Transforming learning with groups

Media-savvy students are increasingly impatient with lectures; they find lectures boring and irrelevant when compared to their activities outside the classroom (Bruffee, 1999). Employers need workers who can interact with others; they want universities to help students develop the collaborative skills necessary to succeed in a dynamic and competitive economy (Fink, 2004; Barkley, Cross, & Major, 2005). By applying group dynamics in the classroom, teachers hope to increase the quality of student learning by applying important lessons from cognitive science and social psychology.

In short, actively learning with others helps students develop skills to enhance academic and professional success (Barkley, Cross, & Major, 2005). However, transforming a lecture-based classroom into an environment where students collaborate to learn requires a new set of skills necessary to engage with others for mutual success.