Transcript Aims of Small Group Teaching

Managing & Assessing
Student Group / Team Work
Dr Kate Exley
2010
Outline Programme
Introductions, background and context
Benefits and difficulties
Key skills developed
Managing and organising groups
Issues of Assessment
The assessment focus
Assessment strategies
Problems and workable solutions
A shared view
(p3)
“Group work, under proper conditions,
encourages peer learning and peer support and
many studies validate the efficacy of peer
learning…..
Under less than ideal conditions, group work
can become the vehicle for acrimony, conflict
and freeloading.”
University of Wollongong Assessment Policy (2002)
Three good reasons (p5)
1.Peer learning can improve quality of student
learning
2. Can develop specific
skills for employment
3. May reduce
assessment work
Australian Universities Teaching Committee
Benefits in your discipline? (p4)
Which skills developed?
What benefits?
What possibilities?
What impact on staff?
Worries and problems (p6)
What are your main
concerns about
student group work
and its assessment?
Common Difficulties (p7)
Lack of relevance
Unclear objectives
Inequality of contribution
Overuse
Different learning styles
Badly managed
Skills not really developed
Lack of progression
Considering difference
Disability issues
Mixed ability
Cultural differences
Mature students
Personalities
Learning styles
etc
Guidance on ‘group working’
(p8)
What issues would
you include in ‘group
working’ guidance for
your students
Remember cultural
differences and
expectations.
… and what is your role?
Instructor / leader
Facilitator /guide
Observer /
commentator
Drop-in monitor
Counsellor / mediator
Assessor / Giver of
feedback
Managing Groups
Four Key issues
1. Putting groups together
2. Establishing Team roles &
responsibilities
3. Time-tabled group meetings
(recorded)
4. Clear processes & procedures
1.
Putting groups together (p9)
 How to build groups?
a.
b.
Friendship / self selection groupings
Teacher assigned groups
(Socially engineered, streamed, etc)
 What size of group?
a.
b.
Is ideal?
Is necessary or practical?
2. Group roles
Traditional roles
(chair, secretary, etc)
Task or Topic roles
(‘I will find out about A, you find out about B)
Group effectiveness
(What does a ‘good team’ need to function)
2. Group roles
Belbin and Belbin
(p11)
Coordinator
Shaper
Plant
Monitor-Evaluator
Implementer
Resource Investigator
Team Worker
Completer Finisher (& Specialist)
3. Group meetings
Time-tabled
Provision of space
Guidance on running meetings
Process for running meetings
Agendas and Minutes
Suggested framework & timings
4. Processes & Procedures
Need to be able to explain to students……..
Why they are working in groups and not
individually?
How the group work will help them to attain the
learning outcomes of their courses?
How their contribution will be assessed (fairly)?
4. Monitoring Processes
How will you know if the student groups
are functioning?
What will you
do if they aren’t?
Purposes of Assessment
Measuring individual competence
Measuring learning from the group
collaboration
Measuring group productivity
Measuring students’ abilities to collaborate
with others as a team
Webb,N.M. (1997)
Assessment of groups
The four choices
Product or Process or Both?
What Assessment criteria
(& who determines them)?
Who assesses?
How will marks be distributed?
The assessment variables
Assessment Focus
Product
Process
Who
Tutor
1.Product
Tutor
2. Process
Tutor
Students
Product
Students
Process
Students
What Criteria (p15)
What criteria are important in assessing
things that the group Produces,
(e.g. reports, posters, websites)?
What criteria are important in assessing
group Processes
(e.g. how they work together and the skills
they develop)?
Task ….
Assessing group products
Lets start by thinking about assessing group
products - because its easier!
a. What can groups produce together?
b. Who can actually assess the product(s)?
Focus on Product(s) Pros and Cons Table Exercise
Some approaches :Shared group mark
Group average mark
Individual mark - allocated task
Individual mark - individual report
Individual mark - examination
Combination of group average & individual mark
Involving students in
distributing the grade (p19)
Students distribute mark awarded by the tutor
(within a given range) (4X80 =320 marks)
Involving students in
distributing the grade
Students distribute ‘product’ mark (e.g. 80)
awarded by the tutor (within a given range?)
(4X80 =240 marks)
Students allocate individual weightings
0 (zero contribution) to 1 (Full contribution)
Or - 5 (less than) to 0 (average) to + 5 (more than)
Involving students in
distributing the grade
Students distribute marks awarded by the tutor
(within a given range) (4X80 =240 marks)
Students allocate individual weightings
0 (zero contribution) to 1 (Full contribution)
Or -5 (less than) to 0 (average) to +5 (more than)
Anonymous peer marking sheets that the
tutor uses to weight individual students’
marks
Involving students
 Students distribute marks awarded by the tutor (within a
given range) (4X80 =240 marks)
 Students allocate individual weightings
0 (zero contribution) to 1 (Full contribution)
Or -5 (less than) to 0 (average) to +5 (more than)
 Peer marking sheets that the tutor uses to weight
individual students’ marks
But what are the students
really assessing here?
Focus on Process Criteria?
Attendance at meetings
Equity of contribution & division of labour
Co-operation
Time and task management
Problem solving
Development of professional skills
Listening
Responding to feedback etc etc etc
How can students evidence
…
Process
…
Reports
Meeting agendas & minutes
Testimonials
Observations
Interviews
Journals & diaries
Reflective
pieces
Achievement
of set tasks
Application – Scenario (p20)
Please present the
outline of your
approach on a poster
Choose a group
spokesperson to
report back
Some useful follow-up
resources
Johnson, D. W. and Johnson, R. T. (2004)
Assessing students in groups : promoting group
responsibility and individual accountability
A set of links to case studies and reports on assessing
groups from Essex University
http://www.essex.ac.uk/assessment/group_assessment.h
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