A Look at the benefits of working with others
By Stephen Cook
“Everybody split up into groups” – words that strike fear and dread into the hearts of many students.
However, there can be real benefits to group learning, according to Maggie Ackelson, full-time professor and chair of the learning strategies program.
“Group learning should always have a clearly established objective,” Ackelson said. “What is the goal for that group learning, what is it that students should be doing, what kind of an outcome does the professor want from that particular group learning?”
Allison Smith, professor and chair of the art history department, teaches several art history classes at the college.
Although she has her class break up into small groups, Smith said she doesn’t necessarily require her students to do the activities for a grade. She decided to purposefully make it a point to make group learning a key part of her class in order to get students more excited about the subject.
“[We do] various little things to try to get them engaged other than just looking at slides,” Smith said. “[The reason] why we all have studied the subject for so long is because we’re interested in it, and we want other people to be interested in it. Oftentimes faculty just don’t simply know how to do that.”
As an art history student, Smith said her classes at KU were usually taught in a huge auditorium, with students sitting in the dark and taking notes for 50 minutes. Now, she wants the classes she teaches to be more involved for students than just sitting there taking notes.
“Even if you loved art history you can only sit in a dark room for so long before you start to drift off,” Smith said.
Her two goals in using group activities is to help students meet their classmates and feel like they’re a part of a community as well as present the material in a different format so that it keeps students more interested and engaged.
“I think especially here at JCCC we have a certain obligation to help students feel the community because we have a commuter campus,” Smith said. “They don’t get to know one another and I think that having a relationship with your peers in the classroom is important to help keep you excited to come. Students look forward to coming to class more if they feel like they’re going to see their friends.”
This can also potentially help improve student retention in the classroom, according to Ackelson.
“Initially, at the start of the semester I think group learning can be very helpful for students to get to know one another,” she said.
It can also be important to monitor the groups to make sure they are being as efficient as possible, Ackelson said. Also, in a small group environment, students may interact differently.
“Quieter students in class who may not be so willing to speak out in a large group may really shine in a smaller group,” Ackelson said.
However, it can also be important to make sure students have assigned duties or roles that they carry out in the group to ensure that every student is participating.
“There’s always some students that are just more natural leaders, and there’s some students that may tend to be more reticent,” Ackelson said.
Ultimately it is up to the professor whether they feel group learning would work best in their classroom.
“I think group learning is a real positive and can be implemented in almost any course or any classroom,” she said.
For student Jacob Strickland, it really depends on the person, the teacher and what class it is. He likes group learning but believes you sort of have to be a people person.
“I think it can be really effective,” Strickland said. “A big benefit is how you get to know other classmates and that creates a better environment.”
Looking at the success of her activities, Smith has been happy to receive some positive feedback from her class.
“We were doing an in-class activity just last week to prepare for an exam and when we were finished, [a student] just kind of shouted out, ‘I love this class – I never thought I would like art history and now I want to be an art historian’,” Smith said. “I think if I had just stood there and lectured for 50 minutes in the dark, I don’t think anybody would be screaming out “I love this class.’”
Contact Stephen Cook, editor-in-chief, at scook35@jccc.edu.