The ability to collaborate with peers on a group endeavour is a vital human skill. And yet, despite the clamour of employers to develop this most essential quality and the wealth of data that proves collaborative learning leads to richer outcomes, groupwork continues to be a problematic area for many in HE. Tutors often struggle to support student groups with communication or organisational issues and students may resist being asked to work with others. The use of groupwork can reap great benefits but it should be carefully deployed. See below for some groupwork resources!
Groupwork resources
- This booklet provided by AdvanceHE provides a concise summary of some of the practical considerations of deploying groupwork in a diverse group of students.
https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/group-work - Some top tips for different aspects of student groupwork and a booklet with lots of templates for student preparatory activities can be found at the legacy resources for the LearnHigher project.
ALDinHE Groupwork resources - The National Teaching Repository is an AdvanceHE-funded resource where academics can upload and share learning resources – there are many resources that relate to collaborative learning – just search for ‘group work’ or ‘collaborative learning’ or ‘teamwork’.
- Success in Groupwork book – this handy reference guide for students is part of the popular Pocket Study Skills series published by Bloomsbury and is available from Amazon and selected booksellers. Full disclosure: I am a co-author here with highly respected Learning Development experts Sue Beckingham and Peter Hartley!