Program Directory

AEDT 563

Presentation: Educational Groups

 

Goal: Participants will gain a basic understanding of these 3 dynamics common to educational groups and some insight into how to use them in designing and selecting group activities for their students.

Objectives: Participants will be able to …

1. … identify three group dynamics and characteristics of each as presented in this lesson.
2. … analyze their own memories, anecdotal accounts, and case studies of educational group interactions in terms of these dynamics.
3. … describe 3 benefits of participating in collaborative group work.
4. … appraise the use of group instruction in the context of EFF Content Standards and Kolb’s cycle of learning, with emphasis on an activity’s likely effect on the learner.
5. … use this knowledge of group dynamics, learning styles, and EFF standards to design a group learning activity.
6. … modify a given group activity to emphasize a particular dynamic

 

• Types of Groups (Dynamics w/in Groups)
  • collaborative more fundamental and enduring - personal philosophy - student centered - sometimes the ultimate goal - process oriented (but sometimes the intended product) - social constructivists
  • cooperative more superficial and short-lived - immediate utility - teacher centered - means to that goal - product oriented (but specifies appropriate process) - behaviorist.
  • competative - not directly addressed in research - treated here as potential if it's working for us (Jeapordy - Grammar Olympics) it can't work as hard against us
     
    • Internal vs. external - competition between members of the same group vs. competition between groups
    • good-natured vs. antagonistic - competition similar to banter between friends vs. competition where rivals have a deeply-felt personal stake in the outcome.
• • process
  • product
  
   
  
   
• The most authoratative treatment I've found on the distinction between collaborative and cooperative learning comes from the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research at SOE-UW-Madison (http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/nise/cl1/CL/question/TQ13.htm)
   
    That said, here's this:
   
• Benefits of educating students about group dynamics:
  1. Most directly applicable - brings multiple backgrounds and resources to bear on a single problem.
  2. Less directly applicable - interpersonal skills can be used to become more effective in our private lives
  3. Looking down the road - EFF's four skill sets are:
     • communication
     • interpersonal
     • lifelong learning
     • decision-making
  
   
• Paper on Adapting Kolb's Experietial Learning Cycle to a social constructovist (Vygotsky) perpective.
   
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