2L (or whatever your LMS or online course environment happens to be) or sent via email.  A friendly tone goes a long way, and if you have any expectations for how things should happen at the start of the semester, this is an opportunity to communicate those expectations with students.  If D2L or the online environment will be used throughout the semester, setting up a discussion area, for example, and prompt that encourages students to introduce themselves is also an option.  According to Boettcher and Conrad (2010):

"Social presence, that is, getting to know each other as three-dimensional people, is the foundation of building trust and presence for the teaching and learning experiences.  Getting acquainted at the social level creates a trusting and understanding environment for reaching out and risking beliefs in the content discussions" (p.51).

Even though the authors are speaking explicitly to the beginning of an online course, I tend to agree with this outlook for teaching and learning in any course whether it is online, face-to-face, or hybrid.  Building this social presence and foundation of trust is one of the things I am constantly working on as an instructor; it requires balancing a variety of things, but I keep working at it because I believe that it adds a great deal of value to the learning environment.

References

McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2011). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

 Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Instructional Strategies & Learning Objectives

This post is part of an ongoing conversation about planning an active learning-based class for Fall 2014; the initial post outlines some priorities for the next few weeks, and a second post discusses some possible plans for the first class meeting.

Planning is key for successful active learning sessions.  As I mentioned last week, I am in the midst of planning class meetings for a course with content that is familiar, but this will be the first semester the class meets in an active learning classroom; as a result, I am in the midst of identifying appropriate activities and instructional strategies for various topics.  In doing so, I stumbled across this page from Carnegie Mellon which summarizes some commonly used instructional strategies with links to additional information and considerations.  A bonus is that coordinating learning objectives are listed alongside the instructional methods.  So, if you already have a sense of the goal for a particular topic, lesson, or class meeting but are still looking for ideas on how to approach it, this might be of some help.  Alternatively, if you already know of a great approach for a particular topic, this could help streamline the process of identifying an appropriate learning objective.

Note: The entire Design & Teach a Course site from the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon is a great resource - not to mention the other available categories (technology, assessment, solve a teaching problem, etc.).

Bonwell and Sutherland (1996) describe active learning activities as lying along a continuum; tasks range from simple to complex.  Plus, active learning activities can be mixed in with existing instructional strategies (e.g., lecturing and Q&A) and introduced gradually.  These are helpful details to keep in mind, especially if active learning is a new adventure.  Someone who already has lectures prepared, for example, can break a 45-minute lecture into three smaller mini-lectures, pausing after each mini-lecture to allow students to review notes in pairs or small groups.  Bonwell and Sutherland (1996) identify this "pause procedure" as an example of a simple active learning task; it could also be paired with a Q&A session (in the spirit of "Think-Pair-Share") and/or a short exercise requiring students to apply the information from the mini-lecture.  Abruptly switching instructional strategies is not required or even recommended.  Instead, the number of (or complexity level of) active learning activities can be increased over time, whether that is within a single semester or across semesters.

Reference:

Bonwell, C. C., and T. E. Sutherland (1996). The active learning continuum: Choosing activities to engage students in the classroom. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 1996 (67), 3-16.

Planning for the first day of an active learning class

I have long believed that the first day of class is an opportunity to set the tone for the upcoming semester.  Ideally, the class environment will be one that fosters collaboration, discovery, and deep, meaningful learning.  Even with this outlook in place, figuring out what to do on that first day is often a challenge.  Sometimes there can even be a couple of hurdles to overcome. Class enrollment, for example, is often still in flux as students drop and add classes at the beginning of the term.  Student expectations can be another - how many of them will show up with the hope that they can hear a little bit about the syllabus and then leave?

An advanced apology to any of those students enrolled in my class this fall; it is highly unlikely that I will be reading the syllabus to you on the first day of class.  Will we take a look at it?  Probably.  If we do, it will likely be as part of an activity that asks you to work as part of a team.  A scavenger hunt-type activity, perhaps.  But there is a word of warning that comes along with that too.  You may have to generate your own list of things to look for first.  (I used to try to anticipate students' questions in designing this sort of activity, but doesn't it make more sense for students to get their actual questions answered?)  Hopefully the activity ends up sparking some discussion - maybe even some revisions to the syllabus too - which is perfect because the rest of the semester is likely to follow suit.

