Facts and myths about teaching and learning in small groups

Abstract

Working in small groups is present in many agendas for education reform and has become a kind of myth. Indeed, there is a generalized belief in the efficacy and infallibility of organizing students into groups to achieve specific goals or to develop certain types of activities. Such belief lacks empirical support and has even been dubbed as “the romance of teams.” It is necessary and urgent to understand what characterizes an effective group and what the necessary conditions to ensure such effectiveness to avoid common mistakes in many academic reforms. For example, it is inappropriate to base a whole course on small group work, if the materials, the organization of activities and assessment program have been drawn for a traditional model of the discipline. The adoption of small group work requires that a set of core principles are met and also appropriate conditions for the development of groups into effective teams. This article presents a critical review and evaluation of the use of small groups in education, identifies the key factors in small group work and discusses the role of learning in small groups in higher education. To this end, the article builds on some of the evidence arising from research on the effectiveness of small group work.