Posted by: Kylie Budge, Senior Advisor, Learning and Teaching, College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University.
Quiet Halls (cc) Wikimedia Commons. Photographer: Ryan Linton
Do you ever stop to think about why we’re asking students to do group work? That’s right — why? The truth is we really need a good rationale for it or we shouldn’t be asking students to work in groups to complete a task or project or solve a problem. There are some very sound reasons why we should think carefully about this when designing learning activities and one of them just happens to be introversion.
Let me explain.
I was recently alerted to this fascinating TED talk by Susan Cain via a fellow educator and colleague on Twitter. My decision to click on the link was well rewarded.
In her talk Cain makes some powerful points about the case and place for introverts in society. ‘Solitude matters, and for some people it is the air that they breathe.’ She talks about the role of introversion in stimulating creativity: ‘There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.’ As Cain also points out: solitude is a catalyst for innovation.
Of interest to me as an educator is what Cain calls ‘the madness for constant group work’, which seeks to displace introverts and make them feel alien for their difference from the dominant status quo of extroverts. I found this particular point strangely compelling for at least two reasons:
1. I am an introvert.
2. Even though I am, I’ve probably been guilty of forcing students to do group work without thinking through the ‘why’ factor thoroughly enough.
In effect, I’ve been capitulating to the extrovert status quo and been an agent in getting students to as well, even if there was no clear learning need and even if it meant crushing the spirit of introverts within the group.
Well, because like many I think I’ve swallowed and absorbed the widespread notion that doing group work must be ‘good for you’. It’s a way to learn the skills of teamwork and to encourage students to communicate and negotiate with each other. All of this still holds true of course, but it is especially powerful in a learning situation if there is an extra need to work in a group to complete a task or solve a problem.
However, what Susan Cain and other introverts like her are asking us to do is to stop and consider the impact that this might have on students who are the quieter, internal, solo players of the group. If we insist on designing group task after group task, how does this affect those students? Of course, most of us would probably offer a mix of learning activities – some group, some paired, some solo. But even then we really need to consider what the learning need is for the group work we’re including in our curriculum design.
Ask yourself why it is that students need to do that task or project in a group. If there’s a good reason for it — for example, your aim is to encourage students to hear a range of opinions and have to negotiate to complete a complex task — then yes, it’s probably a good way to design the learning. If, however, we ask this question and find ourselves wondering about the real reason a group is needed for such a learning task, then perhaps we need to reconsider our thinking and redesign it as a solo task instead.
The Centre for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) claims there are three good reasons for group learning:
1. Peer learning can improve the overall quality of student learning.
2. Group work can help develop specific generic skills sought by employers.
3. Group work may reduce the workload involved in assessing, grading and providing feedback to students.
Choosing one of these reasons and then deciding to design a group learning activity is not where thoughtful learning design ends though. As CSHE points out, one of the big issues for group work can be a lack of perceived relevance or clear objectives and, as many of us know, this is where group work can start to become very messy. If you decide that there is a clear purpose for a group task, then the point of such an activity (and its group context) needs to be made explicit to students too so that they know why it is they are working in a group. In the group task, consider strategies that make use of the contributions from the more introverted members and how you might make this transparent — for example, asking group members to report on how the work was done and by whom.
What Cain’s TED talk highlights for us is that there are other students in our classes (and colleagues in our workplaces) that don’t respond well to this kind of learning if it is overused and if there is no real need for it. It’s important to acknowledge those students in learning design and be clear about the reasons for the kind of learning activities we design as educators. We need to encourage students to find out who they really are and honour their particular personalities and learning styles rather than suppress them.
In Australia at least, it’s that time of year when many of us pause and reflect on what worked well in our teaching throughout the year and what might not have panned out as we expected. It’s worth considering the role of group work in that reflective mix. As Cain points out ‘in the long run, staying true to your temperament is the key to finding work you love and work that matters.’
Do you have ideas and thoughts on group work or designing learning activities? We’d love to hear about them in our comments below!
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Reading Susan Cain’s book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a world that can’t keep quiet” has been one of the highlights in my reading this year and it is good to see her discussion taken further and some good questions being asked in Kylie’s excellent post.
Martin – thanks for your thoughts and I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I can’t wait to read Susan’s book.
Have not read Cain. Like your deconstruction of group work. When I started teaching post-secondary this was less evident. Eventually became the norm because, as we were told, students needed to learn how to collaborate in an increasingly global world. I did some group work but kept time for silent reflection (in-class journals) and talking circles. I did not want my classes to emulate the Borg. Enjoyed this post. Thank-you.
I like the way you build silent reflection time into your group work. I’m sure that assisted the introverts in your class. You are right, it has become the norm to use group work but we can change this with some careful thinking and considered learning design.
Yes, a need to address all learning styles? To remember and somehow allow silences in such a media drenched society? What we do in classrooms models future classrooms? Have a splendid weekend ~ Hap
I hope that word gets around about Cain’s book and your posting. I am an extreme introvert and simply can’t cope with group work. I just sit there doing nothing getting more and more anxious. I am a very good student and working on my own have no trouble, but being forced into group work means that I do nothing but waste my time.
I’m currrently a PhD student nearing submission. During most of my studies I’ve deliberately chosen courses that don’t have group work whererever possible. The trouble is that it has become so ubiquitous that it’s difficult to avoid it.
I’m sure that there are a lot of introverts like me who have extreme problems with group work. If it could be avoidd we would achieve much more on our own. I know that, to me, group work has always been a dead loss. I achieve far more working on my own.