Sharing information about the course and addressing any potential anxieties related to expectations are both important for the first day, but I will probably kick things off with a different type of activity.  I prefer to pull out the syllabus later on after we have had a chance to break the ice and get a start on building community.  This is the tough part for me.  While others can pull off the light-hearted, sometimes silly, icebreakers, my heart just isn't in it, and I have no doubt the students can tell.  Instead, I am on the hunt for an activity that breaks the ice but also has a strong connection to the class.  Sometimes I try out an activity that connects with a key course concept, like the Candy Trading Game for an introductory-level economics course, but I may focus more on the learning environment this time around.  For example, I am interested in trying something similar to the Rainbow Mixer Little Idea for Teaching (LIFT) from the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology at Illinois State.  It reminds me of the Reciprocal Interview activity outlined in Teaching at its best by Linda B. Nilson but with the added encouragement for students to meet and chat with others located elsewhere in the classroom (that is, outside the groups they are already seated in).  Either activity provides the students with an opportunity to provide input about and influence the class environment, which is what I am most interested in.  It may even provide us with a decent segue into the brainstorming session for the syllabus scavenger hunt.

Both of the activities outlined above could easily fill a 50-minute class meeting, but I am hoping to streamline things and reserve the last 5-10 minutes for an exercise that highlights - and gets us started with - the applicability of the course material.  We'll see how things go!  Overall, I will be pleased if we can accomplish the following on the first day: breaking the ice, exchanging information, and building community; the three provide a solid foundation for what is to come this semester.

References:

McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2011). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Nilson, L.B. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Countdown for course prep: one month to go!

August is here, which means that the fall term is right around the corner.  My mind seems to be constantly churning through ideas - course design, syllabus language, activities for the classroom, assignment options, etc.  I am ready to get some of the ideas down on paper to free up some brain resources!

I first laid eyes on McKeachie's Teaching Tips earlier this year (wish it would've been sooner - such a great resource!) and there on the first page of the table of contents is the breakdown of a chapter titled "Countdown for Course Preparation."  At the time, I made a mental note to return to this chapter when planning my fall course and experienced a moment of slight panic this morning upon realizing that the chapter kicks off with some tasks to complete three months prior to the course start date.  Luckily the course, Econometrics, is one I have taught before, so the wave of panic subsided once I realized that I have completed most of the tasks, which include identifying student learning goals and procuring any resources students will need for the course.  Next in line is the course syllabus; the recommendation in McKeachie's is to construct the syllabus two months prior before the first class meeting.  I have a draft put together, but I am interested in adding a statement about active learning (see examples gathered by the Center for Teaching and Learning at Boise State available here) and a graphic that shows how we will move through the material plus, more importantly, connections between topics and learning goals/objectives.  (If supplementing a syllabus with a graphic is new to you too, check out this post on the ProfHacker blog, Maryellen Weimer's take on it in this Teaching Professor blog entry, and, if you are also an economics instructor, "The Syllabus Evolved: Extended Graphic Syllabi for Economics Courses" by Sauer and Calimeris.)

Since the fall semester is just about one month away, McKeachie's recommends:

• planning for class meetings,
• selecting appropriate teaching methods, and
• selecting appropriate technology.

For me, decisions in one category tend to affect decisions related to the other categories.  The fall class is hybrid (blended) with our face-to-face meetings scheduled in an active learning classroom.  So, we will be using both a learning management system (D2L) and technology located in the classroom; since we have computers and large monitors for each group available to us while in class, then our face-to-face meetings can include data analysis, online scavenger hunts, consultations of online resources, constructing visuals, etc.  The active learning rooms are set up so that students are working in groups by default, so I am paying close attention to group-based learning methods as I construct plans for the face-to-face meetings and select the best environment - online, face-to-face, or both - for each activity.  I will continue to work on these over the upcoming weeks and then check in again at the two week and one week (before the first class) marks, which are the upcoming checkpoints in the countdown for course preparation include.

In all the books and resources I have skimmed or read, the timeline approach to course prep in McKeachie's stands out to me as being unique.  Do you know of other resources out there that also offer timing-related recommendations for preparing upcoming courses?

Reference:

McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2011). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Managing mobile devices and laptops in the classroom

The topic of laptops and mobile devices in the classroom surfaces regularly and is one that cannot be avoided when active learning classrooms are setup to accommodate their use. Many instructors are often concerned as to whether the benefits outweigh the costs. The mere presence of laptops and mobile devices may potentially lead to distractions like checking messages and social media. Potential distractions in the classroom, however, are not new; students have also been distracted from what is happening in the classroom by newspapers, MP3 players, work for other classes, their peers, and lack of adequate sleep - just to name a few. Laptops and mobile devices are simply newer versions of distractions. So, what can an instructor do to manage mobile devices and laptops in the classroom in an effort to minimize the potential for distraction?

