group work on education

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Many students have had little experience working in groups in an academic setting. While there are many excellent books and articles describing group processes, this guide is intended to be short and simply written for students who are working in groups, but who may not be very interested in too much detail. It also provides teachers (and students) with tips on assigning group projects, ways to organize groups, and what to do when the process goes awry.

Some reasons to ask students to work in groups

Asking students to work in small groups allows students to learn interactively. Small groups are good for:

• generating a broad array of possible alternative points of view or solutions to a problem
• giving students a chance to work on a project that is too large or complex for an individual
• allowing students with different backgrounds to bring their special knowledge, experience, or skills to a project, and to explain their orientation to others
• giving students a chance to teach each other
• giving students a structured experience so they can practice skills applicable to professional situations

Some benefits of working in groups (even for short periods of time in class)

• Students who have difficulty talking in class may speak in a small group.
• More students, overall, have a chance to participate in class.
• Talking in groups can help overcome the anonymity and passivity of a large class or a class meeting in a poorly designed room.
• Students who expect to participate actively prepare better for class.

Caveat: If you ask students to work in groups, be clear about your purpose, and communicate it to them. Students who fear that group work is a potential waste of valuable time may benefit from considering the reasons and benefits above.

Large projects over a period of time

Faculty asking students to work in groups over a long period of time can do a few things to make it easy for the students to work:

• The biggest student complaint about group work is that it takes a lot of time and planning. Let students know about the project at the beginning of the term, so they can plan their time.
• At the outset, provide group guidelines and your expectations.
• Monitor the groups periodically to make sure they are functioning effectively.
• If the project is to be completed outside of class, it can be difficult to find common times to meet and to find a room. Some faculty members provide in-class time for groups to meet. Others help students find rooms to meet in.

Forming the group

• Forming the group. Should students form their own groups or should they be assigned? Most people prefer to choose whom they work with. However, many students say they welcome both kinds of group experiences, appreciating the value of hearing the perspective of another discipline, or another background.
• Size. Appropriate group size depends on the nature of the project.  If the group is small and one person drops out, can the remaining people do the work? If the group is large, will more time be spent on organizing themselves and trying to make decisions than on productive work?
• Resources for students. Provide a complete class list, with current email addresses. (Students like having this anyway so they can work together even if group projects are not assigned.)
• Students that don't fit. You might anticipate your response to the one or two exceptions of a person who really has difficulty in the group. After trying various remedies, is there an out—can this person join another group? work on an independent project?

Organizing the work

Unless part of the goal is to give people experience in the process of goal-setting, assigning tasks, and so forth, the group will be able to work more efficiently if they are provided with some of the following:

• Clear goals. Why are they working together? What are they expected to accomplish?
• Ways to break down the task into smaller units
• Ways to allocate responsibility for different aspects of the work
• Ways to allocate organizational responsibility
• A sample time line with suggested check points for stages of work to be completed

Caveat: Setting up effective small group assignments can take a lot of faculty time and organization.

Getting Started

• Groups work best if people know each others' names and a bit of their background and experience, especially those parts that are related to the task at hand. Take time to introduce yourselves.
• Be sure to include everyone when considering ideas about how to proceed as a group. Some may never have participated in a small group in an academic setting. Others may have ideas about what works well. Allow time for people to express their inexperience and hesitations as well as their experience with group projects.
• Most groups select a leader early on, especially if the work is a long-term project. Other options for leadership in long-term projects include taking turns for different works or different phases of the work.
• Everyone needs to discuss and clarify the goals of the group's work. Go around the group and hear everyone's ideas (before discussing them) or encourage divergent thinking by brainstorming. If you miss this step, trouble may develop part way through the project. Even though time is scarce and you may have a big project ahead of you, groups may take some time to settle in to work. If you anticipate this, you may not be too impatient with the time it takes to get started.

Organizing the Work

• Break up big jobs into smaller pieces. Allocate responsibility for different parts of the group project to different individuals or teams. Do not forget to account for assembling pieces into final form.
• Develop a timeline, including who will do what, in what format, by when. Include time at the end for assembling pieces into final form. (This may take longer than you anticipate.) At the end of each meeting, individuals should review what work they expect to complete by the following session.

Understanding and Managing Group Processes

• Groups work best if everyone has a chance to make strong contributions to the discussion at meetings and to the work of the group project.
• At the beginning of each meeting, decide what you expect to have accomplished by the end of the meeting.
• Someone (probably not the leader) should write all ideas, as they are suggested, on the board, a collaborative document, or on large sheets of paper. Designate a recorder of the group's decisions. Allocate responsibility for group process (especially if you do not have a fixed leader) such as a time manager for meetings and someone who periodically says that it is time to see how things are going (see below).
• What leadership structure does the group want? One designated leader? rotating leaders? separately assigned roles?
• Are any more ground rules needed, such as starting meetings on time, kinds of interruptions allowed, and so forth?
• Is everyone contributing to discussions? Can discussions be managed differently so all can participate? Are people listening to each other and allowing for different kinds of contributions?
• Are all members accomplishing the work expected of them? Is there anything group members can do to help those experiencing difficulty?
• Are there disagreements or difficulties within the group that need to be addressed? (Is someone dominating? Is someone left out?)
• Is outside help needed to solve any problems?
• Is everyone enjoying the work?

Including Everyone and Their Ideas

Groups work best if everyone is included and everyone has a chance to contribute ideas. The group's task may seem overwhelming to some people, and they may have no idea how to go about accomplishing it. To others, the direction the project should take may seem obvious. The job of the group is to break down the work into chunks, and to allow everyone to contribute. The direction that seems obvious to some may turn out not to be so obvious after all. In any event, it will surely be improved as a result of some creative modification.

Encouraging Ideas

The goal is to produce as many ideas as possible in a short time without evaluating them. All ideas are carefully listened to but not commented on and are usually written on the board or large sheets of paper so everyone can see them, and so they don't get forgotten or lost. Take turns by going around the group—hear from everyone, one by one.

One specific method is to generate ideas through brainstorming. People mention ideas in any order (without others' commenting, disagreeing or asking too many questions). The advantage of brainstorming is that ideas do not become closely associated with the individuals who suggested them. This process encourages creative thinking, if it is not rushed and if all ideas are written down (and therefore, for the time-being, accepted). A disadvantage: when ideas are suggested quickly, it is more difficult for shy participants or for those who are not speaking their native language. One approach is to begin by brainstorming and then go around the group in a more structured way asking each person to add to the list.

Examples of what to say:

• Why don't we take a minute or two for each of us to present our views?
• Let's get all our ideas out before evaluating them. We'll clarify them before we organize or evaluate them.
• We'll discuss all these ideas after we hear what everyone thinks.
• You don't have to agree with her, but let her finish.
• Let's spend a few more minutes to see if there are any possibilities we haven't thought of, no matter how unlikely they seem.

Group Leadership

• The leader is responsible for seeing that the work is organized so that it will get done. The leader is also responsible for understanding and managing group interactions so that the atmosphere is positive.
• The leader must encourage everyone's contributions with an eye to accomplishing the work. To do this, the leader must observe how the group's process is working. (Is the group moving too quickly, leaving some people behind? Is it time to shift the focus to another aspect of the task?)
• The leader must encourage group interactions and maintain a positive atmosphere. To do this the leader must observe the way people are participating as well as be aware of feelings communicated non-verbally. (Are individuals' contributions listened to and appreciated by others? Are people arguing with other people, rather than disagreeing with their ideas? Are some people withdrawn or annoyed?)
• The leader must anticipate what information, materials or other resources the group needs as it works.
• The leader is responsible for beginning and ending on time. The leader must also organize practical support, such as the room, chalk, markers, food, breaks.

(Note: In addition to all this, the leader must take part in thc discussion and participate otherwise as a group member. At these times, the leader must be careful to step aside from the role of leader and signal participation as an equal, not a dominant voice.)

Concerns of Individuals That May Affect Their Participation

• How do I fit in? Will others listen to me? Am I the only one who doesn't know everyone else? How can I work with people with such different backgrounds and expericnce?
• Who will make the decisions? How much influence can I have?
• What do I have to offer to the group? Does everyone know more than I do? Does anyone know anything, or will I have to do most of the work myself?

Characteristics of a Group that is Performing Effectively

• All members have a chance to express themselves and to influence the group's decisions. All contributions are listened to carefully, and strong points acknowledged. Everyone realizes that the job could not be done without the cooperation and contribution of everyone else.
• Differences are dealt with directly with the person or people involved. The group identifies all disagreements, hears everyone's views and tries to come to an agreement that makes sense to everyone. Even when a group decision is not liked by someone, that person will follow through on it with the group.
• The group encourages everyone to take responsibility, and hard work is recognized. When things are not going well, everyone makes an effort to help each other. There is a shared sense of pride and accomplishment.

Focusing on a Direction

After a large number of ideas have been generated and listed (e.g. on the board), the group can categorize and examine them. Then the group should agree on a process for choosing from among the ideas. Advantages and disadvantages of different plans can be listed and then voted on. Some possibilities can be eliminated through a straw vote (each group member could have 2 or 3 votes). Or all group members could vote for their first, second, and third choices. Alternatively, criteria for a successful plan can be listed, and different alternatives can be voted on based on the criteria, one by one.

Categorizing and evaluating ideas

• We have about 20 ideas here. Can we sort them into a few general categories?
• When we evaluate each others' ideas, can we mention some positive aspects before expressing concerns?
• Could you give us an example of what you mean?
• Who has dealt with this kind of problem before?
• What are the pluses of that approach? The minuses?
• We have two basic choices. Let's brainstorm. First let's look at the advantages of the first choice, then the disadvantages.
• Let's try ranking these ideas in priority order. The group should try to come to an agreement that makes sense to everyone.

Making a decision

After everyone's views are heard and all points of agreement and disagreement are identified, the group should try to arrive at an agreement that makes sense to everyone.

• There seems to be some agreement here. Is there anyone who couldn't live with solution #2?
• Are there any objections to going that way?
• You still seem to have worries about this solution. Is there anything that could be added or taken away to make it more acceptable? We're doing fine. We've agreed on a great deal. Let's stay with this and see if we can work this last issue through.
• It looks as if there are still some major points of disagreement. Can we go back and define what those issues are and work on them rather than forcing a decision now.

How People Function in Groups

If a group is functioning well, work is getting done and constructive group processes are creating a positive atmosphere. In good groups the individuals may contribute differently at different times. They cooperate and human relationships are respected. This may happen automatically or individuals, at different times, can make it their job to maintain the atmospbere and human aspects of the group.

Roles That Contribute to the Work

Initiating —taking the initiative, at any time; for example, convening the group, suggesting procedures, changing direction, providing new energy and ideas. (How about if we.... What would happen if... ?)

Seeking information or opinions —requesting facts, preferences, suggestions and ideas. (Could you say a little more about... Would you say this is a more workable idea than that?)

Giving information or opinions —providing facts, data, information from research or experience. (ln my experience I have seen... May I tell you what I found out about...? )

Questioning —stepping back from what is happening and challenging the group or asking other specific questions about the task. (Are we assuming that... ? Would the consequence of this be... ?)

Clarifying —interpreting ideas or suggestions, clearing up confusions, defining terms or asking others to clarify. This role can relate different contributions from different people, and link up ideas that seem unconnected. (lt seems that you are saying... Doesn't this relate to what [name] was saying earlier?)

Summarizing —putting contributions into a pattern, while adding no new information. This role is important if a group gets stuck. Some groups officially appoint a summarizer for this potentially powerful and influential role. (If we take all these pieces and put them together... Here's what I think we have agreed upon so far... Here are our areas of disagreement...)

Roles That Contribute to the Atmosphere

Supporting —remembering others' remarks, being encouraging and responsive to others. Creating a warm, encouraging atmosphere, and making people feel they belong helps the group handle stresses and strains. People can gesture, smile, and make eye-contact without saying a word. Some silence can be supportive for people who are not native speakers of English by allowing them a chance to get into discussion. (I understand what you are getting at...As [name] was just saying...)

Observing —noticing the dynamics of the group and commenting. Asking if others agree or if they see things differently can be an effective way to identify problems as they arise. (We seem to be stuck... Maybe we are done for now, we are all worn out... As I see it, what happened just a minute ago.. Do you agree?)

Mediating —recognizing disagreements and figuring out what is behind the differences. When people focus on real differences, that may lead to striking a balance or devising ways to accommodate different values, views, and approaches. (I think the two of you are coming at this from completely different points of view... Wait a minute. This is how [name/ sees the problem. Can you see why she may see it differently?)

Reconciling —reconciling disagreements. Emphasizing shared views among members can reduce tension. (The goal of these two strategies is the same, only the means are different… Is there anything that these positions have in common?)

Compromising —yielding a position or modifying opinions. This can help move the group forward. (Everyone else seems to agree on this, so I'll go along with... I think if I give in on this, we could reach a decision.)

Making a personal comment —occasional personal comments, especially as they relate to the work. Statements about one's life are often discouraged in professional settings; this may be a mistake since personal comments can strengthen a group by making people feel human with a lot in common.

Humor —funny remarks or good-natured comments. Humor, if it is genuinely good-natured and not cutting, can be very effective in relieving tension or dealing with participants who dominate or put down others. Humor can be used constructively to make the work more acceptable by providing a welcome break from concentration. It may also bring people closer together, and make the work more fun.

All the positive roles turn the group into an energetic, productive enterprise. People who have not reflected on these roles may misunderstand the motives and actions of people working in a group. If someone other than the leader initiates ideas, some may view it as an attempt to take power from the leader. Asking questions may similarly be seen as defying authority or slowing down the work of the group. Personal anecdotes may be thought of as trivializing the discussion. Leaders who understand the importance of these many roles can allow and encourage them as positive contributions to group dynamics. Roles that contribute to the work give the group a sense of direction and achievement. Roles contributing to the human atmosphere give the group a sense of cooperation and goodwill.

