On  2 Jul 97 at 17:27, Dr. Robert K. Irish wrote:

> So, maybe I'm asking people to move on to looking at big group (lecture)
> strategies.  How do you break your groups down in ways that are
> productive without leading to classroom chaos? Do you get students
> reporting back to students? (isn't this just students lecturing
> students?) What do you do when a group assigned a particular portion
> doesn't come through?
>

I certainly don't have answers to all these questions, but I will
pass along various strategies from a fairly recent set of workshops
conducted in Halifax by Graham Gibbs of Oxford Brookes University,
Oxford, UK.  He is heavily involved in a British project called,
ominously, "Teaching More Students".  I only attended the session on
fostering discussions in large groups, which set out a number of
structures to get students discussing in smaller groups within a
larger class, groups which were clearly structured so that they could
function without the leadership/support/facilitation/intervention of
a tutor.  There were twelve such structures, including such things as
rounds, syndicates, fishbowls, crossovers ...  I'll give you a
sample, at the bottom of this message, if you care to read that far.

Many of us have come up with various strategies for more interactive
classes, even in lecture halls with over a hundred students in fixed
seating (not that that happens much here at the Mount!)  We just
haven't usually formalized our strategies as Gibbs's group has,
unless we're presenting at a STLHE conference.

My own comment would be to echo what has been said already -- you
have to know what you're trying to accomplish, and then choose what
method will accomplish it. I happen to like lecturing too, but
then I did a lot of theatre in my youth, and I sometimes hanker
after a spotlight and an adoring audience.  Such desires, however,
only rarely meet my students' needs, though I persuade myself
sometimes that they DO need to be entertained, or to have an
articulate demonstration of a professor's mind at work on a problem,
or a highly structured summary of background information or a
theoretical approach which we are about to apply or even a memorable
explanation of why they have to document their sources...

And finally, to echo Marcy, I think, to be alert to the difference as
objectives of the class between "what I've covered" and "what they've
learned".

Okay, here's your sample of strategies from Graham Gibbs:

ROUNDS are groups (preferably circles) in which each student in a
group gets a turn to speak briefly. They work particularly well at
the beginning of a session, making it more likely that a student
will speak again.  At the beginning of a session, rounds might
produce statements or queries such as "a question I'd like answered
today" or "I hope today's class..." or "What I've been reading since
last class..."  At midpoint in the class, round might be used to get
a sense of progress, or lack thereof -- "something we haven't really
tackled is..." "could anyone explain really clearly what ...".  At
the end of a session, the comments might be "what I got out of today
was..." "What I still don't really understand is..." "what I intend
to work on next is..."  The comments which come from these rounds
may be useful within the group: they may be useful to the larger
group or to the professor if there is a chance to communicate them
to the larger forum or to the professor herself.

SYNDICATES are a fancy term for teams working in parallel on the same
task.  The challenge is to design suitable tasks and to brief the
teams clearly.  The tutor can float from group to group.  Gibbs
suggests that plenaries are one way to bring the groups together to
share their outcomes, but also recommends FISHBOWLS or CROSSOVERS.

FISHBOWLS are a circle of chairs occupied by students who will have a
discussion, surrounded by a larger circle of chairs occupied by
listeners.  As a substitute for a plenary, the inner circle consists
of a representative from each team reporting on their doings.  Anyone
from the outer circle may cut into the inner circle by tapping one of
the inner circle on the shoulder and exchanging places...

CROSSOVERS change the makeup of groups within a larger class. Six
groups of six, for example, can be recombined into six groups each
having one person from each of the previous six groups. (Six As, six
Bs etc can form six ABCDEF groups) and each member of a syndicate/
team is responsible for reporting on its findings to the new groups.
Gibbs says the discussions are livelier, but there is less
opportunity for the tutor to intervene and to correct misconceptions
or promote her point of view...

Cheers
Susan

                        * * * * * * * * * * *
Susan Drain, Ph.D.                          902 457 6220
Chair, English Department                   [log in to unmask]
Mount Saint Vincent University
Halifax, NS
Canada B3M 2J6