Nicholas Granados-Kramer's Mini-Course: Using Roles in Groups to Maximize Group Work.
My Topic and Purpose
My Mini-Course topic is focused on using roles in groups in order to maximize groupwork. My focus will be in a High School Physics classroom but the ideas mentioned will be applicable across all grade levels and disciplines. The purpose of choosing this topic is to help improve my own teaching ability in terms of making effective groups, and the use of roles, while also providing other teachers with a new perspective on group work.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course learners will be able to:
1) Identify situations when group work is appropriate.
2) Analyze student strengths in order to determine what role best suits each student for a particular activity.
3) Breakdown techniques for effective facilitation of group roles.
Needs Assessment
1. Instructional Problem
Our world has become increasingly digital. The amount of reliance on technology has never been greater. On top of the focus on collaboration and teamwork has never been more prevalent. The easy answer to collaboration and teamwork is to have students complete group work. But there are many issues with group work, specifically from the student standpoint such as student absences, and putting the work blindly on students (Taylor 2011.) In order to get the most out of your group work, the inclusion of roles will alleviate student stress, and create a more effective learning environment. That not only promotes individual accountability, but can also disrupt stereotypes, and gender roles (Hirshfield and Chachra 2015.)
2. What is to be Learned
This course will be broken down into three parts where learners will have to:
1) Identify situations when group work is appropriate.
2) Analyze student strengths in order to determine what role best suits each student for a particular activity.
3) Breakdown techniques for effective facilitation of group roles.
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3. The Learners
Participants within this course will include teachers in a secondary or higher learning institution.
4. Context for Instruction
Participants will complete the components of this mini-course online from remote locations. This course can be completed at will, students will have to complete assignments on their own time before specific deadlines. However, there will be a discussion section where students will interact with their peers. The only materials required to complete this course are a computer and access to the Internet.
5. Exploring the Instructional Problem and Solution
This course will most likely have a "mixed" group; meaning that some students will have had experience with facilitating group roles while others have had none at all. For the discussion, the students will be put into mixed level groups so that the experienced learners can share what they found so far has worked and what has not worked with facilitating group roles in order to provide examples to the new learners, and new ideas to the more experienced learners.
6. Goals of this Mini-Course
One goal of this course is to improve the teachers' ability to facilitates group roles. Goals also include increasing learner satisfaction, retention, and increasing levels of cognitive presence within learners.
Performance-Based Objectives
Teachers will:
By the end of the course teachers will be able to perform the following task:
Teachers will be able to create a lesson plan that incorporates using roles in group work with a focus that develops interpersonal, interpretive, and/or presentational communication skills.
Course Overview
Unit 1: Assessing the value of group work.
Target objectives:
Upon completion of this unit, participants will:
1. Identify situations when group work is appropriate.; and
2. Understand the value of group work in terms of students engagement, and learning.
Unit 2: Analyze student strenghts
Target objectives:
Upon completion of this unit, participants will:
1. Create a rubric in order to identify student strengths and weaknesses. 2. Analyze student strengths in order to determine what role best suits each student for a particular activity.
Unit 3: Facilitating groups with roles
Target objectives:
Upon completion of this unit, participants will:
1. Breakdown techniques for effective facilitation of group roles.
2. Create a lesson plan that involves students working in groups with roles.