Some Common Problems (and Some Solutions)

Floundering —While people are still figuring out the work and their role in the group, the group may experience false starts and circular discussions, and decisions may be postponed.

• Here's my understanding of what we are trying to accomplish... Do we all agree?
• What would help us move forward: data? resources?
• Let's take a few minutes to hear everyone's suggestions about how this process might work better and what we should do next.

Dominating or reluctant participants —Some people might take more than their share of the discussion by talking too often, asserting superiority, telling lengthy stories, or not letting others finish. Sometimes humor can be used to discourage people from dominating. Others may rarely speak because they have difficulty getting in the conversation. Sometimes looking at people who don't speak can be a non-verbal way to include them. Asking quiet participants for their thoughts outside the group may lead to their participation within the group.

• How would we state the general problem? Could we leave out the details for a moment? Could we structure this part of the discussion by taking turns and hearing what everyone has to say?
• Let's check in with each other about how the process is working: Is everyone contributing to discussions? Can discussions be managed differently so we can all participate? Are we all listening to each other?

Digressions and tangents —Too many interesting side stories can be obstacles to group progress. It may be time to take another look at the agenda and assign time estimates to items. Try to summarize where the discussion was before the digression. Or, consider whether there is something making the topic easy to avoid.

• Can we go back to where we were a few minutes ago and see what we were trying to do ?
• Is there something about the topic itself that makes it difficult to stick to?

Getting Stuck —Too little progress can get a group down. It may be time for a short break or a change in focus. However, occasionally when a group feels that it is not making progress, a solution emerges if people simply stay with the issue.

• What are the things that are helping us solve this problem? What's preventing us from solving this problem?
• I understand that some of you doubt whether anything new will happen if we work on this problem. Are we willing to give it a try for the next fifteen minutes?

Rush to work —Usually one person in the group is less patient and more action-oriented than the others. This person may reach a decision more quickly than the others and then pressure the group to move on before others are ready.

• Are we all ready-to make a decision on this?
• What needs to be done before we can move ahead?
• Let's go around and see where everyone stands on this.

Feuds —Occasionally a conflict (having nothing to do with the subject of the group) carries over into the group and impedes its work. It may be that feuding parties will not be able to focus until the viewpoint of each is heard. Then they must be encouraged to lay the issue aside.

• So, what you are saying is... And what you are saying is... How is that related to the work here?
• If we continue too long on this, we won't be able to get our work done. Can we agree on a time limit and then go on?

For more information...

James Lang, " Why Students Hate Group Projects (and How to Change That) ," The Chronicle of Higher Education (17 June 2022).

Hodges, Linda C. " Contemporary Issues in Group Learning in Undergraduate Science Classrooms: A Perspective from Student Engagement ,"  CBE—Life Sciences Education  17.2 (2018): es3.

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Center for Teaching

Group work: using cooperative learning groups effectively.

Many instructors from disciplines across the university use group work to enhance their students’ learning. Whether the goal is to increase student understanding of content, to build particular transferable skills, or some combination of the two, instructors often turn to small group work to capitalize on the benefits of peer-to-peer instruction. This type of group work is formally termed cooperative learning, and is defined as the instructional use of small groups to promote students working together to maximize their own and each other’s learning (Johnson, et al., 2008).

Cooperative learning is characterized by positive interdependence, where students perceive that better performance by individuals produces better performance by the entire group (Johnson, et al., 2014). It can be formal or informal, but often involves specific instructor intervention to maximize student interaction and learning. It is infinitely adaptable, working in small and large classes and across disciplines, and can be one of the most effective teaching approaches available to college instructors.

What can it look like?

What’s the theoretical underpinning, is there evidence that it works.

• What are approaches that can help make it effective?

Informal cooperative learning groups In informal cooperative learning, small, temporary, ad-hoc groups of two to four students work together for brief periods in a class, typically up to one class period, to answer questions or respond to prompts posed by the instructor.

Additional examples of ways to structure informal group work

Think-pair-share

The instructor asks a discussion question. Students are instructed to think or write about an answer to the question before turning to a peer to discuss their responses. Groups then share their responses with the class.

Peer Instruction

This modification of the think-pair-share involves personal responses devices (e.g. clickers). The question posted is typically a conceptually based multiple-choice question. Students think about their answer and vote on a response before turning to a neighbor to discuss. Students can change their answers after discussion, and “sharing” is accomplished by the instructor revealing the graph of student response and using this as a stimulus for large class discussion. This approach is particularly well-adapted for large classes.

In this approach, groups of students work in a team of four to become experts on one segment of new material, while other “expert teams” in the class work on other segments of new material. The class then rearranges, forming new groups that have one member from each expert team. The members of the new team then take turns teaching each other the material on which they are experts.

Formal cooperative learning groups

In formal cooperative learning students work together for one or more class periods to complete a joint task or assignment (Johnson et al., 2014). There are several features that can help these groups work well:

• The instructor defines the learning objectives for the activity and assigns students to groups.
• The groups are typically heterogeneous, with particular attention to the skills that are needed for success in the task.
• Within the groups, students may be assigned specific roles, with the instructor communicating the criteria for success and the types of social skills that will be needed.
• Importantly, the instructor continues to play an active role during the groups’ work, monitoring the work and evaluating group and individual performance.
• Instructors also encourage groups to reflect on their interactions to identify potential improvements for future group work.

This video shows an example of formal cooperative learning groups in David Matthes’ class at the University of Minnesota:

There are many more specific types of group work that fall under the general descriptions given here, including team-based learning , problem-based learning , and process-oriented guided inquiry learning .

The use of cooperative learning groups in instruction is based on the principle of constructivism, with particular attention to the contribution that social interaction can make. In essence, constructivism rests on the idea that individuals learn through building their own knowledge, connecting new ideas and experiences to existing knowledge and experiences to form new or enhanced understanding (Bransford, et al., 1999). The consideration of the role that groups can play in this process is based in social interdependence theory, which grew out of Kurt Koffka’s and Kurt Lewin’s identification of groups as dynamic entities that could exhibit varied interdependence among members, with group members motivated to achieve common goals. Morton Deutsch conceptualized varied types of interdependence, with positive correlation among group members’ goal achievements promoting cooperation.

Lev Vygotsky extended this work by examining the relationship between cognitive processes and social activities, developing the sociocultural theory of development. The sociocultural theory of development suggests that learning takes place when students solve problems beyond their current developmental level with the support of their instructor or their peers. Thus both the idea of a zone of proximal development, supported by positive group interdependence, is the basis of cooperative learning (Davidson and Major, 2014; Johnson, et al., 2014).

Cooperative learning follows this idea as groups work together to learn or solve a problem, with each individual responsible for understanding all aspects. The small groups are essential to this process because students are able to both be heard and to hear their peers, while in a traditional classroom setting students may spend more time listening to what the instructor says.

Cooperative learning uses both goal interdependence and resource interdependence to ensure interaction and communication among group members. Changing the role of the instructor from lecturing to facilitating the groups helps foster this social environment for students to learn through interaction.

David Johnson, Roger Johnson, and Karl Smith performed a meta-analysis of 168 studies comparing cooperative learning to competitive learning and individualistic learning in college students (Johnson et al., 2006). They found that cooperative learning produced greater academic achievement than both competitive learning and individualistic learning across the studies, exhibiting a mean weighted effect size of 0.54 when comparing cooperation and competition and 0.51 when comparing cooperation and individualistic learning. In essence, these results indicate that cooperative learning increases student academic performance by approximately one-half of a standard deviation when compared to non-cooperative learning models, an effect that is considered moderate. Importantly, the academic achievement measures were defined in each study, and ranged from lower-level cognitive tasks (e.g., knowledge acquisition and retention) to higher level cognitive activity (e.g., creative problem solving), and from verbal tasks to mathematical tasks to procedural tasks. The meta-analysis also showed substantial effects on other metrics, including self-esteem and positive attitudes about learning. George Kuh and colleagues also conclude that cooperative group learning promotes student engagement and academic performance (Kuh et al., 2007).

Springer, Stanne, and Donovan (1999) confirmed these results in their meta-analysis of 39 studies in university STEM classrooms. They found that students who participated in various types of small-group learning, ranging from extended formal interactions to brief informal interactions, had greater academic achievement, exhibited more favorable attitudes towards learning, and had increased persistence through STEM courses than students who did not participate in STEM small-group learning.

The box below summarizes three individual studies examining the effects of cooperative learning groups.

What are approaches that can help make group work effective?

Preparation

Articulate your goals for the group work, including both the academic objectives you want the students to achieve and the social skills you want them to develop.

Determine the group conformation that will help meet your goals.

• In informal group learning, groups often form ad hoc from near neighbors in a class.
• In formal group learning, it is helpful for the instructor to form groups that are heterogeneous with regard to particular skills or abilities relevant to group tasks. For example, groups may be heterogeneous with regard to academic skill in the discipline or with regard to other skills related to the group task (e.g., design capabilities, programming skills, writing skills, organizational skills) (Johnson et al, 2006).
• Groups from 2-6 are generally recommended, with groups that consist of three members exhibiting the best performance in some problem-solving tasks (Johnson et al., 2006; Heller and Hollabaugh, 1992).
• To avoid common problems in group work, such as dominance by a single student or conflict avoidance, it can be useful to assign roles to group members (e.g., manager, skeptic, educator, conciliator) and to rotate them on a regular basis (Heller and Hollabaugh, 1992). Assigning these roles is not necessary in well-functioning groups, but can be useful for students who are unfamiliar with or unskilled at group work.

Choose an assessment method that will promote positive group interdependence as well as individual accountability.

• In team-based learning, two approaches promote positive interdependence and individual accountability. First, students take an individual readiness assessment test, and then immediately take the same test again as a group. Their grade is a composite of the two scores. Second, students complete a group project together, and receive a group score on the project. They also, however, distribute points among their group partners, allowing student assessment of members’ contributions to contribute to the final score.
• Heller and Hollabaugh (1992) describe an approach in which they incorporated group problem-solving into a class. Students regularly solved problems in small groups, turning in a single solution. In addition, tests were structured such that 25% of the points derived from a group problem, where only those individuals who attended the group problem-solving sessions could participate in the group test problem.  This approach can help prevent the “free rider” problem that can plague group work.
• The University of New South Wales describes a variety of ways to assess group work , ranging from shared group grades, to grades that are averages of individual grades, to strictly individual grades, to a combination of these. They also suggest ways to assess not only the product of the group work but also the process.  Again, having a portion of a grade that derives from individual contribution helps combat the free rider problem.

Helping groups get started

Explain the group’s task, including your goals for their academic achievement and social interaction.

Explain how the task involves both positive interdependence and individual accountability, and how you will be assessing each.

Assign group roles or give groups prompts to help them articulate effective ways for interaction. The University of New South Wales provides a valuable set of tools to help groups establish good practices when first meeting. The site also provides some exercises for building group dynamics; these may be particularly valuable for groups that will be working on larger projects.

Monitoring group work

Regularly observe group interactions and progress , either by circulating during group work, collecting in-process documents, or both. When you observe problems, intervene to help students move forward on the task and work together effectively. The University of New South Wales provides handouts that instructors can use to promote effective group interactions, such as a handout to help students listen reflectively or give constructive feedback , or to help groups identify particular problems that they may be encountering.

Assessing and reflecting

In addition to providing feedback on group and individual performance (link to preparation section above), it is also useful to provide a structure for groups to reflect on what worked well in their group and what could be improved. Graham Gibbs (1994) suggests using the checklists shown below.

The University of New South Wales provides other reflective activities that may help students identify effective group practices and avoid ineffective practices in future cooperative learning experiences.

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., and Cocking, R.R. (Eds.) (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school . Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Bruffee, K. A. (1993). Collaborative learning: Higher education, interdependence, and the authority of knowledge. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Cabrera, A. F., Crissman, J. L., Bernal, E. M., Nora, A., Terenzini, P. T., & Pascarella, E. T. (2002). Collaborative learning: Its impact on college students’ development and diversity. Journal of College Student Development, 43 (1), 20-34.

Davidson, N., & Major, C. H. (2014). Boundary crossing: Cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25 (3&4), 7-55.

Dees, R. L. (1991). The role of cooperative leaning in increasing problem-solving ability in a college remedial course. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 22 (5), 409-21.

Gokhale, A. A. (1995). Collaborative Learning enhances critical thinking. Journal of Technology Education, 7 (1).

Heller, P., and Hollabaugh, M. (1992) Teaching problem solving through cooperative grouping. Part 2: Designing problems and structuring groups. American Journal of Physics 60, 637-644.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. (2006). Active learning: Cooperation in the university classroom (3 rd edition). Edina, MN: Interaction.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Holubec, E.J. (2008). Cooperation in the classroom (8 th edition). Edina, MN: Interaction.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. (2014). Cooperative learning: Improving university instruction by basing practice on validated theory. Journl on Excellence in College Teaching 25, 85-118.

Jones, D. J., & Brickner, D. (1996). Implementation of cooperative learning in a large-enrollment basic mechanics course. American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference Proceedings.

Kuh, G.D., Kinzie, J., Buckley, J., Bridges, B., and Hayek, J.C. (2007). Piecing together the student success puzzle: Research, propositions, and recommendations (ASHE Higher Education Report, No. 32). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Love, A. G., Dietrich, A., Fitzgerald, J., & Gordon, D. (2014). Integrating collaborative learning inside and outside the classroom. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25 (3&4), 177-196.

