Some helpful resources for getting students to work in groups during lectures

Jouni pointed me to this page, at Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, on teaching by having students work in groups. As Jouni says, and I agree,

We just saw a video about “collaborative learning” at Harvard. It was very much like your work-in-pairs method. One of the teachers was doing a mass lecture and they 1) showed a question 2) let the students think for a minute 3) had them work in pairs to “convince the other student that his or her answer was correct”. This was repeated every 15-20 minutes, they said. Some didn’t even have a lecture; it was all group learning.

All in all, I have been long convinced that attending a full lecture is just boring unless the lecturer has some really illuminating stories that help understanding the textbook. And it’s just true that you learn best when you teach it to others. But it’s not just that, it is also most motivating to learn something if you have the responsibility to teach it. So, working in pairs, one way or other, is a good idea.

This idea of “learning by teaching” could be applied to some PhD- level courses that have only a few people. And, it is also instructive to figure out new problems to solve.

I’m more and more convinced that this is the way to go. There is a challenge, however, in keeping these group efforts on track so that the learning is structured. I think it’s important for students to have a sense of progression and acquiring skills throughout the semester.