Long ago, a colleague recommended that I address the issue by banning such devices in the classroom.  While I understand the reasoning behind this particular suggestion, it left me curious about possible alternatives.  My initial brainstorming efforts turned up two options: (1) gear class time towards student engagement so that they aren't tempted to reach for the mobile devices, and/or (2) find a role for them in the classroom.  In my classes, students are regularly asking questions about a specific detail or reference a current event that I would need to take a look at before providing a response (a by-product of encouraging students to participate in class and find connections with the material).  With laptops and mobile devices, students can play the role of researchers while in the classroom, which is great for offering timely information with the added bonus of engaging students in the process.

The decision about which approach to take is an individual one and will depend on how the potential benefits stack up against the potential downsides in a given class.  "From Distraction to Engagement: Wireless Devices in the Classroom," written by Berlin Fang and published in Educause Quarterly, is an article that outlines both "restrictive" and "integrative" approaches to dealing with laptops and mobile devices in the classroom.   The discussion of integrative methods includes some ideas worth considering, including re-mixing class meetings to include more active learning (and less of the passive stuff) and contracting with students to elicit more self-regulation.  Responsibility of leading the discussion for the last 10 minutes of class?  That would be enough for me to make sure my phone isn't interfering with class!

A shorter article from Jennifer Carey on Edudemic's site, "5 Tips for Classroom Management With Mobile Devices," also highlights student engagement and setting clear expectations for technology use.  The "two eyes, two feet" tip is one worth repeating here:

"The biggest shift for educators when technology enters the classroom is that you cannot be static or stable. The best way to ensure that students stay on task is to walk around the room, look at the work they are doing, discuss and engage with them about their progress. The more active and mobile you are in the classroom, the easier it is to ensure that your students are working on what they should be."

As for the "Let Them Get the Giggles Out" tip, I was lucky enough to see it in action recently.  A member of our team was presenting design tips for digital posters to a class of 70+ students, and after providing a bit of an overview, he asked each group to open the program and encouraged them to use the tips and featured tools to make the tackiest, most outrageous digital poster possible.  And they did.  After fifteen minutes of shocking color combinations, titles not fit for public viewing, and Tyrannosaurus Rex eating baby penguins, the students moved on to collaborating with their groups on their actual research posters.

What are students and instructors doing while in an active learning classroom?

A chart highlighting this very comparison was included in "Dissecting the Classroom," an article published on February 10th in The Chronicle of Higher Education.  I was so taken by the chart's simple yet powerful statement that I even tracked down a printer and tacked the visual to my bulletin board where it has been waiting for months to be shared.  Here it is:

The data comes from two representative classes - one lecture-based and one that incorporates active learning strategies - that are a subset of the larger study conducted by Smith et al. (2013).  The graphic from the published study uses pie charts instead of bar graphs (see Figure 4 from the published article, available here), but the basic message is clear no matter how it is delivered.  In the lecture-based class, students are primarily listening and the instructor is, no surprise, primarily lecturing with an occasional response to a question or a follow up of some kind.  The other class, the interactive/active learning one, identifies a variety of activities for both students and the instructor; students are still listening, but they are also thinking, working in groups, asking and answering questions, and discussing.  Notice that lecturing is still happening in the active learning class too; however, it is mixed with eight other types of activities and it takes a back seat to guiding and discussing with students.

There are a number of additional takeaways and possible points of discussion here.  One is a reminder that "active learning" is a broad term or phrase - it doesn't refer to one specific activity.  Instead, it refers to students being engaged in the learning process because they are actively doing something.  It is ok to include lecture in a class that includes active learning.  (Sometimes it seems as though lecture and active learning cannot be used in the same statement, but this is not the case.)  Lecture can be a useful mode of instruction for certain things, but the key is to use lecture together with other activities.

For those who are interested in how the students' and instructors' classroom activities were tracked, the tracking form and related details are discussed in the Smith et al. (2013) article, published in CBE Life Sciences Education and accessible here, as well as the article from the Chronicle.

Driver or passenger?