Smith, M. E., Hinckley, C. C., & Volk, G. L. (1991). Cooperative learning in the undergraduate laboratory. Journal of Chemical Education 68 (5), 413-415.

Springer, L., Stanne, M. E., & Donovan, S. S. (1999). Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 96 (1), 21-51.

Uribe, D., Klein, J. D., & Sullivan, H. (2003). The effect of computer-mediated collaborative learning on solving ill-defined problems. Educational Technology Research and Development, 51 (1), 5-19.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Largely grounded in Vygotsky’s sociocultural theories of learning, collaborative learning can be a powerful strategy in the classroom. Group work can help students uncover and address gaps and misconceptions in knowledge, further developing their conceptual frameworks while improving their public reasoning and team-based skills (John-Steiner and Mahn, 1996). In this way, group work frees instructors to challenge students to higher orders of thinking, rather than remediation. More skilled or knowledgeable students can also provide scaffolding for their peers in this setting to advance learning (Chaiklin, 2003).

While the educational benefits of group work are numerous, so are the challenges. Students may feel resentment if a group member does not adequately contribute to a particular assignment, or, a student within a group may become overly dominant and prevent others from contributing to decision-making processes. Instructors should consider best practices around collaborative learning to mitigate challenges from the beginning, encouraging a smoother group process.

Collaborative learning can be implemented in the college classroom through a variety of ways: 

• Presentation - A foreign language instructor divides students into conversation groups. Their task is to perform a dialogue in front of the class pretending that they are ordering food at a restaurant. The groups have 30 minutes to prepare their conversation and 10 minutes to present it to the class. This activity culminates a course unit where students have learned vocabulary and phraseology around everyday conversations in the language.
• Problem Sets - After learning the steps for conducting several statistical tests, students in a statistics course are divided into groups and assigned a problem set. In well-functioning groups, all students contribute equally by working through the problems and offering assistance to one another until each group member fully understands the solution.
• Case Study - A sociology instructor implements case studies in the course around pressing issues. Students within each group take on particular roles and debate the issue under discussion. 
• Comparative Work - A writing instructor has groups write the same general letter to different audiences, adjusting tone, wording, and style to reach their unique assigned readers. Groups then read out their letters and discuss similarities and differences based on audience.
• Jigsaw - A literature instructor breaks class into groups to close read and discuss a passage from John Milton's Paradise Lost . After some time, the instructor uses the jigsaw method by creating new groups comprised of representatives from each original group. New groups share what they discussed previously, and explore new ideas.

Recommendations

• Group size - In general, smaller group sizes are desirable, typically between 3 - 4 students per group. When groups are too large, equitable student contribution can be challenging. When groups are too small, they may not experience as many benefits from the ideas and contributions of others.
• Stable vs. alternating groups - Depending on the goals of the activities and instructor preference, groups can be stable throughout the semester or change more frequently. There are pros and cons to both approaches. Stable groups grant students more time to become accustomed to how they work together. However, dysfunctional stable groups are less likely to achieve class learning outcomes. In general, for the group process to occur more effectively, members must spend significant time working together. Alternating groups help students by refreshing their expectations and enabling them  to work with other members of the class. However, students may also find forming connections with their group members more challenging. In general, groups may be formed randomly or the instructor can deliberately form groups using particular attributes (e.g. ability level or demographics).
• Group expectations and accountability - With regards to more time-intensive projects, students expect accountability of individual group members. To mitigate potential conflict, instructors can have groups come together before starting a project to develop an agreement around how the group will function. During this time, group members can also assign one another roles (e.g. facilitator, researcher, recorder, presenter) and delineate responsibilities. Finally, this agreement can address expectations around attendance in class and group meetings outside of class. For a more structured approach to balancing individual and group participation, instructors can also consider Team-Based Learning .
• Confidential peer evaluation - As another accountability measure, instructors can ask students to confidentially evaluate their peers on their contributions to the project. Instructors can choose whether to use these scores in determining final grades for a project. 
• Group and individual grades - To account for individual as well as group contribution, instructors can consider including both individual and group assignments for the project. In doing so, both efforts can be accounted for in the grading process, motivating students to perform well on their own while contributing to the group's progress.

Additional Resources

Cohan EG and Lotan RA. (2014). Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom. Third Edition. New York, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Collaborative Learning: Group Work - Cornell Center for Teaching Innovation

Working in Groups - Harvard Bok Center for Teaching and Learning

Chaiklin S. (2003) Chapter 2. The Zone of Proximal Development in Vygotsky’s Analysis of Learning and Instruction. In, Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. A Kozulin, B Gindis, V Ageyev, S Miller (Eds). New York, New York: Cambridge University Press. P. 65-82.

John-Steiner V and Mahn H. (1996). Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskyian framework. Educational Psychologist 31(3-4):191-206

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Why Group Work is Critical for Active Classroom Learning

Whenever I conduct observations of faculty members, my suggestion is usually the same:  can these students take a more hands-on approach to this lesson? Can they grapple with or solve the problem together, without interference from you?

Across various disciplines, instructors are moving away from lecturing, choosing instead to promote  active learning . In a typical active learning classroom, the instructor will design an activity (geared toward the day’s instruction), divide students into groups, ask them to solve a problem together, and then present their findings.

The success of such an approach relies heavily on the division of groups:

• How well students are matched
• How effectively do you explain the assignment’s outcomes
• Which methods do you employ to distribute their labor

Below are some suggestions for facilitating useful group work in your classroom.

Why Groups?

Before breaking students up, it’s important that they understand why group work is important. Too often, instructors feel compelled to manage students’ learning—lecturing course content, fielding questions, and responding to raised hands. Although this model can court some useful participation (usually from self-motivated, front row-types), it also creates a dynamic that centralizes the instructor and makes him or her responsible for all the learning.

In opting for student-centered learning—as opposed to the traditional lecture/discussion model—you are placing the responsibility of “learning” onto the learner. Rather than lecturing your class, telling them what they need to know, you are asking them to grapple with the course’s key concepts and arrive at original conclusions.

In doing so, you are not shirking your responsibilities; instead, you are guiding students toward mastery—creating an arena in which they must take an active role in their own learning.

In an active learning classroom, the instructor functions as a facilitator: designing the day’s activity, giving instructions, and checking in with each group’s progress. This model thwarts any hope of passive learning. Participation is not optional; it’s necessary. Students cannot “zone out” during your lecture; they cannot remain silent in the back row or surreptitiously text under their desks. Working collaboratively, they must “solve” the central problems of the day’s lesson and practice accountability for their own understanding.

Engaging effectively with their fellow students, they are modeling skills that will be vital in their future workplaces. Rather than passively “paying attention” to their instructor, they are obligated to communicate their ideas, practice interdependence, and take on leadership roles.

Avoiding Complaints Before They Arise

In making group work an integral part of your classroom instruction, you’ll find that complaints are common and usually come in the following varieties:

• “Can’t we just do it by ourselves?”
• “Can I be in a group with X and Y, my two best friends?”
• “Can we just keep the same groups we had last time?”
• “How about we just team up with the people sitting around us?”

There is a simple answer to all of these questions: “No.”

While the how of assigning groups is up to you, the instructor, it’s a good idea to vary the makeup of groups from class to class. There is good to be found in working with the same team consistently: relationships are forged, communication becomes fluent, strengths are appraised, and labor is divided accordingly. Nevertheless, students seek familiarity in group work because they wish to be comfortable and, thus, take a more passive role in their own learning.

Pushing your students into unfamiliar learning environments—regularly asking them to meet and collaborate with new colleagues—can have deep pedagogical value. Apart from the challenge of the day’s lesson, you are offering them a “meta-challenge” to surmount: collaborating with a new crop of near-strangers, adjusting to their various strengths, deficits, and learning styles.

Methods of Division

The easiest (and fairest) way to divide students involves the use of a randomized selection tool. Many LMS platforms, such as Canvas, have options for setting groups and will (objectively) split your roster into whatever configuration you choose. This method is particularly effective for classes that rely heavily on active learning; as students drag their feet, disappointed that they’re being separated from their pals, remind them that this lottery-style selection process could always swing their way next time.

For a more directed division, consider making each team a microcosm of the classroom at large. As you well know, every class roster contains students with different aptitudes, points of view, and cultural backgrounds. While the semester progresses—and you “get to know” them—why not use group work to create intellectual conflict? Should you opt for this approach, consider the following suggestions:

• Never cluster all of your A-level students together. Instead, group them alongside peers of different proficiency levels. Reciprocally, this will provide a strong model for struggling students and press the “A's” to work on their leadership and communication skills.
• In courses that stress discussion or debate, try experimenting with diversity. Once you’ve established a spirit of collaboration and safety in your classroom, try creating cross-sections of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political leaning, class background, and/or disciplinary interest. Put students into conversation with alternative points of view. Disclaimer: know thyself.  This sort of academic intercourse can only work with instructors who share a strong rapport with students and sculpt an environment of mutual respect, approachability, and tolerance. Do not enter potentially volatile territory unless you’re sure you can sensitively facilitate disagreements.

Legitimate Complaints

Every so often, though, interpersonal conflict mucks up your best-laid plans. Two students who used to date or grew apart in high school “absolutely cannot and will not work together”. This will make them “uncomfortable”.

In these cases, it’s worth examining that word: uncomfortable. While there are a great many avenues for intellectual discomfort—that is, pushing students beyond the “safe” boundaries of critical thought—this is something different. There is no scholarly value in forcing two clashing students together. On the contrary, the hostility that passes between them will only prompt silence and an awkward group dynamic.

In order to identify these contentious relationships ahead of time—and reduce the likelihood of an “in-class scene”—you may prefer to have students self-report. Offer them an opportunity, at the beginning of the term, to inform you (anonymously!) of any conflicts that might impede collaboration. Students with legitimate concerns will identify them and you’ll be able to address them throughout the semester.

Group work can be more complicated and may require more time than traditional lectures, but the benefits to transforming a classroom into an active experience can’t be undersold. Pushing students to take ownership of their work and an active role in their own learning won’t just improve your course, it will help students become independent thinkers and learners.

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Implementing Group Work in the Classroom

Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making skills. But without careful planning and facilitation, group work can frustrate students and instructors, and feel like a waste of time. Use these suggestions to help implement group work successfully in your classroom.

Preparing for Group Work

• Think carefully about how students will be physically arranged in groups.  Will it be easy for groups to form and for all students to be comfortable? Also think about how the layout of your classroom will impact volume. Will students be able to hear one another clearly? How can you moderate the activity to control volume?

Set clear guidelines on professional, civil conduct  between and among students to respect people’s differences and create an inclusive environment.

Talk to students about their past experiences with group work  and allow them to establish some ground rules for successful collaboration. This discussion can be successfully done anonymously through the use of note cards.

Designing the Group Activity

• Identify the instructional objectives.  Determine what you want to achieve through the small group activity, both academically (e.g., knowledge of a topic) and socially (e.g., listening skills). The activity should relate closely to the learning objective(s) and class content, and must be designed to help students learn, not simply to occupy their time. When deciding whether or not to use group work for a specific task, consider these questions: What is the objective of the activity? How will that objective be furthered by asking students to work in groups? Is the activity challenging or complex enough that it requires group work? Will the project require true collaboration? Is there any reason why the assignment should not be collaborative?
• Make the task challenging.  Consider giving a relatively easy task early in the term to arouse students’ interest in group work and encourage their progress. In most cases collaborative exercises should be stimulating and challenging. By pooling their resources and dealing with differences of opinion that arise, groups of students can develop a more sophisticated product than they could as individuals. See our teaching tip “ Group work in the Classroom: Small-Group Tasks ” for some ideas.
• Allocate essential resources across the group so that group members are required to share information (e.g., the  jigsaw method ). Or, to come up with a consensus, randomly select one person to speak for the group, or assign different roles to group members so that they are all involved in the process (e.g., recorder, spokesperson, summarizer, checker, skeptic, organizer, observer, timekeeper, conflict resolver, liaison to other groups).
• Another strategy for promoting interdependence is specifying common rewards for the group, such as a group mark. See the CTE teaching tip “ Methods for Assessing Group Work ” for more information.
• Decide on group size.  The size you choose will depend on the number of students, the size of the classroom, the variety of voices needed within a group, and the task assigned. Groups of four-five tend to balance the needs for diversity, productivity, active participation, and cohesion. The less skillful the group members, the smaller the groups should be (Gross Davis, 1993).
• To vary group composition and increase diversity within groups, randomly assign students to groups by counting off and grouping them according to number. 
• For some group tasks, the diversity within a group (e.g., gender, ethnicity, level of preparation) is especially important, and you might want to assign students to groups yourself before class. Collect a data card from each student on the first day of class to glean important information about their backgrounds, knowledge, and interests. Alternately, ask students to express a preference (e.g., list three students with whom they would most like to work or two topics they would most like to study), and keep their preferences in mind as you assign groups.
• Allow sufficient time for group work.  Recognize that you won't be able to cover as much material as you could if you lectured for the whole class period. Cut back on the content you want to present in order to give groups time to work. Estimate the amount of time that subgroups need to complete the activity. Also plan for a plenary session in which groups’ results can be presented or general issues and questions can be discussed.
• Design collaborative work in multiple forms:  pairs, small groups, large groups, online synchronously, online asynchronously, etc. Some students might be better at contributing after they have had time to digest material, while others might be better at thinking on the spot. Other students will defer to others in large groups but actively contribute in pairs. All roles should be valued and included.

