Speaking skills are critical in a rapidly changing work landscape that requires collaboration and problem solving. However, class size (small or large) can influence students’ feelings and behaviors when practicing speaking in class, with this study finding that total class size affects students’ outcomes not only during student presentations to the whole class but also during students’ small group interactions. Students in a small class reported feeling more positive about their experiences within the class as a whole, experiencing greater interest in coursework and exhibiting greater attention.
Tag: group work
“I Hate Group Work!”: Addressing Students’ Concerns About Small-Group Learning
This article identifies the strategies used by architecture professors and their undergraduate students to mitigate common issues that students raise about group work. Based on participant-observation, interviews with students and faculty, and analysis of instructional materials and student work, this IRB-approved ethnographic case study complicates the separation of collaborative, cooperative, and problem-based learning into distinct pedagogical models. Rather than viewing students’ concerns as a form of resistance that can be avoided with the right approach to small-group learning, this article explores how the hybrid model operating in design studio pedagogy confronts the problems inherent in any form of group work.