Last week I grabbed Design for How People Learn, written by Julie Dirksen, off the CETL bookshelves.  Why I reached for this particular book was based, at least partly, on the way the font and color scheme jumped out at me (by design, no?) but also because I am always curious about how we learn.  I have a collection of casual observations from my own classrooms, both physical and virtual, but how well do those observations translate across situations?  The answer to that question isn't entirely clear just yet, but I just had to share something in the meantime.  Another question, in fact.  One that is posed by Ms. Dirksen in her book on p.181:

Let's say you have to drive to a destination that you've only been to once before.  Are you more likely to remember how to get there if, on your previous visit, you:

a. drove yourself, or

b. were a passenger in the car? 

This is posed to the reader within a section that focuses on helping the learner with transfer and application, and while I see how it fits into that particular discussion, I am also storing this question away for future discussions of active learning.  If the goal is for students to be able reach the destination, shouldn't we give them an opportunity to drive?  Being a passenger is often an enjoyable experience.  You have an opportunity to enjoy the view, free to check your phone, join in on conversation when you choose, etc.  But you also are passing along most of the responsibility of reaching the destination to the driver.  An active learning classroom, compared to a traditional classroom, offers students more opportunities to drive.  This is a helpful step.  However, there is another step that is necessary: the instructor has to be willing to step aside and allow learners to occupy the driver's seat.  The instructor is still fulfilling a useful role.  After all, who better to provide some guidance than someone who has been there before?

How can we structure a learning experience or a class period that provides students with an opportunity to drive?  Ms. Dirksen offers one possible strategy:

1. Work through some examples.

2. Have the students identify the concepts they saw in the examples.

3. Clarify the concepts and correct any misconceptions using the original examples as context.

4. Have the learners apply those concepts to further examples. 

That is, instead of telling the students all about the concepts up front, first provide them with an opportunity to recognize or discover the concepts, following up with discussion and additional application.

Reference:

Dirksen, J. (2012). Design for How People Learn. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

Formulating group ground rules

A six-part "Successful Teaching Practices" workshop is offered by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) this semester with last week's discussions centered around group work.  As the facilitator, there were a few key items that I was determined to include, one way or another, as a topic for conversation.  One such topic is the need for the students to have a conversation about what effective group work looks like - or, if you prefer, what the important ingredients might be.  There are different ways to go about this conversation.

A recommendation from McKeachie's Teaching Tips (2011) is to provide the student groups with a list of suggestions and to have them discuss each of the items together (see example list shared below).

Source: McKeachie (2011, p.199).

An alternative to providing the students with a pre-populated list is to have them brainstorm ideas for what should be included as part of a group activity.  In Helping Students Learn in a Learner-Centered Environment, Terry Doyle recommends a seven-step activity:

• The activity begins with students working together to respond to a pair of questions; the first question asks the students to identify to characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes that made positive contributions to successful group learning experiences in the past while the second question asks for characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes that acted as barriers (2008, p.86).  
• The second and third steps of the activity ask the students to record and then share the identified characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes with the whole class until all of them are on the table for discussion.  
• The groups are then asked to utilize this information to draft ground rules that will guide group work during the term.  
• Final steps of the activity include compiling the ground rules into a master list and having the class vote on each of the ground rules.  

Including students in the process is an important step and is very much consistent with the suggestions of shifting the balance of power towards the students found in Maryellen Weimer's Learner-Centered Teaching (2002).  In fact, Doyle identifies an activity from a workshop led by Weimer as the basis for the seven-step activity outlined in his book and summarized above.

References

Doyle, T. (2008). Helping students learn in a learner-centered environment: A guide to facilitating learning in higher education. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2011). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Weimer, M. (2002). Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Group work advice for students

Some students may be experienced when it comes to collaborating within a group but others may be in need of some advice or guidance on what it takes to be an effective group member.  Much of the literature on implementing group work is focused on providing insights for instructors, but there are resources that are written for a student audience.  Here I hope to direct you to a few of these student-focused resources.

The Successful Strategies for Teams handbook
includes a discussion of team player styles in addition
to many other important topics for students to consider.

The first resource is a handbook, Successful Strategies for Teams, put together by Frances Kennedy and Linda Nilson at Clemson University.  The handbook, which is available online as a PDF, includes motivation for working in teams, stages of team development (forming, storming, norming, performing), skills, an overview of collaborative decision-making, and profiles of team player styles (contributor, collaborator, communicator, challenger).  A questionnaire about team player styles is also included alongside a discussion of each approach and what to do when a team is unbalanced, so to speak.  The handbook is full of information and insights; an instructor could easily select a particular topic to share with a class when group work is introduced initially and then refer students to other components gradually or when needed.

