Small Group Teaching
Linda Carey
Centre for Educational
Development
Queen’s University Belfast
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Learning outcomes for this session
By the end of the session you will have:
 Discussed some of the strengths of and
difficulties with small group teaching
 Considered some of the aims, facilitation
issues and methods for small group
teaching, with reference to your own
teaching context
 Discussed some ways to deal with difficult
students in a small group
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Task 1:
Discuss in pairs or threes
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What is kind of small group teaching
takes place in your department?
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In your experience, what are the
strengths of and difficulties with small
group teaching?
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Some possible problems
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Teacher gives a lecture rather than
conducting a dialogue
Teacher talks too much
Students won’t talk to each other or the tutor
Students don’t prepare
One student dominates
Students want to be given solutions to
problems rather than discuss them
Jaques (2003)
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Aims of small group teaching
adapted from Brown and Atkins, 1987
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to develop intellectual and professional abilities,
e.g. analysing, logical reasoning, evaluating
evidence/data, appraising and judging
perceptively, thinking critically, seeing new
relationships, synthesising, speculating
creatively, designing, arguing rationally,
transferring skills to new context, problemsolving
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to develop students’ communications skills:
with peers, tutor, in “real world”
to develop values, language and perspective of
the discipline
to foster students’ personal development:
e.g. confidence, managing own learning
to develop group working skills
to challenge and stimulate students and tutor
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Roles of the lecturer in small group
teaching
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Facilitator – leading discussion, questioning,
guiding process and task, enabling
participation and engagement with ideas
Instructor – imparting information
Neutral Chair
Consultant
Commentator
Other.....?
( based on McCrorie, 2006)
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Conditions for successful small
group teaching
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Effective planning and preparation
Breaking the ice -- starting out with the group
Keeping the group on track
Dealing with possible problems and conflicts
adapted from Exley and Dennick, 2004
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Preparation
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What is the likely level, knowledge and
experience of the students?
What am I teaching – topic, type of expected
learning (knowledge, skills, behaviours)?
How will I teach it? – methods, time, venue,
resources
How will I know if students understand? –
informal or formal assessment, questioning,
feedback from learners.
Adapted from: Spencer (2003, p25)9
Step 1
Consider what you want the students to learn
or achieve: the learning outcomes
Step 2
Choose a suitable set of group tasks to deliver
the selected outcomes
Step 3
Decide how to organise the small group:
Your tasks are to:
• prepare materials
• explain and check agreement on task
• monitor development of task
• control time boundaries
From: Jaques, 2003, p.19
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Starting out with a group
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Arranging group environment (see handout)
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seating to maximize interaction, facilitator
position
Introductions/warm-ups:
e.g. names, rounds, paired introductions
Establishing ground rules:
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Expectations
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How will the group operate?
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Developing a “learning contract”?
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Adapted from Exley and Dennick, 2004
Task 2:
What ground rules would you suggest for
your small groups?
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Starting out (continued)
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Fostering a sense of “safety”
Explaining aims /outcomes and tasks to
students
Activating students’ prior learning: What do
they already know on this topic?
Questioning
Stimuli – e.g. texts, pictures, artefacts,
models, newspaper clippings, cartoons,
video clips
Adapted from Exley and Dennick, 200413
Keeping the group on track
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Time management
Keeping focus to discussion
Building in time for reflections and
summaries
Managing the discussion:
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Involving all students
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Dealing with diverse students
Recording achievements and progress – e.g.
notes, flipchart, post-its
Adapted from Exley and Dennick, 2004
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Questioning skills: some common pitfalls
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asking too many questions at once
asking ambiguous or confusing questions
asking irrelevant questions and losing focus
answering your own questions and
launching into a mini-lecture
asking questions of only a subset of
students
asking closed rather than open questions
questioning too aggressively
adapted from Brown and Atkins, 198815
Types of questions to stimulate thinking
(see handout for details)
Questions to elicit from the students:
 Evidence
 Clarification
 Explanation
 Linking and extending
 Hypothetical thinking
 Cause and effect
 Summary and synthesis
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Adapted from Brookfield, 2006
Methods to encourage participation
(adapted from Race, 2006)
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Rounds
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useful at beginning or end of session
Pairs
Buzz groups (3, 4, 5 people)
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discussion-based or task-based
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time-limited
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clear remit explained to students
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different ways of assigning groups
Syndicates: groups working in teams on
different aspects of a problem / case
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Methods (continued)
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Snowballing or pyramids
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ones, then twos, fours, eights etc
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builds confidence; encourages participation
Crossovers
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Mix and matching of sub groups
“Brainstorming”
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Idea generation; unstructured; creative
Debates
Student-led seminars
Problem-based learning groups
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Taking feedback from students
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Instant posters (flipcharts)
Post-it notes – succinct, easy to use
Students prepare overhead transparencies
(or use technology if available)
Spokesperson – how nominated?
Formal presentation with PowerPoint, etc
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Sometimes no feedback needed
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Task 3:
How could you apply these methods in
your own teaching? (Choose one or two
to discuss in detail.)
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