Group activities in interactive teaching

Decoding work done

Identification of bottleneck

In group activities many students are not effectively working as groups.

Description of mental tasks needed to overcome the bottleneck

Expert seem to follow a sequence of consecutive phases that commences group work:

1. Individually ensure the assignment is clear to oneself; come up with an initial understanding of the problem at hand; explore possible connections to subject matter.
2. An initial coming together as a group “to clarify certain things about the problem”.
3. Individually reading and further understanding the problem, identifying tasks and connecting it to what one knows and to the context of the course; looking up information and asking questions as necessary.
4. Individually coming up with a plan of “how to attack the problem”.
5. Drawing individual plans together in the group; consolidating a single plan for the group; distributing work among group members.

Modelling the tasks

Metaphors

Sharing

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Researchers involved

Stefan Dröschler, Peter Riegler, David Pace

References

Dröschler, Stefan, Riegler, Peter, Pace, David (2017). Decoding group activities in interactive teaching in K. Mårtensson et al. (eds.): Transforming patterns through the scholarschip of teaching and learning