Guidelines offered by UNC at Chapel Hill

For those looking for something more compact, check out the set of guidelines offered by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Faculty Excellence (see "Figure 1" at left or click here for full newsletter):

If you have a copy of McKeachie's Teaching Tips (2011) on your bookshelf, turn to the section on active learning for an even shorter list of suggestions for students.  There is a significant amount of overlap between this list and the one shown here to the left; in addition to suggestions about considering everyone's ideas and equal contributions from group members, McKeachie also recommends that the students reflect on the group's process and identifies next steps and also that the next meeting be planned before the current one concludes.

"Helpful Tips for Collaboration and Group Work," a web resource from The University of the Arts, occupies a middle ground between the extensive handbook from Clemson and the lists offered by UNC and McKeachie's Teaching Tips.  The webpage offers advice for getting started plus sections devoted to working efficiently and dealing with problems within a group; students may find a resource like this one particularly useful because they can easily access information from the different sections, which are detailed but brief, when and if they are needed.

Reference:

McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2011). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Clear objectives are a must for group work

Earlier this week, I stumbled across the tools and tips offered by The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State University while looking for insights on structuring effective group work.  At the time, I was on the hunt for info about roles for group members but took note of the other group-related advice, especially this document that addresses a series of commonly asked "How do I...?" questions.  The first question on the list is a particularly important one:

How do I decide which assignments/activities to make collaborative?

The authors point out that some assignments and activities are better suited for effective group work experiences than others.  Insights from IDEA Item #5 also reiterate this point with an argument that students will simply divide up, not discuss, the work when asked to address knowledge-type questions.  Instead, "the issue or problem should challenge the groups and demonstrate that there are no easy answers within the area of study."  Some follow up questions from The Schreyer Institute include:

What is the objective or goal of this assignment or activity? 

and...

How will that objective be furthered by asking students to work in groups? 

Perhaps the students will benefit from discussing possible ideas with one another, working together to arrive at a solution to a problem, or reflecting on information that was just presented - the exact purpose of the group approach will depend on the details of your lesson.  The reason(s) for working in a group must be clear to the students as this helps to establish a structure for positive interdependence within the group.  The purpose of the assignment or activity must be such that the team members need one another to achieve it!   The remaining follow up questions get at this important point:

Is this project complex and challenging enough that it would be impossible for an individual student to complete it alone?  

Will this project require students to synthesize their work in true collaboration, rather than just complete work separately and turn it in together at the end?

In addition to designing the assignment, activity, or project for collaboration and synthesis, this must also be clearly communicated to the students.  Nilson (2010) points out that unclear, imprecise group assignments create confusion for students about expectations and the intended purpose; as a result, this lack of clarity is a major reason that group work experiences fizzle.  Note that making an assignment longer, for example, is not necessarily a recommended way to transform it into one for a group.  Instead, working in groups is an opportunity for deeper (higher-level) thinking.  Maybe instead of recalling information, you want students to work together to apply or analyze information - a group may be better equipped than an individual to tackle a topic at this level.  If you are a fan of Bloom's Taxonomy, then you may find this wheel version with action verbs and student products helpful when designing and communicating clear assignment objectives (wheel created by Emily Hixton at Purdue University).

Reference:

Nilson, L.B. (2010). Teaching At Its Best. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Roles and structuring positive interdependence in groups

Positive interdependence is identified by Smith (1996) as a key element for successful group work.  What does positive interdependence look like?  There are a few things to be on the lookout for, but they all center on group members working together.  That is, students must working together to complete the task(s) and succeed as a team; if the tasks can be split up and completed individually, then this brings the very existence of the group/team into question.  Each member of the group must view the input of the other members as an ingredient for success in order for the group experience to be a collaborative one.

Forms of positive interdependence
A list of possible ways to structure positive interdependence is also provided by Smith (1996):

• group product-goal interdependence (e.g., one answer must be agreed upon by the group);
• learning goal interdependence (e.g., each member must be able to explain the group's answer);
• role interdependence (each member must fulfill responsibilities of an assigned role);
• reward interdependence (shared reward);
• resource interdependence (shared resources); 
• task interdependence (division of labor).

(See this page from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research for expanded descriptions of each form of positive interdependence listed above.)  A number of these are self-explanatory, but the others warrant additional discussion.  Here I will focus on role interdependence with the intention of returning to others in later posts.

