Three students exchanging feedback on a paper in a couch in the library.

Group Work

Group work can be an effective strategy to help students develop collaborative, communication and problem-solving skills.  

At a Glance

  • Collaborative learning, rooted in Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, enhances conceptual understanding and public reasoning skills.
  • Group work allows students to identify and address knowledge gaps, promoting higher-order thinking.
  • More knowledgeable peers can scaffold others’ learning within group settings.
  • Challenges include unequal participation and dominant group members limiting collaboration.
  • Instructors should apply best practices early to support effective and equitable group work.

Examples

Recommendations

Additional Resources

References

Examples

Collaborative learning can be implemented in the college classroom through a variety of ways: 

  • Presentation - A world language instructor divides students into conversation groups. Their task is to perform a dialogue in front of the class pretending that they are ordering food at a restaurant. The groups have 30 minutes to prepare their conversation and 10 minutes to present it to the class. This activity culminates a course unit where students have learned vocabulary and phraseology around everyday conversations in the language.
  • Problem Sets - After learning the steps for conducting several statistical tests, students in a statistics course are divided into groups and assigned a problem set. In well-functioning groups, all students contribute equally by working through the problems and offering assistance to one another until each group member fully understands the solution.
  • Case Study - A sociology instructor implements case studies in the course around pressing issues. Students within each group take on particular roles and debate the issue under discussion. 
  • Comparative Work - A writing instructor has groups write the same general letter to different audiences, adjusting tone, wording, and style to reach their unique assigned readers. Groups then read out their letters and discuss similarities and differences based on audience.
  • Jigsaw - A literature instructor breaks class into groups to close read and discuss a passage from John Milton’s Paradise Lost. After some time, the instructor uses the jigsaw method by creating new groups comprised of representatives from each original group. New groups share what they discussed previously and explore new ideas.

Recommendations for Group Work

In general, smaller group sizes are desirable, typically between 3 - 4 students per group. When groups are too large, equitable student contribution can be challenging. When groups are too small, they may not experience as many benefits from the ideas and contributions of others.

Depending on the activity goals and instructor preference, groups can remain stable or change throughout the semester. Stable groups allow students to build familiarity, but may struggle if group dynamics are poor. Changing groups can refresh expectations and expose students to more peers, though it may hinder deeper connections. Groups may be formed randomly or intentionally based on traits like ability or demographics.

With regards to more time-intensive projects, students expect accountability of individual group members. To mitigate potential conflict, instructors can have groups come together before starting a project to develop an agreement around how the group will function. During this time, group members can also assign one another roles (e.g. facilitator, researcher, recorder, presenter) and delineate responsibilities. Finally, this agreement can address expectations around attendance in class and group meetings outside of class. For a more structured approach to balancing individual and group participation, instructors can also consider Team-Based Learning.

As another accountability measure, instructors can ask students to confidentially evaluate their peers on their contributions to the project. Instructors can choose whether to use these scores in determining final grades for a project. 

To account for individual as well as group contribution, instructors can consider including both individual and group assignments for the project. In doing so, both efforts can be accounted for in the grading process, motivating students to perform well on their own while contributing to the group’s progress.

Grayson Hoy is a man wearing glasses and a blue shirt.

“With in-class problem sets spanning several concepts, students may struggle with different subsets of topics. Group work allows my students to strengthen each other’s weak concepts and produces so much more overall learning in a 50-minute period than I could as one instructor lecturing.”

—

Grayson Hoy, Graduate Student in Chemistry and Prize Teaching Fellow, 2023-2024

Additional Resources

Cohan EG and Lotan RA. (2014). Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom. Third Edition. New York, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Collaborative Learning: Group Work(link is external) - Cornell Center for Teaching Innovation

Working in Groups(link is external) - Harvard Bok Center for Teaching and Learning

References

Chaiklin S. (2003) Chapter 2. The Zone of Proximal Development in Vygotsky’s Analysis of Learning and Instruction. In, Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. A Kozulin, B Gindis, V Ageyev, S Miller (Eds). New York, New York: Cambridge University Press. P. 65-82.

John-Steiner V and Mahn H. (1996). Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskyian framework. Educational Psychologist 31(3-4):191-206