Throughout our schooling and university experience we have been involved in some sort of group work – many times very reluctantly. On some occasions our groups were a success but many were unmitigated disasters. Many students dread the word: “Group Work”
Our latest movie production group was a beautiful example how group work should work. So based, on my experience on this fun project and others that have worked in the past and reflecting how group work might be used effectively in the classroom, I would advice future teachers to think about:
1) Group work is effective when the task at hand is too large for an individual – like making a movie, or doing an in-depth research on a topic. The unifying theme is that it is larger than the individual – either because of academics or logistics.
2) For groups to be effective they have to know each other and their strengths and weakness. This would mean that groups ought to work together on smaller projects first – to break-in the group chemistry.
3) Group assessment is important from the teacher observation and peer-to-peer observations to validate the group chemistry.
4) The groups have to receive assignments that are very clear and that they lend themselves to a division of labor – so there is shared responsibility.
5) Grading of the work has to be done in a fair and equitable manner such that the individual receives a grade and the group does as well. There has to be an emphasis that the success of the group will bring reward to every individual in the group.
6) Group effort must be reward and shown to peers and perhaps parents – the reward of a group effort is in the sharing of the results.
In any case – can you comment on what other traits successful projects have or give any advice how to effectively use group projects in the classroom?
Moving on to the article,
Splicing Video into the Writing Process; it was a nice complement to the exercise expounded above. The use of a major class project production as outlined in the article by
Tammy Pandina and
Diane Harding illustrates the benefits of group work to the nth degree. The transformation of a classroom to utilizing the new media – is an impressive achievement. The project as described paralleled our experience in creating our class two minute video to a tee.
In addition, the production of a video as outlined by the teachers had to motivate the kids immensely as attested by the results described in the article. The groups coalesced to become effectively form teams – note that the teachers had to match kids with same skill levels – the groups were not randomly selected but rather they were assessed for equal strengths prior to group forming. Additionally, I found very interesting how closely the Digital Video Process and the Writing Process match.
The proof of the pudding was of course: what did the students learn and how effective was the film reflecting their achievements – from what I read it all had to be positive and fulfilling academically and personally. These teachers ought to be congratulated!
I found a great reference to
Collaborative Learning by Barbara Gross Davis at Berkley:
- General Strategies
- Designing Group Work
- Organizing Learning Groups
- Evaluating Group Work
- Setting up Study Teams
Check it out at:
