Learning In Groups

By Author: Anthony W Bills
Total Articles: 158
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Learning in Groups
Group learning is considered as a useful education approach. The group is carefully planned and it requires a facilitator to ensure the group progresses successfully. The factions of the group and learning needs to be assessed and evaluated frequently to ensure they are progressing well. The group must be able to achieve a common goal. The teacher is required to ensure that the functions of the group are well maintained and the prospects of the group are well achieved. The groups are useful in developing problem solving techniques, interpersonal, presentational and communication skills and all beneficial to life in class and outside the class room (Schein, 1998).
Advantages and disadvantages of learning within a group
Advantages
• Group learning ensures that learners learn in both affective as well as cognitive domains. In this regard, learners are able to participate and are required to think and contribute to the group
• Group work ensures that learners are centered to the work being done and on the other hand they understand the subject.
• When learning as a group, ...
... learners are stimulated to think about the issues and the problems that are being addressed on.
• In a group work, learners are encourages to exchange ideas, learn from each others experiences thus helping in making learning more active and less isolating.
• When learning in a group, learners are given an opportunity to share ideas and concerns thus helping each other learn and improve on the subject of concern.
• On the other hand, group work enhances a feeling of belonging among the members as they support each other.
Disadvantages
• In most cases, due to difference in the members participation, some members can be dominant while others may dominate the discussion
• Shy members of the group may not participate and may require a great deal of encouragement in order to be able to participate in the group activities
• Group work requires tactful approaches to avoid some learners loosing trust for other members who may on the other hand dominate the group or discussion.
• It’s a hard work to manage a group especially when the members do not understand each other.
• It takes more time to transmit information to the members compared to other methods like lectures.
• The teachers presence is required all the time to act as a facilitator
Significance of group goals
Setting goals in a group is a very important. Goals define the expectation the group looks forward to achieve. When working within a group, all members must be able to imagine, conceptualize and understand the goals and the desired results. Preparing ones’ mind through discussing the goals that are looked to be achieved, it helps all members to work towards achieving the desired results without any variation in the results (Bion, 1961).
Another significance of a group goal setting is to align them with their personal values. This will make them feel that set goals can be achieved no matter what. It is important for each member to see himself or herself as an achiever and they must see their goals in their hands.
The goals that are set must be achievable. The group members must have mental and physical capability to achieve the goals. In some cases, there could be some goals that cannot be achieved by the group but the group keeps on struggling without a success which in turn could also lead to loose of moral and brings in conflict among the members. Though some goals are challenging, it would be important to set goals that can be achieved by the majority of members (Freud, 1992).
Reaching to a consensus within a group requires and involves a collaborative discussion rather than using an adversarial debate. The consensus process is likely to have better results in all parts of the group and come up with a common ground. To have a consensus in a group, there must be a discussion that will involve all members and therefore, there would be no variation on what will be achieved and the entire group will be having a common goal (Schutz, 1958).
On the other hand, a consensus ensures there is a good group relation because it ensures that all members participate and this minimizes the resentment that some are winners and others are losers. There is also a better implementation of the decision made. When all members participate in the process, there is usually strong level of cooperation in the follow through. All group members will have a common achievement thus minimizing chances of other sabotaging the implementation of the group’s decision.
In a group work, there must be high demonstration of different skills to match the requirement to the group goals. When working as a group, high concentration is required because each member has different idea and the main aim of the group is to learn from each other. When there is high listening and thinking skills, there is a possibility that all members will come to a consensus because the issue at hand will be faced with different skills and from different perspectives thus coming up with a concrete conclusion. Within a group, respect is an essential factor because it helps the members to listen to each other and offers freedom of expression. This on the other hand helps in making all members feel being part of the group (Dyer, 1994).
When there are high listening skills, there is probability that small mistakes will be noticed and may raise criticism among members. This may also obscure members from fully participating to avoid being noticed when he makes an error in the statement. When respect is high also, members may try to give room for each other leading to silence or may be giving some members chances of domination the discussion (Freud, 1992).
Since a group is a collection of more than one person who is socially interconnected, there must be a way and levels by which a group is formed because it cannot just form from nowhere. There are several ways that contribute the dynamics of a group including social, religion, roles and need to belong among others. For a group to be formed, the participants must have a common goal and also have a concise method of achieving their goals. The process starts by distinguishing the members’ goals and then the way or the method through which these goals are going to be achieved (Forsyth, 2010).
There are ways that are used by the group to assess whether their goals have been achieved. This may include the assessment of the process used in achieving the goal and also whether the goal fulfils the group desires (Schutz, 1958).

Reference:
Bion, W. (1961). Experiences in Groups: And Other Papers. Tavistock. Reprinted, 1989 Routledge.
Dyer, W. (1994). Team Building, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall.
Forsyth, D. (2010). Group Dynamics, 5th Edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Freud, S. (1992) Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. New York: Liveright Publishing.
Schein, E. (1998). Process Consultation, Prentice Hall.
Schutz, W. (1958). FIRO: A Three-Dimensional Theory of Interpersonal Behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

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