There is a great deal of information on group work both on line and in pedagogical journals that would be useful. If you go to
http://www.cat.ilstu.edu/teaching_tips/active.shtml and scroll down to the section on Collaborative/Cooperative work, for example, you can read a few things (theoretical and practical) on group work. There are also several articles in Teaching Sociology. I cannot remember whether there is an ASA TRC product on using group work.
My primary suggestions are as follows.
1. There are no right answers to the questions you raise (as I am sure you know) for all situations. Thus, start with the learning outcomes the group work is supposed to help your student meet. What are they and how will the group work enhance that learning? If you cannot answer this, of course, there is not much point in having the group work and making other decisions will be impossible. Once you know this, it will help you make other important decisions about how to form groups, deal with free riders, grade, etc.
2. I agree with Steve that students should not grade each other per se but should provide feedback on their own and their teammates work, collegiality, products, and learning (depending on your learning outcomes). There are many ways to do this from face-to-face private chats with students, to open-ended questions they complete on line, to quantitative ratings they make on a "questionnaire," to requiring signed "division of labor reports" for each major aspect of a group project, reflective essays about their own work, etc.
3. Spend a lot of time thinking about and engaging in preparing your students for group work to help reduce resistance, confusion, free riders, dominant members, and conflict... and enhance positive affect and learning. A few ideas include having students read about characteristics and processes of functional, productive groups; having student engage in group consensus building activities (e.g., naming their groups, negotiating and signing behavioral norms for their groups); making it very explicit why they are doing group work (how the group work will help them meet learning outcomes) and how you will handle free riders; teach them a bit about conflict management; have strategies for dealing with free riders or overly dominant members (both can be a problem) such as division of labor reports, grading some work individually and some as a group, unannounced individual "quizzes" related to the group work, gathering peer feedback on team members, etc. etc.
Best wishes.
Kathleen
At 09:24 AM 7/26/2005, Kelly Goran Fulton wrote:
I'm thinking about including some group work in my courses, and would benefit from some feedback.
How do you have group members assess other group members (to reduce the free rider problem)?
Any pitfalls to avoid?
Any tips for success?
Do you assign groups or let them choose group members?
Thanks for the help! (I need it.)
Kelly Goran Fulton
Department of Sociology
University of Texas at Austin
Cross Endowed Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Professor, Sociology
Box 3990
Illinois State University
Normal, Il 61790-3990
off 309-438-7706
fax 309-438-8788
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.ilstu.edu/~kmckinne/
