“It’s a device. A tool. Groups of first-year students that get together a couple times a week. Review the class work, the casebooks. They make outlines and then share them. It helps at exam time. You interested?” (Paul & Thompson & Bridges, 1973, scene 2). On the surface study groups may seem to be an effective strategy for enhancing learning, but they can actually lead students to encounter more problems than solved in the long run. These problems can vary from fairly small to very serious, which is seen throughout the film, The Paper Chase (1973). This film provided the gold standard of awful study groups with bickering, backstabbing, and withholding study aids. From the very first meeting, it was bound for failure as the members of the group …show more content…
Since everyone has strengths and weaknesses, members of the group can gain new perspectives and learn from each other. Each group member has different qualities and ideas to offer to the study group. If students study by themselves, they will only get one perspective, yet in groups, they can receive various viewpoints, which can further develop their critical thinking skills. Also, it is often quite hard to understand every detail of lectures and assigned work when doing self-study, so studying in a group with other students can help to fill in the gaps of material that may have been missed. Along with that, speaking out loud in a group can help strengthen these learning gaps. By trying to explain something to someone else, members can reinforce the concepts, therefore making information easier to recall in the future. Also, listening and asking questions can provide more food for thought, along with strengthening communication skills. Moreover, study groups can provide students an opportunity to learn and strengthen their …show more content…
Since the members of the study group came from universities to Harvard law school, most of them have never before been pushed intellectually, nor faced any real adversity in terms of competition. Therefore, combining smart intellectuals in a group may seem like a great tool, but there is bound to be competition eventually. In one of the group meetings, Bell states, “You want to know about my outline? It’s 800 pages long, and it’s fantastic. I’m going to publish that outline. My outline is better than the casebook,” (Bell). Bell believes his outline is the best, and later on threatens not to share his outline with anyone else unless theirs begins to stack up. Competition is also shown in Brooks’s case where he struggles to keep up with his group members. His wife Asheley tells group member Hart, “He’s just so tired. He works so hard. Every night till 3:00 or 4:00. The competition is killing him,” (Asheley). Other types of competition that takes place throughout the film is the desire to be recognized as the top student in Kingsfield’s eyes. This takes place in Kingsfield’s lectures in the classroom scenes where it is shown that the same students answers Kingsfield’s questions, which just so happen to be members of the study
|For practical training, learners may have the benefit of observing others in the group carry out a task and learn from mistakes or things|
Study groups are important in increasing the success rates of nursing students. It enable students to connect with other nursing students, as well as studying together and sharing study habits. Another advantage of joining or starting a study group is that students are surround by liked minded people that understand the psychological and physical pressures of nursing school (Anderson, 2016). A great way to test how well you know a topic is to teach it to someone else, study groups make that possible.
The study group would also provide a sense of influence as students would feel that they are not only being influenced by their peers and their motivation or study tactics, but that they are influencing others to become more practical or efficient in their studying. Students may also notice that this group helps expand their recourses that they are sharing. The group would provide a place to network with other members, creating a higher sense of integration and fulfillment of needs. Altogether, the presence of shared emotional connections, influence, and integration and fulfillment of needs, all add to creating a higher psychological sense of community in the graduate program at
6. Group study is extremely useful because discussions will help make the material and concepts easier to remember and deepen your understanding. You will be asked to work in small groups in class—take advantage of this learning opportunity!
“When groups are planned so that each member's strengths have authentic importance to the ultimate success of the group's activity, this creates a situation where individual learning styles, skills, and talents are valued, and students shine in their fortes and learn from each other in the areas where they are not as expert.”(Willis)
It was easier to figure out the functions and the mechanisms of this group because there were only about eleven students. I focused more on the interactions between the students, instead of looking farther into the communication between the TA and the students. Students usually are concentrated more on getting the TA’s opinion on their problems, I wanted to see what was happening in a small group without the TA’s input. There shared goal was obviously to pass their chemistry class, especially because chemistry is known to be a very rigorous and difficult course to pass. This particular TASL workshop required the students come to every meeting because it counted for a portion of their overall grade in their actual chemistry class. They were given a packet of chemistry problems by the TA to complete together by assigning each member a portion of the assignment. Each of the packet’s five problems were broken into smaller parts to be assigned to each group member for them to get everyone’s input and perspective. It forced the other people in the group to participate or at least pay attention to each person completing a part of the problem because if they didn’t it would throw the rest of the problem off. This gave them the opportunity to see from each other’s different perspectives to get a better understanding of chemistry. By making the students participate in completing the packet together to get feedback and answers
It allows groups to use the situation in the learning environment to develop their social interaction skills e.g. meeting new people, and share ideas. This enhances the group’s experiences, promotes collaboration, can develop their social relationships skills and allows opportunity for peer
group is a beneficial way to bond with others, feel a variety of different emotions, and learn new
That will leave us perfectly with seven groups in total,” our teacher instructed us. Everybody made eye contact with each other, getting ready to dash into their groups they had in mind. Likewise, I was ready too. My friends knew what kind of group we would have. After Ms. Brasher yelled at us to get in our groups, we made our groups as quick as possible. I could hear the ground rumbling like an earthquake as soon as the students started hustling to their groups. I knew which group I was going to be in, so I approached my
Since much of our time is spend in groups, it is helpful to work in groups because it will give an opportunity to improve their human functioning. Group work helps to develop individual skills in communication, relationship building and asserting oneself
During the group discussions it helped me earn feedback from my different peers in the class and view the different thoughts and ideas that my fellow classmates had. When writing an essay, having different classmates review my work and give feedback helped me learn more about myself and other people. It helped me learn that people will always have a different point of view when it comes to writing, and I also learned that peer reviews are a precise and beneficial way of showing different ideas and showing mistakes that I made in my essay. This also contributed to my overall improvements of
The college students study by attending lectures and taking on the subject of their interests. The average college lecture will last about one hour fifteen minutes and mostly involves the instructors dictating and explaining the points while the students are taking notes. Secondly, the college students use the group’s discussion to study (Paul & Elder, 2013). The groups help the student to learn since they are actively involved in the process. The student understands more of what is taught in groups than when it is presented in the instructional format.
Tuckman proposes that groups develop via five stages; forming, storming, norming, performing and finally adjourning (Archee, Gurney, & Mohan, 2013a). The first stage, known as forming, involves clarifying the task and purpose of the group, and identifying boundaries of both the task and interpersonal behaviour (Archee et al., 2013a). For the presentation task we were randomly allocated into groups. This worried me greatly as I have struggled in the past with group members who do not contribute equally or see the task as important as other group members. To avoid this problem, the group collectively determined and agreed upon a number of ground rules. For example, we decided that all group members were expected to contribute equally to the presentation, all group members were expected to attend and contribute at all group meetings, and all group members would adhere to agreed upon deadlines. Having failed to do this in previous group assignments, this clarification stage
Participations in small in-class groups which purpose was to accomplish a task assigned to us by our Professor, were the most powerful learning experiences for me. In developing common focus, as stated in Gitterman and Germain (2008), members need to establish group rules and also remember to “build on one another’s contributions, identify and focus on salient collective themes, invite expression of differences” (p. 174), as well as welcome opinions which are contradictory or different from the majority.
In conclusion, this class has changed my perspective about working in a group. Since my prior experience with groups was so unsettling, I believed that all groups were going to be the same. However, this class has made it possible to believe that there are groups that respect and take into consideration other members’