Introducing the Group Activity

• Share your rationale for using group work.  Students must understand the benefits of collaborative learning. Don't assume that students know what the pedagogical purpose is. Explicitly connect these activities to larger class themes and learning outcomes whenever possible. 
• Have students form groups before you give them instructions.  If you try to give instructions first, students may be too preoccupied with deciding on group membership to listen to you. 
• Facilitate some form of group cohesion.  Students work best together if they know or trust each other, at least to some extent. Even for brief group activities, have students introduce themselves to their group members before attending to their task. For longer periods of group work, consider introducing an  icebreaker  or an activity designed specifically to build a sense of teamwork.
• Explain the task clearly.  This means both telling students exactly what they have to do and describing what the final product of their group work will look like. Explaining the big picture or final goal is important, especially when the group work will take place in steps (such as in  snowballing or jigsaw ). Prepare written or visual instructions (e.g., charts, sequential diagrams) for students. Remember to include time estimations for activities. 
• Set ground rules for group interaction.  Especially for extended periods of group work, establish how group members should interact with one another, including principles such as respect, active listening, and methods for decision making. Consider making a group contract. See  Group Decision Making , a CTE teaching tip prepared for students working in groups, and  Making Group Contracts .
• Let students ask questions.  Even if you believe your instructions are crystal clear, students may have legitimate questions about the activity. Give them time to ask questions before they get to work.

Monitoring the Group Task

• Monitor the groups but do not hover.  As students do their work, circulate among the groups and answer any questions raised. Also listen for trends that are emerging from the discussions, so that you can refer to them during the subsequent plenary discussion. Avoid interfering with group functioning — allow time for students to solve their own problems before getting involved. You might consider leaving the room for a short period of time. Your absence can increase students’ willingness to share uncertainties and disagreements (Jaques, 2000).
• Be slow to share what you know.  If you come upon a group that is experiencing uncertainty or disagreement, avoid the natural tendency to give the answers or resolve the disagreement. If necessary, clarify your instructions, but let students struggle — within reason — to accomplish the task (Race, 2000).
• Clarify your role as facilitator.  If students criticize you for not contributing enough to their work, consider whether you have communicated clearly enough your role as facilitator.

Ending the Group Task

Provide closure to the group activities.  Students tend to want to see how their work in small groups was useful to them and/or contributed to the development of the topic. You can end with a plenary session in which students do group reporting. Effective group reporting “can make the difference between students’ feeling that they are just going through their paces and the sense that they are engaged in a powerful exchange of ideas” (Brookfield & Preskill, 1999, p. 107).

• Oral reports:  Have each group give one idea and rotate through the groups until no new ideas arise. Or have each group give their most surprising or illuminating insights or their most challenging question. You can record ideas raised to validate their value.
• Written reports:  Have each group record their ideas and either present them yourself or have a group member do so. One variation on this is to have groups record their conclusions on a section of the blackboard or on flipchart paper that is then posted on the wall. Students then informally circulate around the room and read each other’s answers. Alternately, you can ask students to move around the room in small groups, rotating from one set of comments to another and adding their own comments in response. Another variation on written reports is to have students write brief comments on Post-it notes or index cards. Collect them, take a few minutes to process them or put them in sequence, then summarize their contents.
• Model how you want students to participate.  When responding to students’ answers, model the respect and sensitivity that you want the students to display towards their classmates. Be ready to acknowledge and value opinions different from your own. Be willing to share your own stories, critique your work, and summarize what has been said.
• Connect the ideas raised to course content and objectives.  Recognize that groups might not come up with the ideas you intended them to, so be willing to make your lecture plans flexible. Wherever possible, look for a connection between group conclusions and the course topic. However, be aware that misconceptions or inaccurate responses need to be clarified and corrected either by you or by other students.
• Don’t provide too much closure.  Although the plenary session should wrap up the group work, feel free to leave some questions unanswered for further research or for the next class period. This openness reflects the nature of knowledge.
• Ask students to reflect on the group work process.  They may do so either orally or in writing. This reflection helps them discover what they learned and how they functioned in the group. It also gives you a sense of their response to group work.

If you would like support applying these tips to your own teaching, CTE staff members are here to help.  View the  CTE Support  page to find the most relevant staff member to contact.

• Brookfield, S.D., & Preskill, S. (1999).  Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
• Gross Davis, B. (1993).  Tools for Teaching.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
• Jaques, D. (2000).  Learning in Groups: A Handbook for Improving Group Work, 3rd ed.  London: Kogan Page.
• Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. A. (2014). Cooperative learning: Improving university instruction by basing practice on validated theory.  Journal on Excellence in College Teaching , 25(3&4), 85-118.
• Race, P. (2000).  500 Tips on Group Learning.  London: Kogan Page.
• Roberson, B., & Franchini, B. (2014). Effective task design for the TBL classroom. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25(3&4), 275-302.

CTE teaching tips

• Group Work in the Classroom: Small-Group Tasks
• Group Work in the Classroom: Types of Small Groups
• Making Group Contracts
• Methods for Assessing Group Work

Other resources

• Journal on Excellence in College Teaching (2014). Special Focus Issue:  Small-Group Learning in Higher Education — Cooperative, Collaborative, Problem-Based, and Team-Based Learning .
• Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. (2006).  Active learning: Cooperation in the university classroom  (3 rd  edition). Edina, MN: Interaction. 
• Silberman, M. (1996).  Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject.  Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

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Using Roles in Group Work

Resource overview.

How using roles can improve group work in your class

While collaborative learning through group work has been proven to have the potential to produce stronger academic achievement than other kinds of learning environments (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 2006), it can be challenging to implement successfully because many students come to college without the tools they need to automatically succeed in collaborative learning contexts. One way of providing supportive structures to students in a collaborative learning environment is through assigning roles within group work.

Potential Benefits of Using Assigned Roles in Group Work

Assigning group roles can be a beneficial strategy for successful group work design for a number of reasons:

• Group roles offer an opportunity for high quality, focused interactions between group participants. Participants are more likely to stay on task and pay closer attention to the task at hand when their roles in the collaboration are clear and distinct.
• Group roles provide all students with a clear avenue for participation. Students are less likely to feel left out or unengaged when they have a particular duty that they are responsible for completing. Along the same lines, assigning group roles reduces the likelihood of one individual completing the task for the whole group, or “taking over,” to the detriment of others’ learning.
• Group roles encourage individual accountability. Group members are more likely to hold each other accountable for not completing work if a particular task is assigned to them.
• Group roles allow students to strengthen their communicative skills, especially in areas that they are less confident in volunteering for.
• Group roles can help disrupt stereotypical and gendered role assignments, which can be common in group learning. For example, Hirshfield and Chachra (2015) found that in first-year engineering courses, female students tended to undertake less technical roles and more communicative roles than their male colleagues. By assigning roles during group work, and by asking students to alternate these roles at different points in the semester, students can work past gendered assumptions about themselves and their groupmates.

POGIL: A Model for Role Assignments in Collaborative Learning

One small group learning methodology where the use of group roles is well-defined and researched is the  Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) method . The POGIL method calls for groups of three or four students who work in a team on process-oriented guided inquiry activities in which students construct their knowledge through interactions with others. Traditional POGIL roles for group members are provided below (POGIL, 2016).

• Manager  or  Facilitator : Manages the group by helping to ensure that the group stays on task, is focused, and that there is room for everyone in the conversation.
• Recorder : Keeps a record of those who were in the group, and the roles that they play in the group. The recorder also records critical points from the small group’s discussion along with findings or answers.
• Spokesperson  or  Presenter : Presents the group’s ideas to the rest of the class. The Spokesperson should rely on the recorder’s notes to guide their report.
• Reflector  or  Strategy Analyst : Observes team dynamics and guides the consensus-building process (helps group members come to a common conclusion).

Other Highly Adaptable Roles to Consider

You can adapt roles for different kinds of group tasks. While the POGIL model is a useful place to start, you may find that the tasks associated with your discipline require other kinds of roles for effective group learning. Adding to or reframing POGIL roles can be beneficial in these contexts. Below are some suggestions for additional roles that might be valuable to a variety of learning situations.

• Encourager : Encourages group members to continue to think through their approaches and ideas. The Encourager uses probing questions to help facilitate deeper thinking, and group-wide consideration of ideas.
• Questioner : Pushes back when the team comes to consensus too quickly, without considering a number of options or points of view. The questioner makes sure that the group hears varied points of view, and that the group is not avoiding potentially rich areas of disagreement.
• Checker : Checks over work in problem-solving contexts before the group members finalize their answers.

Strategies for Effective Facilitation of Group Roles

The following suggestions are strategies for effective facilitation of group roles. These strategies are helpful in a wide variety of group work situations, but are essential for group work that will last beyond a single class period, or constitute a significant portion of student grades.

• Be transparent about why you are assigning group roles. This kind of transparency can increase student buy-in by helping them recognize the value in establishing group roles
• Provide students with  a list of roles and brief definitions for each role  at the beginning of the group work activity. Make it clear which tasks are associated with which roles.
• Alternatively, you may find it helpful, especially in advanced-level classes, to encourage students to develop their own roles in groups based on the tasks that they feel will be critical to the group’s success. This strategy provides the students with a larger level of autonomy in their learning, while also encouraging them to use proven structures that will help them be successful.
• Roles can be assigned randomly through a variety of strategies, from who has the next birthday to color-coded post-it notes, or  a place card  that points out roles based on where everyone is sitting.
• Circulate early in the class period to be sure that everyone has been assigned a role, and that everyone is clear about what their responsibilities include.
• Be willing to reinforce the given roles throughout the activity. For roles to work, students have to feel as though they will be held accountable for fulfilling those roles. Therefore, it is critical for you to step in if you see someone taking over someone else’s role or not fulfilling their assigned role. Often gentle reminders about who is supposed to be doing what can be useful interventions. For example, if someone is talking over everyone and not listening to their other groupmates, you might say something like “Remember, as a spokesperson, your job is to represent the ideas of everyone in the group.”
• Talk with students individually if their speech or conduct could be silencing, denigrating, or excluding others. Remember: your silence on this issue may be read as endorsement.
• Changing things up regularly is imperative. If you use group roles frequently, mixing up roles throughout the semester can help students develop communication skills in a variety of areas rather than relying on a single personal strength.
• If this is a long-term group assignment, be sure to provide structures for individual feedback for the instructor and other group member on group dynamics. This could be a formal or informal check in, but it’s critical for students to have a space to voice concerns related to group dynamics—especially if this assignment counts for a large portion of their final grade. This feedback might be provided through an anonymous survey in paper form or through a web-based tool like Qualtrics or a Google form. These check-ins can reduce student anxiety about the potential for uneven group participation.

Overall, using assigned roles in group work provides students with a supportive structure that promotes meaningful collaborative learning. While group learning can be challenging to implement effectively, using roles can mitigate some of the challenges associated with learning in groups, while offering students the opportunity to develop a variety of communication skills that will be critical to their success in college and their future careers.

Burke, Alison. (2011). Group work: How to use groups effectively.  The Journal of Effective Teaching , 11(2), 87-95.

Beebe, S.A., & Masterson, J.T. (2003).  Communicating in small groups . Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Cheng, W. Y., Lam, S. F., & Chan, C. Y. (2008). When high achievers and low achievers work in the same group: The roles of group heterogeneity and processes in project‐based learning.  British Journal of Educational Psychology ,  78 (2), 205-221.

Eberlein, T., Kampmeier, J., Minderhout, V., Moog, R.S., Platt, T., Varma-Nelson, P., White, H.B. (2008). Pedagogies of engagement in science: A comparison of PBL, POGIL and PLTL.  Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 36 (4), 262-73.

Hale, D., & Mullen, L. G. (2009). Designing process-oriented guided-inquiry activities: A new innovation for marketing classes.  Marketing Education Review ,  19 (1), 73-80.

Hirshfield, L., & Chachra, D. (2015). Task choice, group dynamics and learning goals: Understanding student activities in teams.  2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference: Launching a New Vision in Engineering Education Proceedings, FIE 2015 , 1-5.

Johnson, C. (2011). Activities using process‐oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) in the foreign language classroom.  Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German ,  44 (1), 30-38.

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., and Smith, K.A. (2006).  Active learning: Cooperation in the university classroom . Edina, MN: Interaction.

Moog, R.S. (2014). Process oriented guided inquiry learning. In M.A. McDaniel, R. F. Frey, S.M. Fitzpatrick, & Roediger, H.L. (Eds.).  Integrating cognitive science with innovative teaching in STEM disciplines  (147-166). St. Louis: Washington University in St. Louis Libraries.

The POGIL Project. (2017). https://pogil.org/

Springer, L., Stanne, M.E., & Donovan, S.S. (1999). Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology: A meta-analysis.  Review of Educational Research, 96 (1), 21-51.

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Organizing the Groups

Designating roles in groups, sharing group results.

Having students work in groups lets them practice the skills they are learning. Speaking in front of the whole class can be scary, and combined with the tension of speaking to the teacher, the situation can be downright terrifying to students. Breaking them up into groups not only develops social skills useful in the professional environment for which they are training, but gives them a chance to perform in a supportive environment before a test or even before having to do homework on the topic on their own.

Keep in mind the following elements of group work when selecting the appropriate type of group work for your class.

• Size : Two to six people in a group is ideal. The smaller the group, the more likely each student will be to contribute to the discussion. Groups of two or three students are sufficient for simple tasks for which consensus should be reached quickly. Groups of four to six are better for more complex tasks in which a greater number of ideas may improve the final results.
• Selection : You should either assign students randomly to groups or select students so that each group has an equal distribution of talents. Do not let students choose their own teams, for they may team up with friends or form cliques that can get off topic.  Video on group formation  (running time 4:57).
• Duration : Use the groups for a brief discussion in class or for all semester. Long-term groups work more substantively and less superficially.

