Asking students to work in groups is widely used at all levels of education, with different purposes. Whether to develop specific skills that working with others require, or to distribute the workload in case of complex and difficult tasks, group-work is seen as the best opportunity to make peer-learning happen. Even if carefully designed and tested, group-work might fail to achieve its primary aim and can turn into a disaster, if group-members cannot work together efficiently.
This workshop will discuss several questions that are crucial to be answered by any course facilitator/instructor who wants to use this learning activity. When is group-work justified? What is group-work good for? Who should form the groups? What are the obstacles of a successful group activity? What to pay attention to when using group-work as a learning activity?
Besides being a learning activity, the outcomes of group-work are often being assessed or graded. We will therefore also discuss issues related to assessing group-projects, and will look at several possible strategies in assigning individual grades to students who worked together on a group assignment.
All CEU academic and administrative staff, as well as doctoral students are welcome to attend.