I hate hate hated group work when I was a student. I would have rather had a solid hour of chalk-talk than have to clink desks with three of my classmates in order to work through some worksheet. However, in my own teaching, I like to pepper my chalk-talking with powerpoints, group discussion, and group work.
At LargeU, I was encouraged to incorporate group work as part of the four lectures a week. My students were wary of how effective groupwork would be, and a handful were openly hostile about having to give up valuable rote-memorization time in order to engage in thoughtful discussion with their fellow classmates. I was able to incorporate some group work into most class meetings, and I was surprised to see that students (mostly) responded favorably to it. On the end of the semester evaluation, dozens of students cited the in-class group work as the most helpful part of the class-- second to my brilliant lectures, I'm sure.
So starting here at TempCollege, I knew that the students would benefit greatly from my group work activities. I anticipated their hesitation. I called them out on their eye rolls before they even blinked. I passed out the pre-semester surveys (including my standard question: "how do you feel about group work?") with a disclaimer that I fully expected some apprehension about group work.
Imagine my surprise when 60ish surveys were returned to me, their pages brimming with positive statements about the value of working with others, as well as a few cautionary tales about how sometimes one person ends up doing the work for everyone else. Nearly all of my students have not only done (and loved group work) but have done group work in every single class in high school.
So is this just a regional thing, or has group work suddenly become the go-to teaching mechanism at high schools (and colleges)?