To derive the greatest benefit from the group interaction, you should spend a few minutes clarifying the students’ roles and the expectations for the group’s work.

Groups that are created for in-class discussion can be easily organized around a four-person model based on roles. Each member of the group plays a specific role that supports the team’s collaborative effort. These roles include:

• Leader : Responsible for keeping the group on task, maintaining the schedule (meetings, deadlines), and maintaining contact information (phone numbers, emails).
• Encourager : Encourages conversation and inclusion of all opinions, and guides the discussion toward consensus.
• Prober : Ensures that the assumptions are correct and that there is sufficient evidence for the solution.
• Recorder : Writes down the group’s solution that will be submitted for the group grade.

While some people will tend to lead and some will tend to follow, everyone should be willing to compromise and modify their ideas in the interest of group unity. If the groups are going to be working together on a long-term project or multiple tasks, you may wish to modify these roles to emulate roles that one might encounter in your discipline. Ensure that the students rotate through these positions. Try to break a long project into at least as many tasks as there are people in each group and have the students rotate through the roles each time they start a new task.

Students should share the results of their group with the class at large. This holds them accountable to show their work. Having to show the other groups what they did can increase their motivation to produce higher level work. While in the past, instructors were used to having groups report out their work either verbally or on newsprint posted on walls along with a walk-around format, for long-term projects, many social pedagogies now exist that can be employed, such as Prezi presentations or having students create a Public Service Announcement (PSA), blog, or a web page of their results. Do not forget to debrief students about the lessons they might have learned from the group work.

Designing for Difficulty: Social Pedagogies as a Framework for Course Design

Discussion can motivate students, especially when the activity involves authentic learning—that is, real world and messy—allowing students to collaborate, reflect on, and synthesize their learning. When planning the structure for a discussion, look for one that will hold students accountable to their peers, not just the instructor, in a public way (Bass & Elmendorf, 2011).

IDEA Paper #49 Effective Classroom Discussion

This paper sets out basic principles to create the expectation for student discussion, as well as the role of the instructor in fostering discussion in class. 

Team-Based Learning is an advanced form of group work in which content coverage is pushed outside of the class, with students using precious in-class time to take quizzes to show they have mastered the content and then practice the application of critical disciplinary skills such as problem-solving and argumentation. For more information, go the TBL website, which has many videos, including ones on forming groups, the difference between groups and teams, and peer evaluation of team members. 

Who Is Doing This at IUB?

The National Study of Student Engagement data show that 68% of IUB seniors engage in class discussion. Many IUB professors commonly use various discussion techniques. Some specific examples are listed below:

Prof. Jill Robinson (Chemistry) uses small groups for problem solving and “clickers” to collect student responses to get students to think deeply about fundamental chemical principles that can influence our climate. She does so even though she is teaching a large class (140-student C118: Principles of Chemistry and Biochemistry) and often teaching in a challenging classroom space.

Biology Professor and Carnegie Scholar Whitney Schlegel leads students to learn with their peers by engaging in discussion, problem-solving, and inquiry by using team members as a resource in classes of over 100. She utilizes a high-tech classroom so that students can show the products of their group work during class.

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• Kristy J. Wilson
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Biology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, Marian University, Indianapolis, IN 46222

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*Address correspondence to: Cynthia J. Brame ( E-mail Address: [email protected] ).

Center for Teaching and Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics faculty are increasingly incorporating both formal and informal group work in their courses. Implementing group work can be improved by an understanding of the extensive body of educational research studies on this topic. This essay describes an online, evidence-based teaching guide published by CBE—Life Sciences Education ( LSE ). The guide provides a tour of research studies and resources related to group work (including many articles from LSE ). Instructors who are new to group work, as well as instructors who have experienced difficulties in implementing group work, may value the condensed summaries of key research findings. These summaries are organized by teaching challenges, and actionable advice is provided in a checklist for instructors. Education researchers may value the inclusion of empirical studies, key reviews, and meta-analyses of group-work studies. In addition to describing key features of the guide, this essay also identifies areas in which further empirical studies are warranted.

INTRODUCTION

Group work is one of the most widely used and deeply researched teaching approaches in the college classroom. Group work that promotes students’ collaboration to achieve shared learning goals has been shown to increase student achievement, persistence, and attitudes toward science (e.g., Springer et al ., 1999 ; Tanner et al ., 2003 ; Johnson and Johnson, 2009 ; Johnson et al ., 2014 ). It can provide opportunities for students to explain their reasoning to one another and to themselves, thereby promoting the cognitive restructuring that leads to learning (e.g., Kagan, 2014 ). It offers opportunities for formative assessment and feedback with peers to shape that learning (e.g., Johnson and Johnson, 2009 ). It also provides students with an avenue to incorporate diverse viewpoints and to develop communication and teamwork skills that are especially important in scientific collaboration and professional fields (e.g., Lamm et al. , 2012 ).

However, anyone who has worked in a group or used group work in courses has experienced challenges. These challenges, if left unchecked, can prevent effective learning and result in poor-quality products, unequal distribution of workload, and escalating conflict among team members (e.g., Feichtner and Davis, 1984 ). In this article, we describe an evidence-based teaching guide that we have created to condense, summarize, and provide actionable advice from research findings (including many articles from CBE—Life Sciences Education [ LSE ]). The guide can be found on the American Society for Cell Biology website ( https://lse.ascb.org/evidence
-based-teaching-guides/group-work ), and a link will be listed on the LSE home page to direct users to a complete list of guides as this feature grows. We have included several useful features in the guide: a landing page that indicates starting points for instructors ( Figure 1 ), syntheses of observations from the literature ( Figure 2 ), summaries of and links to selected papers ( Figure 3 ), and an instructor checklist that details recommendations and points to consider. The guide is meant to aid instructors who are new to group work as well as instructors who have tried group work and experienced difficulties or want to improve their students’ experiences and outcomes. Researchers interested in exploring this area will also appreciate our efforts to identify empirical studies, informative reviews, and unanswered questions for which additional research is warranted. Some of the questions that we have considered in developing the guide are highlighted in the following sections.

FIGURE 1. Screenshot representing the landing page of the guide, which provides readers with an overview of choice points.

FIGURE 2. Screenshot showing an example description of overall conclusions that can be drawn about an element of group work, based on a synthesis of the literature.

FIGURE 3. Screenshots representing (A) summaries and links to important papers and (B) other resources.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF FORMING PERMANENT VERSUS TEMPORARY GROUPS?

The guide begins by separating findings, recommendations, and resources for formal, permanent groups from informal, temporary groups. During formal group work, students work in persistent groups for an extended period on a collaborative project, while in informal group work, ad hoc groups work together on an in-class problem or question for periods ranging from a few minutes to a full class session ( Johnson et al ., 2014 ). Formal group work requires more planning and coordination, but the benefits are that it can help students work together to reach important course objectives. Informal group work, on the other hand, is easy to incorporate into classes of any size and in any space. Informal group work can be an effective supplement to lecture, allowing learners to process information, and is often an essential part of, or used in conjunction with, classic active-learning techniques (e.g., Tanner et al. , 2003 ).

Three elements that are particularly important to consider in structuring formal group work are task interdependence, individual accountability, and reward interdependence ( Johnson and Johnson, 2009 ). Task interdependence refers to the degree to which group members must work together to complete the assigned task. For optimal group benefit and motivation, tasks should not be able to be completed by just one or two group members, but rather should require contributions from all group members (e.g., Gillies, 2013 ). Individual accountability, or the understanding that group members will be responsible for the work they specifically contribute, reduces social free-riding in group settings and encourages members to contribute. Reward interdependence can be accomplished through several mechanisms, including shared grades, for which individual students earn a final grade that relies on scores earned by their team members on a test or assignment, or certificates of recognition that students can earn if their average team scores on quizzes or other individual assignments exceed a pre-established criterion ( Serrano and Pons, 2007 ).

Are there specific types of outcomes that are better met with informal group work rather than formal group work, or vice versa?

SHOULD INSTRUCTORS FORM GROUPS OR LET STUDENTS SELF-SELECT THEIR OWN GROUPS?

What are the different impacts for ethnic majority and minority students in ethnically diverse groups? If so, what are they, and why do they occur?

Does context determine effective gender composition for groups? If so, is it a generalizable context (e.g., physics groups work best with one composition, while biology groups work best with another composition)? Alternatively, does the effectiveness of different group gender compositions depend on the measure being used (e.g., creativity of final product, effectiveness of group communication)? Are there task features or group structures that can mitigate disadvantages of particular gender mixes?

The data on academic performance as a diversity factor also do not point to a single conclusion. What features of group work lead to benefits for high-, mid-, or low-performing students? Will these features be combined to benefit mixed-ability groups? Do homogeneous or heterogeneous groups provide a greater advantage?

What are effective steps to take to support students with different disabilities while they participate in group work?

WHAT CAN INSTRUCTORS DO TO PROMOTE QUALITY GROUP EXPERIENCES?

Findings from research studies on peer evaluation have clearly identified several methods to identify dysfunctional groups. What are the potential solutions to address dysfunctional groups and under what conditions are these solutions effective? When is it more effective to disband a dysfunctional group rather than enforce mediation?

What is the best method to deal with persistent free-riders?

WHAT TASKS ARE IDEAL FOR PROMOTING EFFECTIVE GROUP WORK?

We describe a number of formalized group-work pedagogies with defined criteria and tasks that instructors can consider. These include problem-based learning, team-based learning, process-oriented guided inquiry learning, case-based learning, and peer-led team learning, all of which have descriptions and biology-relevant papers linked within the Formalized Pedagogies section of the guide. Instructors considering these approaches should consider forming a team of instructors, administrators, and/or staff to address the attendant time and resource needs. For any group task, it is important to consider why group work is being used in a particular situation and how it meets the instructor’s learning goals for students. To help promote student buy-in and student learning, these goals should be shared with students, along with an explanation of how the group work aligns with these goals.

Typically, a task’s relevance to students’ lives increases task value and thus student motivation. What are the best ways to structure relevant tasks in the biology classroom? Do these features differ by major or level of student?

Does a students-as-producers approach, wherein students generate new knowledge for an external audience, impact motivation for all students or only some? Does the relative size of the product/student contribution matter (e.g., one figure on a poster vs. entire infographic for congressional representative)?

How do different group tasks or task instructions affect cognitive development of knowledge structures and their use? What tasks support development of declarative knowledge (what), procedural knowledge (how), and conceptual knowledge (when/why)?

Students lie at various places along the novice–expert continuum. How do we match scaffolding to student needs?

WHEN NOT TO USE GROUP WORK

We finish this summary to our guide by cautioning that group work is not a panacea for learning. A great deal of research has defined the type of tasks for which group work is more effective than individual learning. Groups of students show greater gains than individual students for tasks that are complex and ill-­defined with multiple possible correct answers ( Kirschner et al. , 2011 ), but for simpler tasks that require recall, definitions, or looking up information, students exhibit greater gains when they work on their own. Thus, maximizing the benefits of group work requires that instructors attend to the learning goals they want their students to attain and, if applicable, the group-work structures that they put in place to help the students reach those goals.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank William Pierce and Thea Clarke for their efforts in producing the Evidence-Based Teaching Guides website and the American Society for Cell Biology for hosting the site.

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© 2018 K. J. Wilson et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2018 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

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When the teacher announces that an assignment is going to be done as group work, there is usually a collective groan. Group collaboration is frustrating, unequal, and often lacks direction—all negatives for achieving students, and indifference for the others.

So, then why assign collaborative work? Because group work has true merit:

• Group work allows the members to develop better listening and speaking skills, in addition to learning to be diplomatic in conversation. These interpersonal skills are necessary for success in college and in a career.
• Groups can truly achieve more than an individual can on his/her own. Discussing and sharing bring a depth of knowledge that most members would not likely achieve individually.
• Collaboration helps you see your strengths and weaknesses. Enhanced self-awareness benefits everyone.

How group work should work:

• Shared responsibility but assignments based on abilities—While the group does share the responsibilities of accomplishing the work, assigning members duties based on strengths helps the project to run more smoothly.
• Encouraging open-mindedness—Everyone comes into the group with differing attitudes and beliefs. The diversity of opinions should produce a deeper understanding of the subject than if it is accomplished alone. Learning to appreciate other viewpoints is a healthy goal.
• Differing academic goals—Each member enters the group with different academic goals. Some always strive for high grades, while others are content to pass. Learning to work through this conflict is positive for future roles.
• Navigating through decisions—Since the decisions must be made as a group, it requires discussion and compromise.

The disadvantages can overpower the positive aspects:  the workload is unequal, every decision requires more time, participation is sporadic, creativity is difficult, and it is easy for members to avoid doing any of the work.

Since group work has benefits that carry over to future careers and relationships, teachers are wise to continue using them for the proper assignments. Following are specific considerations for when to use collaborative work.

• Students see through group work that is really just busy work, so communicate clearly the academic and social objectives to be accomplished. Make sure that they tie into class content well.
• The assignment should be challenging enough to arouse interest among the students.
• Keep the number of students to 4-5 as that is where the diverse perspectives seem to work best. Randomly assigning students to groups keeps friend groups from working together.
• Vary the composition of the groups by sometimes using pairs, four students, etc.
• Clearly state the task in detail, with no confusion on what the final product should look like.
• Set interaction expectations for the group members.
• Be sure at the end of the collaboration to remind them of the connection to the coursework.

The Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University notes that group work develops a host of skills that are increasingly essential to the work world. Additionally, teachers can assign more complex, real-life problems to groups than to individuals. Well planned and thoughtful collaborative work yields a better learning outcome for students than completing all assignments on their own.

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Eberly Center

Teaching excellence & educational innovation, what are the challenges of group work and how can i address them.

