Providing support to students can be a key element to help students navigate through the group work experience. This section suggests ways to check in with students and provide students with resources they might require. We consider ways to wrap up and help students reflect on their final projects.
Providing resources
To actively build students’ capacity for collaboration and teamwork, consider what information and resources you can provide alongside opportunities for facilitated practice and feedback (Riebe et al., 2016).
Teamwork resources
The draft library guide for transdisciplinary problem solving contains key resources on related skills like teamwork, communication and decision-making. There’s also additional guidance on transdisciplinary group work in the Specific Considerations section.
The library guide’s section on teamwork skills includes resources on effective collaboration and other ways of working together, as well as:
- Leading teams
- Facilitation
- Effective meetings
- Negotiation and conflict resolution
- Trust
Checking in
Checking in with students is a great way to gauge how students and teams are progressing, better know how and what support students need. It can also provide early intervention to manage any arising conflicts.
Informal check-ins
Model how students can practice emotional intelligence by reserving the first five minutes of class for a quick, informal check-in. You might run this with the entire class or in table groups/ break-out rooms.
- Ask students to raise a hand and let everyone know their current energy levels from fist (0 = virtually no energy) to five fingers (5 = very high energy)
- Ask students to map how they are feeling on two axes – e.g. high to low energy, overwhelmed to balanced on whiteboards, paper or using an ed tech tool like Padlet
Anonymous polls
An anonymous poll is another option that can also help you detect any issues early and may help students feel less isolated in their progress attempts or anxiety levels. Be mindful about framing poll questions in a way to keep the activity psychologically safe for individuals and consider what actions you might take if you do detect an issue.
- Select the emoji/meme from those provided which best reflects how you are feeling about this group work project thus far
- Do you feel that you are able to share your ideas with your group? (agree/neutral/disagree)
- Do you feel that work is being shared fairly within your group? (agree/neutral/disagree)
Reflection tasks
Structured group reflection tasks on their teamwork may help students articulate and discuss problems, progress, and team dynamics. Encourage groups to use their team charter as part of these activities to make sure they are communicating in a way that reflects those agreed values.
Asking to share
Asking students from two or more groups to share what they have learned and what group work practices are working well for their groups is another way to prompt reflection and facilitate peer learning.
Listen and observe
Circulate among the groups to listen and observe quietly how they are interacting with each other. If observing a particular group, consider sitting down at level with them rather than standing back. (If online, this will involve joining break-out rooms).
Ask open questions to individual groups about how the project is going and how well they are working together as a group.
- “What has been the most challenging/successful thing about working as a group on this project thus far?”
- “How have you gone with meeting together outside of class?”
- “How have you been sharing back what you have each learned or worked on individually with the group?”
Progress reports
A graded or ungraded assessment, such as a progress report, that asks students to report and reflect on their process and team dynamics is another option for checking in. This task could be completed individually, as a group, or both depending on your goals.
Provide and ask for feedback
Plan for how you can create a feedback dialogue with students during the group work project. This helps students improve their group work and discipline-based skills. It also helps you iteratively improve your teaching approach.
- Provide positive feedback and reinforcement when you observe behaviours that reflect good group work, being conscious to compliment different individuals throughout the course.
- Provide constructive feedback as appropriate and in a timely fashion. Be mindful to avoid giving any strong negative feedback to an individual in front of their group.
- If you see recurrent issues across the cohort, consider providing feedback and support to the whole class.
- Provide feedback on different aspects of the project such as their process, skills, and team dynamics.
- Create opportunities for students to share feedback throughout the course, not only at the end (e.g. what additional support with group work do they want/need at a given moment?)
- Provide continuous feedback throughout the project (rather than only at the end). This will give students a pathway and opportunity to improve their skills and practice – especially in cases where they may not have more opportunities in university in the future.
Wrap up and reflection
Designing a way to celebrate the achievements of students beyond the final grades and assessment and may help commensurate with the experience itself. This may take the form of a showcase, a wrap up celebration, a reflection task or class discussion.
Wrap up
Depending on the type of project, a celebration could be a showcase of the final products, such as a physical wall of work or an online platform. Try not to include grades in the showcase, as you’re celebrating the completion of the work and students’ efforts, not their rankings.
A showcase is a great way to highlight student achievement, and can also be a strong learning moment for students to see how their peers accomplished the same assessment in different ways.
Reflection
A reflective practice can be extremely valuable for both you and the students.
A debrief session can be an important (and sometimes emotional) part of students’ learning journeys. An opportunity to air their thoughts and revisit the ups and downs of their projects, in a safe place without the risk of jeopardising ongoing group work is key to a good debrief.
A reflective statement as part of the final assessment may be a good way to mandate this experience, which can also give you some insight into the group dynamics and student experiences.
As an educator, you may also want to take notes throughout the group work process to evaluate what was successful and unsuccessful for future instalments. Plan some time at the end of a semester to meet with all the educators who were part of the course/project and have a structured (and documented) debrief that can be revisited before running the course again.
Considerations
- Create an anonymous space (such as an online forum) for students to reflect on their experiences without risking social capital or fear of grades and friendships being affected.
- It may be helpful for students to see each other’s (anonymous) responses to help start a conversation or debrief on common topics.
- Try to lead any discussions (online and offline) to set the tone for students’ input.
- Share exemplars of reflections that model good reflection.
- Allow time for an in-depth debrief and reflection in groups once a project is completed.
Further reading
References
Riebe, L., Girardi, A., & Whitsed, C. (2016). A Systematic Literature Review of Teamwork Pedagogy in Higher Education. Small Group Research, 47(6), 619–664. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496416665221