Roles for group members

If you are looking around for a list of possible roles, you'll quickly notice that the exact contents of the list will depend on the source; however, lists' suggestions and examples tend to overlap.  I am, for example, currently looking at this list of roles for projects from a Penn State resource archive, this list of possible roles from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research site, and ideas for student roles from the Starting Point project (just three resources of the many out there), and "facilitator" and "recorder" are both common suggestions from all three sources while "skeptic" is offered on the Penn State site as a role for group projects with a notable amount of brainstorming involved.  This last detail points to the fact that roles should align with what is being asked of the groups.  Are the groups completing a semester-long project, or are they participating in a group discussion that is recurring each week?  For the latter, Starting Point suggests "elaborator" - someone who establishes connections between the current discussion and previous topics or overall theme - as a possible role, but this may not be something that is needed (or at least a priority) for a semester-long project.

What about rotating roles?  Again, this is likely to depend on what the groups are focused on achieving.  For shorter/less in-depth group assignments that are recurring throughout the term, having the group members rotate through the roles provides each individual with a chance try different roles - ones that are comfortable and others that are not-so-comfortable.  Of course, for an ongoing project, switching roles may interrupt the group's progress and might not be desirable.

Should the students or the instructor decide the roles?  The recommendation from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research is to allow students with group work experience the opportunity to select/decide roles (when time allows) but that it may be best for the instructor to assign roles if students are new to or not as comfortable with working in groups.  So far, this is the one recommendation I have come across for who decides the roles; I will be sure to update with others if and when they are located.

The group-focused series will continue later this week with more on key ingredients for building effective groups and/or group work experiences.  Identifying clear objectives - the importance of and the instructor's role - is a likely candidate for the next post.

Reference:

Smith, K. A. (1996). Cooperative learning: Making “groupwork” work. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 1996(67), 71–82.

Homogeneous vs. heterogeneous group formation

A few weeks ago, a colleague shared an interesting insight from her experiments with forming student groups: when students are grouped together by similar skill sets, some students who haven't previously demonstrated leadership skills eventually emerge as leaders for their respective teams.  She went on to explain that the non-leaders emerging as group leaders is a contrasting result to the occasions when groups were formed with an emphasis on mixing skill sets; in the case of these heterogeneous groups, the leadership role is most often assumed by a student who has previously demonstrated leadership skills.

Leadership can be important for a team that will be intact for longer-term assignments, including major projects.  This need for a leader can provide an opportunity for someone new to rise to the challenge when a team is composed of "social loafers," to borrow a phrase from a recent Faculty Focus article.  For a more heterogeneous team that includes social loafers and proven leaders, it is not overly surprising when social loafers continue to sit back while other group members take the lead.  Might this be an argument for forming homogeneous teams from time to time?

Of course, "homogeneous" can refer to a variety of characteristics.  Forming groups based on similar opinions can yield different results compared to groups based on similar skill sets.  One approach isn't necessarily better than the other; as stated in an earlier post, the best way to form groups largely depends on what the groups are being asked to accomplish.  Barkley, Cross, and Major (2005) point out that grouping students by skill level may be particularly beneficial in language and math courses, for example; the similarities are likely to foster communication among group members since they share a common starting point.

There are potential drawbacks to homogeneous groups, and these downsides are neatly packaged into arguments in favor of forming groups that are heterogeneous.  Groups that include students with a range of skills, for example, may be better prepared for a variety of tasks, and heterogeneous groups are likely to expose its members to a greater variety of backgrounds and/or experiences vs. homogeneous groups (Barkley, Cross, & Major, 2005, p. 45).  Sometimes heterogeneity can lead to disagreements among group members if they are approaching an issue or problem in different ways (which is not necessarily bad depending on the intended outcome!), and/or it may generate some unintended consequences if students are isolated from others with similar backgrounds (gender, academic ability, etc.) that may provide helpful support.  Note that if these potential downsides of heterogeneous groups seem to create too many hurdles, it may be worth (re)considering homogeneous groups based on the characteristic that is most important to clump together.

For instructors using groups for shorter-term, lower-stakes opportunities, switching back and forth between homogeneous and heterogeneous groups is always an option too!  For long-term groups focused on higher-stakes assignments, keeping groups intact for as long as possible is the general recommendation since it fosters trust between members.

Reference:

Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Major, C. H. (2005). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.