Unfortunately, groups can easily end up being less, rather than more, than the sum of their parts. Why is this?

In this section, we consider the hazards of group projects and strategies instructors can use to avoid or mitigate them. Find other strategies and examples here or contact the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence for help.

For students, common challenges of group work include:

• Coordination costs
• Motivation costs
• Intellectual costs

For instructors, common challenges involve:

• Allocating time
• Teaching process skills
• Assessing process as well as product
• Assessing individual as well as group learning

Challenges for students

Coordination costs represent time and energy that group work consumes that individual work does not, including the time it takes to coordinate schedules, arrange meetings, meet, correspond, make decisions collectively, integrate the contributions of group members, etc. The time spent on each of these tasks may not be great, but together they are significant.

Coordination costs can’t be eliminated, nor should they be: after all, coordinating the efforts of multiple team members is an important skill. However, if coordination costs are excessive or are not factored into the structure of group assignments, groups tend to miss deadlines, their work is poorly integrated, motivation suffers, and creativity declines.

Instructors should note that coordination costs increase with:

• Group size: The more people in the group, the more schedules to accommodate, parts to delegate, opinions to consider, pieces to integrate, etc. Smaller groups have lower coordination costs.
• Task interdependence: Tasks in which group members are highly reliant on one another at all stages tend to have higher coordination costs than tasks that allow students to “divide and conquer”, though they may not satisfy the same collaborative goals.
• Heterogeneity: Heterogeneity of group members tends to raises coordination costs, especially if there are language issues to contend with, cultural differences to bridge, and disparate skills to integrate. However, since diversity of perspectives is one of the principle advantages of groups, this should not necessarily be avoided.

Strategies: To help reduce or mitigate coordination costs:

• Keep groups small.
• Designate some class time for group meetings.
• Use group resumes or skills inventories to help teams delegate subtasks.
• Assign roles (e.g., group leader, scheduler) or encourage students to do so.
• Point students to digital tools that facilitate remote and/or asynchronous meetings.
• Warn students about time-consuming stages and tasks.
• Actively build communication and conflict resolution skills.
• Designate time in the project schedule for the group to integrate parts.

Motivation costs refers to the adverse effect on student motivation of working in groups, which often involves one or more of these phenomena:

• Free riding occurs when one or more group members leave most or all of the work to a few, more diligent, members. Free riding – if not addressed proactively – tends to erode the long-term motivation of hard-working students.
• Social loafing describes the tendency of group members to exert less effort than they can or should because of the reduced sense of accountability (think of how many people don’t bother to vote, figuring that someone else will do it.) Social loafing lowers group productivity.
• Conflict within groups can erode morale and cause members to withdraw. It can be subtle or pronounced, and can (but isn’t always) the cause and result of free riding. Conflict – if not effectively addressed – can leave group members with a deeply jaundiced view of teams.

Strategies: To address both preexisting and potential motivation problems:

• Explain why working in groups is worth the frustration.
• Establish clear expectations for group members, by setting ground rules and/or using team contracts.
• Increase individual accountability by combining group assessments with individual assessments. 
• Teach conflict-resolution skills and reinforce them by role-playing responses to hypothetical team conflict scenarios. 
• Assess group processes via periodic process reports, self-evaluations, and peer evaluations.

Intellectual costs refer to characteristics of group behavior that can reduce creativity and productivity. These include:

• Groupthink : the tendency of groups to conform to a perceived majority view. 
• Escalation of commitment : the tendency of groups to become more committed to their plans and strategies – even ineffective ones – over time. 
• Transparency illusion : the tendency of group members to believe their thoughts, attitudes and reasons are more obvious to others than is actually the case.
• Common information effect : the tendency of groups to focus on information all members share and ignore unique information, however relevant.

Strategies: To reduce intellectual costs and increase the creativity and productivity of groups:

• Precede group brainstorming with a period of individual brainstorming (sometimes called “nominal group technique”). This forestalls groupthink and helps the group generate and consider more different ideas.
• Encourage group members to reflect on and highlight their contributions in periodic self-evaluations. 
• Create structured opportunities at the halfway point of projects to allow students to reevaluate and revise their strategies and approaches.
• Assign roles to group members that reduce conformity and push the group intellectually (devil’s advocate, doubter, the Fool).

Challenges for instructors

While group assignments have benefits for instructors , they also have complexities that instructors should consider carefully, for example in these areas:

Allocating time: While group assignments may save instructors time in some areas (e.g., grading final projects), they may add time in other areas (e.g., time needed up front to identify appropriate project topics, contact external clients, compose student groups; time during the semester to meet with and monitor student groups; time at the end of the semester to ascertain the contributions of individual team members.)

Teaching process skills: Functioning effectively in teams requires students to develop strong communication, coordination, and conflict resolution skills, which not all instructors feel qualified to teach. Many instructors are also reluctant to devote class time to reinforcing these skills and may be uncomfortable dealing with the interpersonal issues that can arise in groups. In other words, dealing proactively with team dynamics may push some instructors out of their comfort zone.

Assessing process as well as product: Assessing teamwork skills and group dynamics (i.e., process) can be far trickier than assessing a team’s work (i.e., product). Effective evaluation of process requires thoughtful consideration of learning objectives and a combination of assessment approaches. This creates layers of complexity that instructors may not anticipate.

Assessing individual as well as group learning: Group grades can hide significant differences in learning, yet teasing out which team members did and did not contribute to the group or learn the lessons of the assignment can be difficult. Once again, this adds complexity to group projects that instructors often underestimate. 

Find effective strategies to help faculty address these issues in the design of effective group projects .

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Strategies for Creating an Effective Co-teaching Relationship

When general and special education teachers collaborate as equals, their students benefit.

Throughout my career as a special education teacher, I’ve had many opportunities to co-teach in collaborative classrooms. Some of these experiences were positive, others more challenging. With the ever-increasing demands of today’s classrooms, many school districts are relying on co-teaching to meet the needs of all learners. Yet teachers aren’t often trained in co-facilitation. 

It’s important to fill this gap. Below, I offer insights on how to begin.

Treat Each Other as Equal Partners

In my view, the most important element of a successful, inclusive classroom is parity. For collaborative teaching to be effective, both teachers should be viewed as equals. 

Often, a special education teacher co-teaches in a general education classroom. When entering the room, both teachers should be viewed just as that—the teachers.  Too many times, as a special education teacher, I’ve walked into a classroom and encountered the assumption that I was only there to work with students with special needs. 

But for classrooms to be most effective, every person in the learning community, from teachers, to paraprofessionals to students, must view co-teachers as equal entities there to work with all students. When a teacher is viewed as “less than” a teacher, they have a lesser impact in the classroom.   

For example, I once co-taught fifth-grade social studies. On my inaugural day in the district, I walked into the room, and six heads turned; these students had not met me yet, but they walked to the back of the room and sat at a table where I was sitting. I looked at them and asked, “What are you doing?” “Social studies,” they replied.  I sent them back to their desks. My co-teacher stopped what she was doing and gave me a questioning look, as if to say, “What’re they doing?” It was obvious that their previous co-teachers required students with special needs to work with the special education teacher in the back of a regular education classroom. They were separating themselves by rote.  

For teachers, it can be difficult to find a common planning time. However, co-teachers must work together to find a way to communicate—whether via email, text, meeting before or after school, or having phone conversations. Having a consistent flow of information and ideas enhances parity. In addition to instructional planning and discussing roles and responsibilities for each lesson, you can share information about specific students, types of disabilities and their impact on student performance, or content gaps you can work to strengthen together.

Share Responsibilities

I think back to my first teaching position, when the concept of co-teaching was relatively new. In a co-taught elementary science class, I was told by my counterpart that as the special education teacher, I was expected to sit in the classroom, and if the science teacher needed help (such as with handing out materials) or a student demonstrated inappropriate behaviors, I would get the nod to step in.   

But the strategy above—treating both teachers equally—means this model is inappropriate. Both teachers should assume that the class is “our” class and never “my/your class.” They should both have responsibility for preparing lessons, planning activities, creating assessments, and teaching. 

Be mindful that neither teacher is the primary source of instruction while the other offers support. If one teacher is always teaching the main lesson, the second is seen as a helper and not viewed equally by students (or colleagues). Instead, work with your co-teacher to devise a plan for frequently switching roles and responsibilities.  

When both teachers are teaching, learning improves. Content knowledge, teaching strategies, assessments, classroom management—all are doubled. Teachers grow and learn from each other, improving the quality of the educational experience for all students in the room.

Co-Own Accountability

Another way to create parity is ensuring that both teachers feel responsible for all students’ outcomes. Share the goal of student learning and achievement. 

In the scenarios above, it was clear that the expectation was for one teacher to be concerned with the general classroom population, while the other was expected to work only with certain students. This segregates some students within their own classroom and wastes resources.   

No matter which co-teaching model you choose, make it a practice for both teachers to work with all students, and have student success at the forefront of the strategies you employ. For example, rather than referring to, say, “Mr. Vogel’s students” during pull-out subjects or small group activities, be sure that all students interact with both teachers and don’t feel grouped in any particular way.

Share Knowledge

Co-teaching presents powerful opportunities to learn from colleagues—deepening their understandings of disabilities and how they affect student performance, for example, or filling in content gaps to strengthen the teaching experience.  

I was a high school learning support instructor for a portion of my career. I was assigned to co-teach an algebra class. I was completely intimidated by the content. That year, we worked with a student diagnosed with cerebral palsy who used a wheelchair for mobility. The algebra teacher also seemed intimidated by creating an inclusive learning space. Working together, we were able to grow professionally, and all students benefited.  

Co-teaching, when done collaboratively , can be an amazingly powerful tool in today’s schooling environments. When both teachers are viewed as equal entities, the success of the classroom will be evident.

education, community-building and change

Group work principles, theory and practice

Exploring the principles, theory, practice and development of work with groups

Introducing groupwork.

What is a group? We explore what a group is – and some key dimensions of groups.

What is groupwork? Just what does the process of working with a group involve?

the development of group work

The early history of group work . We examine the emergence of group work in British work with young people and adults during the nineteenth century.

Social group work: formulation of a method, 1920-1936 . Kenneth E. Reid explores a pivotal time in the development of the theory and practice of working with groups within social work.

Group work – expansion and professionalism, 1937 – 1955 . Kenneth E. Reid explores how group work was increasingly presented as part of social work (as against informal education and recreation) and the fascinating process of delineating its boundaries.

thinkers (see groupwork pioneers )

Robert Freed Bales, group observation and interaction processes . R. F. Bales pioneered the development of systematic methods of group observation and measurement of interaction processes. In this brief article we survey his contribution.

Grace Coyle and group work principles, theory and practice . Grace Coyle made an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of group work principles, theory and practice. She was also an important advocate for the work within US social work and an innovatory trainer.

George C. Homans, the human group and elementary social behaviour . George Caspar Homans (1910-1989) is widely regarded as the father of social exchange theory. Two of his many books, The Human Group and Social Behaviour: Its Elementary Forms are considered world-classics in sociology. He also made significant empirical and conceptual contributions to small-group research. In this piece A. Javier Treviño explores Homans’ lasting contribution.

Josephine Klein, group work, youth work and exploring English cultures . Josephine Klein was one of the first British-based practitioners to explore group process and working with groups systematically. She also went on to complete a landmark study of family and community life and develop before becoming a psychotherapist. We explore her contribution.

Gisela Konopka and group work . Gisela Konopka (1910-2003) made a profound contribution to the development of social group work and the deepening of practice with children and young people. In this paper Janice Andrews charts Gisela Konopka’s life and assesses her work.

Kurt Lewin, group dynamics and action learning : A seminal theorist who deepened our understanding of groups, experiential learning, and action research.

Carl Rogers, core conditions and education . Best known for his contribution to client-centered therapy and his role in the development of counselling, Rogers also had much to say about the principles, theory and practice of education and group work.

Bruce W. Tuckman – forming, storming, norming and performing in groups . Bruce W. Tuckman produced one of the most quoted models of group development in the 1960s. We consider his contribution and the model’s continuing use.

Gertrude Wilson and social group work theory and practice . Gertrude Wilson was a pivotal figure in the development of the principles, theory and practice of group work during the 1940s and 1950s. Here we briefly assess her contribution.

Animation . Animation introduced. Animation, formation and education explored. The development of practice.

Association . The nature of association and its educational potential explored plus an annotated list of key texts.

Conversation and dialogue . Dialogue’, Freire says, ‘is the encounter between men, mediated by the world, in order to name the world’. Here we explore this idea – and its roots.

Experiential learning . David A. Kolb’s model of experiential learning can be found in many discussions of the theory and practice of adult education, informal education and lifelong learning. We set out the model, and examine its possibilities and problems.

Evaluation . Evaluation is part and parcel of educating – yet it can be experienced as a burden and an unnecessary intrusion. We explore the theory and practice of evaluation and some of the key issues for informal and community educators, social pedagogues youth workers and others. In particular, we examine educators as connoisseurs and critics, and the way in which they can deepen their theory base and become researchers in practice.

Facilitating learning and change in groups . Just what is facilitation, and what does it involve? We explore the theory and practice of facilitation, and some key issues around facilitating group sessions.

Learning . What is learning? Is it a change in behaviour or understanding? Is it a process? Here we survey some common models.

Reflection . What constitutes reflection – and what significance does it have for educators? The contributions of Dewey, Schön and Boud et. al. assessed.

Self-direction . Many books and articles about lifelong learning talk glibly about self direction. Too often this idea is seen as unproblematic – an obvious good. But things are not quite as they seem.