Rod Pitcher.
Rod – I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I hesitated to write it because I thought some might perceive it as being too ‘out there’ but I believe Susan mounts a strong case and we need to think about introverts in our classes and workplaces. It’s so sad that you’ve had to choose your studies based on avoiding group work. More educators need to hear this! Thanks for commenting.
This is the first time that i have ever seen any writing about this topic. Its about time…
Imagine this. 1981 quiet country boy comes to the city, homesickness, not liking the city life, pretty much likes to mind his own business, quiet achiever which is why he ends up in a uni in the big smoke…
End of first year two grades are set one percent below HD with the message. “You would have recieved the extra marks if you had contributed more to the discussions in tutorials”. Same issue recurred in masters program 25 years later.
GB – that’s such a powerful tale of the way introversion can be squashed via learning design. Thanks for dropping by!
Some great points made Kylie; I think the most important being that we should always consider why we have chosen a particular kind of assessment, there must be a clear rationale aligned to the learning objectives. Also I think it’s about balance e.g if one piece of assessment is group work (chosen for all the good reasons above) then perhaps the other two should be individual work; that way there is the opportunity to build those collaborative skills required while also giving individuals the chance to shine. While we’re at it, I’d also question any excessive use of testing; some students can’t perform well in stressful situations either!
Great points Pauline! And yes, perhaps a post about excessive testing is needed on the tom tom. If interested, you could write it?
Reminds of me Neil deGrasse Tyson’s quote – “If your philosopy is not unsettled daily then you are blind to all the universe has to offer.”
I hope groupwork and individual work includes a debriefing point where extroverts, ambiverts & introverts share their experiences of the process. What is the experience like of working in these different contexts? What is the point ? Does each course sufficiently unsettle each preference? In an oblique manner this kind of reflection addresses many of RMIT’s graduate attributes.
Hans – I think we should definitely advocate de-briefing on the process of group work wherever possible. The introverts might find it excruciating to take part in however….
Both are valuable and need to be valued in a diverse, well-designed, relevant and responsive curriculum. All the wise adages about a time and place…If our graduates are ‘profession-vocation’ ready then they need solo and group skills; to be able to work together and independently, when it’s appropriate, and to know the time and reason for their choices or those of their management. Hopefully, the management are emotionally and cognitively intelligent, professional and experienced enough to be able to decide, design and adapt themselves and for/with their work teams…
Thanks for your thoughts Jude. Yes hopefully in workplaces (and classes) there is the emotional and cognitive intelligence to recognise the need for a variety of approaches. Going by Susan’s TED talk though, sadly, I think we’re a long way from there.
Hi Kylie, we read with interest your post on group work and felt compelled to comment as it’s the time of semester for us when our students are starting to think about their group assignments. There’s so much that can be discussed on this topic, but a couple of points we’d like to comment on is in relation to, firstly, The Centre for Higher Education’s third ‘good’ reason for group learning, which suggests it may reduce assessment workloads. While this may be true for academic staff, unfortunately it can lead to unfair stress loads on our students if each or many of the subjects they’re enrolled in has a group assignment requirement. At RMIT Vietnam, where group work assessments are common, our students could potentially be required to complete four group assignments each semester and have to collaborate with different students each time. This is stressful. Certainly academic staff need to communicate within degree programs about their assessments as they could be burdening students with unnecessary stress.
The second point is in relation to how group work can get messy. This is an excellent point. Certainly from the perspective of the student it often gets very messy because, among other things, appropriate ground rules haven’t been put in place by the group from the beginning. But it can also get very messy for academic staff too if, as you say in your post, students haven’t been made explicitly aware of why they’re working in groups. Not only that, it can also get messy if they’re unsure on how they’re going to be assessed both individually and as a group. Without intentionally ‘blog bombing’ your post (sorry!), we have a post of our own on our blog that discusses the use of wikis for group work http://lsuvietnam.com/2012/02/24/to-wiki-or-not/
One final thing we’d like to point out is that now with a greater (and increasing) offshore presence, Australian universities more than ever need to keep in mind cultural issues/sensitivities when creating group work assignments before they are introduced into the curricula of their offshore degree programs.
Cheers!
Thanks for your great comment LSU Vietnam! You make many great points and please don’t feel that you are ‘blog bombing’ by contributing. The more the merrier!
In particular, I think your comment about being culturally sensitive about learning design is important particularly in relation to group work. I look forward to reading your group work wiki.
Great discussion today- this is the busiest day in the tomtom’s history (measured in clicks/reads) and the most commented upon post we’ve ever had! Similarly, The Atlantic’s most popular online article of all time is Jonathan Rauch’s: Caring for Your Introvert, posted in 2003. You can read it at the link here and there’s been a lot of follow-up: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/03/caring-for-your-introvert/302696/
Thank you Kylie – this is indeed food for the soul!
I think it is important to keep sight of how any pertinent group or team activities are organised and how the more introverted learner or worker can be given the opportunity to participate effectively: distribute materials a week or so prior to the meeting, allocate the introverted participant to the task of writing up the analysis adding their own input to that put forward by other participants (and the result may well be spectacular!); record the group session to allow for later analysis and more. The example put forward by Susan Cain of introverts jumping on board with the views put forward by extroverts is somewhat horrifying. Let’s hear what the introverts have to contribute!
Gayle, thanks so much for those very useful ideas on how to include introverts in learning design. I’m sure readers appreciate such practical suggestions.