Acknowledgement : Picture: Group work by Eldan Goldenberg. Sourced from Flcikr and reproduced under a Creative Commons  Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) licence. http://www.flickr.com/photos/eldan/4929258391/

Last Updated on October 19, 2019 by infed.org

Teachers’ Unions Are Starting Teacher-Prep Programs. Here’s What to Know

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Teachers’ unions, long defenders of the teaching profession, are now putting their own spin on an often-criticized component: teacher preparation.

The Washington Education Association is in its first year of overseeing a teacher residency program, in which aspiring teachers receive on-the-job training (and a paycheck) while they earn their teaching license. It’s the first—and so far, only—preparation program in which a union is taking the lead role in credentialing teachers, although other state unions are interested in following suit.

Teacher residencies have become increasingly popular at colleges and universities, school districts, and nonprofits, and have been supported by federal grants. Some of those efforts have partnered with teachers’ unions, but the unions had not taken a lead role until now.

But the conditions are ripe for more to follow in WEA’s footsteps: Teacher shortages in certain fields are continuing to plague schools; new sources of federal funding are available ; and teachers’ unions are looking for ways to bolster their own membership.

“Unions have been trying to find ways to engage members, and to innovate, and I think this is a natural avenue to pursue,” said Bradley Marianno, an associate professor of educational policy and leadership at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He expects to see more state teachers’ unions adapt the residency model, either by themselves or with a university partner.

After all, this can double as an organizing strategy at a time when teachers’ unions have been hit with legal and legislative challenges to how they recruit and retain members, he said.

“They are in front of these new teachers and can pitch the benefits of the union,” Marianno said.

In the WEA’s residency program, the residents are union members and are covered by a collective bargaining agreement as they earn their teaching certificates.

“Being able to bargain for them, being able to make sure they get all of that bargaining power as a member when they are a resident, I think, is significant,” said Annie Lamberto, the special populations coordinator for WEA who supervises the program.

Also significant: A union-led residency program is designed for and by teachers, she said.

“Everyone that is involved in our program are current members of WEA, and they’re in the classroom,” Lamberto said. “It doesn’t have that disconnect that you can sometimes find in other teacher-prep programs. ... Every single thing we do in our coursework has a direct thread to classroom activities—we don’t make them do anything in our [coursework] that they don’t actually have to perform.”

How Washington’s union-led residency got started

A couple years ago, Washington state schools began relying on record-breaking numbers of emergency substitutes, who aren’t required to have a background in education or a bachelor’s degree.

That pattern was “one of the health indicators that our system is struggling in terms of educator shortages,” said Jim Meadows, the dean of educator career pathways at the WEA.

Chris Reykdal, the state superintendent of public instruction, asked WEA to develop training and support for the emergency substitutes —and create a pathway for teacher certification, Meadows said.

Trade unions in other fields have long run programs to train future workers and supply a pipeline of dues-paying members. And teachers’ unions have long offered professional development, including the clock hours teachers need to maintain their licenses .

“As an organization, we had a strong track record for providing high-quality, relevant, practitioner-led professional learning,” Meadows said.

The WEA received $10.7 million in federal pandemic-relief money from the state, with $6.6 million of it allocated for the union to build and launch a teacher residency program. The first cohort of residents started last year and will graduate in August with their teaching certificate with a special education endorsement.

There are 16 residents in the first cohort who are working in three school districts. The WEA expects to grow to about 30 residents and nine school districts for its second cohort, which will start in June.

The residents are primarily former paraeducators and substitute teachers. They already have bachelor’s degrees, which gives WEA more flexibility: “We do not see our space as being degree-conferring,” Meadows said.

While designing the program, the WEA participated in the National Center for Teacher Residencies’ Residency Design Academy, a consulting service that included a facilitated site visit to another residency to see the work in action.

It was the first time the NCTR worked closely with a union-led teacher residency, said Kathlene Holmes Campbell, the center’s chief executive officer. There’s a lot of opportunity in this space, she said, adding that teachers’ unions are “well positioned” to run such programs, given their experience offering professional learning opportunities to their members.

But in general, it might be beneficial if unions work with an institution of higher education to offer participants a chance to earn a bachelor’s or master’s degree, Campbell said. Creating a pathway to a degree can help attract more diverse candidates.

A more affordable path to the classroom

WEA residents receive a minimum $35,000 salary for the school year, plus benefits. Local teachers’ unions can negotiate for higher salaries, and since the residents are covered by the district’s collective bargaining agreement, they’re eligible for paid time off, including sick days and bereavement leave.

“If you think about the barriers for new teachers, a [collective bargaining agreement] is life-changing in terms of removing those barriers,” Meadows said.

Residents must pay up to $5,000 for the cost of the program, although WEA is looking into ways to reduce that cost, Meadows said. After graduating, residents commit to teaching in the district they trained in for at least three years.

One of the residents, Patrice Madrid, had become a paraeducator in the Federal Way school district in the spring of 2022 after being a stay-at-home mom for eight years. She immediately felt like she had found her calling and wanted to become a full-time teacher—but she didn’t see an immediate path forward.

“I wasn’t sure I would be able to enroll in a traditional program any time soon, because [taking on] significant student loans didn’t seem like the right decision for my family,” she said. “I was pretty disappointed.”

When she learned about WEA’s residency program, it felt like the pieces had fallen into place.

“They have figured everything out that was stopping me, and they have taken that away,” Madrid said. “It was meant to be.”

Rotations in special education settings

In Washington state, as in some others, a special education teaching certificate permits teachers to teach all ages and in all types of special education settings. Yet teachers don’t always get experience in multiple settings during traditional student-teaching.

As in a medical residency, the WEA residency program rotates residents through four nine-week-long rotations in different special education settings, including one in which they work with students with disabilities in general education classes alongside a general education teacher.

“When you become a special ed. teacher, there’s so much variety within that, and you don’t know what you don’t know,” Lamberto said. “We wanted our residents to be able to find not just what they’re good at and what their strengths are, but what they’re passionate about.”

Getting to experience this variety was part of what drew Madrid to WEA’s residency program: “I was nervous about the possibility of training in one type of environment and then becoming a teacher in something completely different,” she said.

Although the residents all have prior classroom experience, the rotations—and corresponding coursework—have ensured that they are getting a wide breadth and depth of knowledge for what it means to be a special education teacher, Lamberto said.

Some of the residents who used to be substitute teachers had never been around students with medical needs before, she said: “They just didn’t really understand what those kids’ needs would be and how they would serve them. ... It was very eye-opening for them.”

Meanwhile, many of the residents who are former paraeducators had asked if they could do their first rotation in the classroom where they used to work. They wanted the comfort of familiarity, Lamberto said—but it backfired.

“For both the mentor and the resident, I think it was too easy to slip back in their role,” she said. “For cohort two, we want to start them off in a place where they’re going to have to stretch.”

How the WEA is making adjustments

In addition to working in classrooms during the day, the residents are taking classes one weeknight per week and on Saturdays, as well as completing assignments.

It’s a demanding schedule, Madrid said. Some residents have had a hard time keeping up with the program’s coursework on top of their full-time job and personal responsibilities.

A challenge for the WEA has been to figure out how to hold residents accountable to the program’s high expectations while still being supportive, Lamberto said.

“That is not something that we have any experience with that a higher ed. organization does,” she said. “What do you do if this student is not doing what they’re supposed to do?”

The WEA has started making tutors—current teachers—available to residents if they need additional support completing their coursework and assignments, Lamberto said.

Another major challenge for WEA will be making sure the program remains financially sustainable after the initial money runs out.

In addition to the pandemic-relief money, the WEA received a $3.2 million grant from the federal State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula program, which the union is using to transition its program into an apprenticeship, which will open up new sources of federal and state funding. The basic structure of the program will remain, but the WEA will make some modifications to align with Washington state’s standards for apprenticeship programs.

Apprentices need a wage progression tied to skill growth, so WEA will have to incorporate at least one pay bump over the program. Secondly, the state requires apprentices to have 2,000 on-the-job training hours. Currently, WEA residents complete around 1,450 eligible hours.

To make up the difference, residents will start the program in January instead of in June, Meadows said, and their rotations will extend to 12 weeks from nine. If the WEA gets approval to transition to an apprenticeship program, this change will take effect in 2025 for the program’s third cohort, which will overlap with the second.

Other unions are paying attention

Other teachers’ unions are watching to see how the WEA’s program continues to evolve.

Monica Byron, the vice president of Education Minnesota, visited Washington state at the start of this year to see the program in action and take notes for how a union-led preparation program could work in the North Star State.

After all, the need is there: Most Minnesota districts have reported having unfilled teacher vacancies, she said.

“We know that we need to do something to find a way to recruit and then retain educators,” Byron said. “Knowing that Washington state has a program that’s seen as successful—we were pretty inspired.”

Education Minnesota formed a committee of educators to discuss what their residency or apprenticeship program might look like. It’s finalizing its recommendations and will present them to the governing board this summer for a vote. If approved, Byron said she hopes to have a program running at the start of the 2025-26 school year.

As union-led preparation programs get underway, though, more systematic research is needed to determine the factors that lead to whether the candidates feel well-prepared to teach, how long they then stay in their jobs, and how their students perform academically, said Jacqueline King, a consultant for research, policy, and advocacy for the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

“We’re still in a period of a lot of experimentation,” she said, referring to alternative programs, both union-led and otherwise. “States are approving programs, and they’re flying blind a little in terms of what the optimal structure is for these kinds of programs.

“I think it’s fantastic that there’s a lot of creative, interesting work being done,” King added. “We need some research to help us understand which of these experiments have really good lessons to teach” the rest of the field.

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Home > ETD > Doctoral > 5530

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Empowerment and advocacy culture within higher education for adults with intellectual disabilities: a qualitative case study.

Rachel R. Kovach , Liberty University Follow

School of Education

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Christian L Raby

empowerment, advocacy, intellectual disabilities, higher education

Disciplines

Educational Leadership | Higher Education

Recommended Citation

Kovach, Rachel R., "Empowerment and Advocacy Culture within Higher Education for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: A Qualitative Case Study" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects . 5530. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5530

The purpose of this case study was to understand the impact that advocacy and empowerment practices have on the intellectual disabilities community in academic and social constructs for students within community colleges and disability programs on the West Coast of California. The theories that served as the foundation of this study are intergroup contact theory and empowerment theory. Intergroup contact theory assures that the acceptance of societal norms and expectations must be agreed upon and embraced by all within a subpopulation for cultures to adapt and advance. Empowerment theory states that a fundamental goal during moments of progress and struggle is to achieve self-actualization and fulfillment by gaining peer, professional, and personal efficacy by developing and sharing one’s voice and perspective. With 20 participants, nine partook in individual interviews, and two separate focus groups of five-to-seven per group were formed, with the remaining 11. This allowed participants to communicate their insights and perspectives on their relationships with higher education and their connections to empowerment and advocacy practices within their daily lives. 10 of the 20 participants submitted work samples demonstrating their connections to empowerment and advocacy skills. Based on the data collected, the participants found it more important for their skills to assist in improving the lives and realities of their peers and passionate causes before themselves. Experiences gained within the classroom environment, as well as overcoming social and medical adversity, provided participants the resources necessary to convey the importance and effectiveness of empowerment and advocacy practices for future students as well as their peers and have ultimately offered them opportunities to be more fully developed students, employees, and global citizens.

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Three Rhode Island power players just launched a political nonprofit

The group’s goal is to “influence policy makers and constituents to work for progressive change in housing, education, labor, and health care, particularly women’s health care,” according to incorporation papers.

We’re still a few months away from Rhode Island’s elections taking center stage, but three of the best-known insiders in the state have just launched a new nonprofit “social welfare” organization that they believe will play a big role in local politics for years to come.

Kate Coyne-McCoy, a former executive director of the state Democratic Party, George Zainyeh, who was chief of staff to former governor Lincoln Chafee and is now one of the most influential lobbyists on Smith Hill, and Patti Doyle, a top communications pro for just about everyone, formed Better RI NOW on April 8.

The group’s plans are still vague, but its goal is to “influence policy makers and constituents to work for progressive change in housing, education, labor, and health care, particularly women’s health care,” according to incorporation papers.

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Asked to expand on the group’s goals, Doyle said the group plans to raise money, but won’t directly endorse candidates for office. She said “we can let voters know which candidates stand for issues important to them.”

”The three of us have been active in public policy for a while, we witness the ongoing national dialogue, and just want to be additive to a local conversation on a variety of key issues,” Doyle said.

Stepping back: Coyne-McCoy, Zainyeh, Doyle aren’t necessarily household names to the average Rhode Islander, but they’re a powerful trifecta in political circles. Doyle said the group plans to focus on the congressional delegation and statewide offices.

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and US Representatives Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo are all on the ballot this year, although all three are heavy favorites to be reelected (especially in a presidential election year). It’s more intriguing to think about the role Better RI NOW might play in 2026 in Rhode Island.

This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, links to interesting stories, and more. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.

Dan McGowan can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him @danmcgowan .

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What to Know About COVID FLiRT Variants

Virologists are keeping an eye on several COVID variants that have all picked up the same set of mutations. Here’s what that means.

Aliza Rosen

At the end of March, the KP.2 variant was causing about 4% of infections in the U.S.,  according to the CDC , while its parental strain, JN.1, was causing over 50% of infections at that time. As of early May, KP.2 makes up about 28% of infections, overtaking JN.1 as the dominant variant.

KP.2 is one of several variants being referred to as “FLiRT variants,” named after the technical names for their mutations. The prevalence of these variants comes at a critical time, when experts are deciding how to formulate the fall COVID vaccine.

In this Q&A,  Andy Pekosz , PhD, a professor in  Molecular Microbiology and Immunology , explains what virologists like him are seeing, whether these variants might cause a summer wave of infections, and how people can protect themselves.

What are these “FLiRT variants”?

This is the term being used to describe a whole family of different variants—including KP.2, JN.1.7, and any other variants starting with KP or JN—that appear to have independently picked up the same set of mutations. This is called convergent evolution. They are all descendants of the  JN.1 variant that has been dominant in the U.S. for the past several months.

The particular mutations that people refer to as “FLiRT”s or “FLip”s refer to specific positions in the spike protein—in this case, positions 456, 346, and 572.

Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 mutate frequently, and when they mutate to evade recognition by antibodies, this often weakens their ability to bind to the cells they want to infect. We then see mutations appear that improve that binding ability. This is a cycle we have seen many times with SARS-CoV-2. The fact that these different variants are picking up the same mutations tells virologists that this combination of mutations is helping the virus accomplish these goals most efficiently.

How do these mutations help the virus bind to cells while evading antibodies?

Two of these mutations—456 and 346—eliminate binding sites for antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2. However, those same antibody binding sites are also important for the virus to bind to and enter cells. So in evading antibodies, these FLiRT variants may have also lost some ability to bind to their receptor. At the same time, the 572 mutation appears to allow the virus to more tightly bind to cells and ultimately cause an infection.

Do people who recently had COVID have any protection against infection from FLiRT variants?

A JN.1 infection should provide pretty strong protection against all the FLiRT variants. The difference between JN.1 and these variants is only one or two amino acid changes, so there are still a lot of other places antibodies can bind to. Infection from a variant older than JN.1 is less likely to offer as much protection.

Do we know yet how well the current COVID-19 vaccines work against the FLiRT variants?

Against JN.1, the vaccine designed around XBB.1.5 does generate some cross-reactive antibodies. Studies have not been yet done with some of these newer variants, but those are likely to be a little less cross-reactive. It’s also been several months since many people received their last dose of the vaccine, and that immunity wanes over time.

Back in February, the CDC recommended  an additional dose of the current COVID vaccine for adults 65 and older who received theirs in the fall. There is a question now of what the guidance will be going into the summer. We’ve seen fairly low uptake of these additional boosters when they’re recommended, even in high risk populations, so it’s unclear whether a third dose of the current vaccine will be recommended. If case numbers remain relatively low, it may not be necessary.

Should we anticipate these variants to drive a surge in cases this summer?

It’s certainly possible. The FLiRT variants would be high on my list of viruses that could cause another wave of infections in the U.S. That said, our definition of a wave has changed; while we still see case rates rise and fall throughout the year, we see much lower numbers of cases of hospitalizations or deaths than we saw in the first couple years of the pandemic.

And yet, while these waves are becoming smaller, they are still having the greatest impact on our susceptible populations: the elderly, people who are immunocompromised and those with other secondary medical conditions. Everyone can play a role in protecting those populations that remain the highest-risk when new variants cause an uptick in cases.

How might these variants impact plans for the COVID vaccine formula that gets updated for the fall?

This is the time of year when governing bodies like the WHO and FDA recommend a formulation for updated COVID vaccines that will roll out in early fall. Last year, the  vaccines were based on the XBB.1.5 variant , and only a few months later, the  JN.1 variant became the dominant variant in the U.S.

At the end of April, the  WHO announced that their COVID vaccine advisory group advises using the JN.1 lineage as the antigen for the upcoming formulations of the vaccine. All of these FLiRT variants are within the JN.1 family of variants.

Here in the U.S.,  the FDA has postponed its meeting to determine the fall 2024 COVID vaccine from mid-May to early June. That gives them more time to see which of the FLiRT variants is becoming the dominant one so they can fine-tune the WHO recommendation to what they anticipate will be most prominent in the fall.

New COVID variants are likely to crop up after a decision is made— just as it did last summer —but the goal remains to select a formulation that, come fall, will match the circulating variants as closely as possible.

What are the usual symptoms and transmission timeline for FLiRT variants?

When it comes to symptoms, we’re not seeing anything new or different with these variants. We continue to see more mild disease, but that’s likely not because the virus is milder, but because our immunity is so much stronger now. After years of vaccinations and infections, most of the population is better able to fight off an infection without as much concern for severe disease.

The period of infectiousness for these FLiRT variants remains the same as with JN.1 and previous omicron variants: After exposure, it may take five or more days before you develop symptoms, though symptoms may appear sooner. You are contagious one to two days before you experience symptoms and a few days after symptoms subside. And as with previous variants, some people may have detectable live virus for up to a week after their symptoms begin, and some may experience  rebound symptoms .

At-home testing remains a really important tool for knowing whether you could potentially infect others.

Are antivirals like Paxlovid effective against FLiRT variants? 

Yes, the good news is that  Paxlovid is still recommended for high risk individuals . It still works against variants up to JN.1, and based on the sequencing of the FLiRT variants, they should still be susceptible to Paxlovid, as well as to antiviral drugs like molnupiravir and remdesivir. The companies that produce these drugs are always testing them against new variants to ensure they continue to be effective.

How can people protect themselves and their loved ones as we head into summer?

As with any respiratory virus, even when case rates nationally are low, it’s common to see infections increase in one area of the country but not another. Keep an eye on case rates in your region or anywhere you plan to travel, to know whether you should take additional precautions, like wearing a mask or gathering in well-ventilated areas. Some local health departments report on virus levels in wastewater, which can signal an upcoming rise in cases. This is particularly helpful as people experience more mild illness; those cases may not require hospitalization, but they’ll still be detected in wastewater data.

It’s always a good idea to keep a few COVID tests around the house in case you start to  feel sick. Testing—whether at home or in a health care setting—will make sure you know what you're infected with, which can inform the best treatment plan if you are in a high risk group or your symptoms progress to more severe illness.

If you do feel sick, follow the CDC’s  simplified guidance for respiratory illnesses . This is especially important if you plan to spend time with friends or family who are at higher risk of severe illness.

Aliza Rosen is a digital content strategist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

• Understanding the CDC’s Updated COVID Isolation Guidance
• COVID Rebound Can Happen Whether or Not You Take Paxlovid
• More Americans Could Benefit from Paxlovid for COVID Infection

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CTSO Training and Education Administrative Assistant

How to apply.

A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position.

The Clinical Trials Support Office (CTSO) is seeking an experienced administrative professional to provide support for the unit's training and education initiatives to improve the quality and efficiency of clinical trial operations.

The CTSO is part of Michigan Medicine's research mission working towards improving clinical care, value, and health outcomes by successfully executing a diverse portfolio of high-quality clinical research. The CTSO provides the organizational structure of local service units, central infrastructure, and oversight of the M-CTSU which provides comprehensive support to study teams across all of Michigan Medicine.

Mission Statement

Michigan Medicine improves the health of patients, populations and communities through excellence in education, patient care, community service, research and technology development, and through leadership activities in Michigan, nationally and internationally.  Our mission is guided by our Strategic Principles and has three critical components; patient care, education and research that together enhance our contribution to society.

Responsibilities*

General Responsibilities

• Administrative support to CTSO and U-M projects and initiatives including tracking project metrics
• Meeting and event coordination, including conducts polls for availability, reserves meeting rooms, sets up registration, arranges for catering and equipment needs, prepares and distributes agenda and meeting materials, takes minutes/notes, and coordinates action items.
• Provides coordination of communications for project stakeholders. Responds timely to inquiries and triages to the appropriate party.
• Onsite event planning and hosting for various projects and activities.

Key Projects and Initiatives

• Assistant support to CTR-Launch Principal Investigator and Project Manager and other study team members as needed
• Coordinate communications for the project stakeholders and respond timely to inquiries and triages to the appropriate party
• Track study activities including enrollment and milestones of each IIT enrolled, and provides reports to CTR-Launch Principal Investigator and Project Manager.  
• Compile and enter data of IITs enrolled.
• Assistant support for the Directors of the Clinical Trial Academy.
• Maintain records of curriculum, reading materials, work assignments, and lists of faculty and trainees.
• Assist in solicitation and selection of applicants, scheduling of didactic and small group teaching/mentoring sessions, sending out reminders to faculty and trainees, and collecting presentations and other materials for teaching/mentoring sessions.
• Manage financial transactions associated with events
• Assist Project Manager in collecting and collating data for the project
• Process various operational needs that may include collecting, organizing, and submitting time sensitive applications
• Coordinate session registration and follow-up
• Perform other related duties as assigned

Supervision Received

This position receives administrative supervision from the CTSO Director of Operations. Functional supervision will be received by the CTR-Launch Principal Investigator and Project Manager and Clinical Trial Academy Faculty Directors.

Supervision Exercised

Required Qualifications*

• High school diploma or GED
• Minimum four-years of demonstrated progressive administrative experience

Desired Qualifications*

• Bachelor's degree and/or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Ability to provide outstanding customer service
• Must have strong interpersonal skills and ability to successfully work with all levels of the organization and with external stakeholders and colleagues
• Strong organizational skills with demonstrated attention to detail
• Excellent attendance, punctuality and dependability
• Outstanding written, verbal, email communication skills
• Self-motivated with an ability to set priorities, focus on the job at hand, and act both independently and as a team
• Flexibility to meet changing priorities
• Fluency with Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook), Adobe
• Basic understanding of U-M Medical School research activities
• Working knowledge of University policies and procedures
• Experience with organizing on-site events including planning, registration, catering, basic AV support, basic accounting and reporting
• Proficient with, REDCap and basic principles of human subject research.
• Motivated to help others

Work Schedule

This position supports normal business hours, Monday - Friday with rare occasional early mornings or late afternoons. This is an on-campus position with opportunity for remote work.

Work Locations

North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) Building 520

Additional Information

Michigan Medicine and the CTSO is firmly committed to advancing inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and belonging, which are core to the culture and values of the Medical School Office of Research. Our community supports recruiting and cultivating a diverse workforce as a reflection of our commitment to serve the diverse people of Michigan and the world. We strive to create a work culture where each team member feels respected, valued, and safe.

Background Screening

Michigan Medicine conducts background screening and pre-employment drug testing on job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent job offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background screenings.  Background screenings are performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Report Act. Pre-employment drug testing applies to all selected candidates, including new or additional faculty and staff appointments, as well as transfers from other U-M campuses.

Application Deadline

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days.  The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

• black history

70 years after Brown v. Board of Education: 'No kid should ever be left behind'

HOUSTON, Texas -- Friday marked the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that sparked the end of racial segregation in public schools throughout the country. While it changed the landscape of education in our country, historians and educators believe there's more work to be done.

Pearline Perkins just celebrated her 90th birthday last week, but her mind is still sharp. Born in 1934 and raised in Slocum, Texas, she remembers what it was like being a student at all-Black schools in East Texas during the 1930s and 1940s.

"Everyone was kept separate. We used separate bathrooms. We sat separately from white kids in the classroom. We weren't allowed to use the same books," Perkins said. "It wasn't until high school that many of the Black kids began to question things. These are institutions that wanted to teach us suppression and make us believe that we were less than."

SEE ALSO: 13 people who made a big impact on Black history in the U.S. and Houston

To understand why this was happening, we have to go back to the end of the Civil War in 1865. Resistance to the abolishment of slavery during the Reconstruction Era resulted in Jim Crow laws. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that these racial segregation laws did not violate the Constitution as long as public facilities were "separate, but equal."

But Dr. Matthew Washington, who teaches history at Prairie View A &M University, explained that public schools were everything but equal for Black students during that time.

"Separate was never equal. Separate was usually a second class, if not third-class status for African Americans and then a first-class status for whites," Washington said. "African Americans had underfunded facilities, lack of transportation, less school supplies, and not as much money allocated in comparison to white students."

This was something Perkins says she saw first-hand, not just when she was a student, but also as an educator. After graduating from high school, Perkins moved to the Greater Houston area to attend college and begin teaching in the 1950s for North Forest and Houston independent school districts.

"White parents didn't want, for the most part, their kids to go to school with Black kids. I think some of them welcomed Black educators, but many did not," Perkins said. "When our Black students excelled academically, Black teachers were accused of cheating on test scores. The district constantly tested and retested."

Around the same time, the NAACP filed several lawsuits to challenge these segregation laws in public schools, which culminated in Brown v. Board of Education. Linda Brown 's father took legal action after she was denied from going to an all-white school in Topeka, Kansas, that was just four blocks from her home. Instead, she was forced to take a dangerous walk across railroad tracks and a bus ride to an all-Black school.

RELATED: Linda Brown, woman at center of Brown v. Board of Education, dies at 76

"These are just some examples to demonstrate further the ubiquity or how pervasive this racial prejudice system was," Washington said. "An important point many argued at the time was about this concept of gradualism, where integration would gradually happen over time. We saw many civil rights activists who said it's been almost 100 years since the end of slavery, and they've waited long enough. No more gradualism. They need immediate integration. It starts now."

In a rare move on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, undoing decades of existing precedent. However, just like after the Civil War, there was still a lot of resistance and slow compliance to integrating schools, especially in the South. In fact, it took Houston Independent School District 30 years to officially desegregate.

"Historians use a framework known as massive resistance to integration that was seen throughout the south, especially the deep south. We saw resistance and efforts to stall integration from politicians to local organizations like the White Citizens Council," Washington said.

READ MORE: As HISD heads back to school, ABC13 anchor Melanie Lawson goes down memory lane in the 60s

As Perkins reflects on the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, she's grateful for the progress made to ensure equality and equity for students of all backgrounds. However, she believes there's still more work to do.

"No kid should ever be left behind. We cannot do it if we're fighting each other. But together, we can make it better and that's what I'm totally looking for. A better America for everybody," Perkins said.

For more on this story, follow Rosie Nguyen on Facebook , X and Instagram .

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