Group Incentive Techniques

Abstract

In order to engage the student actively in both a teaching and learning situation, a classroom system was devised to give incentives for both mastering the daily material and teaching the newly acquired knowledge to classmates. Introductory Sociology classes, ranging up to 50 students, were arranged in fourto five-person teams, each assigned to a table. These teams usually remain stable throughout the term, although reassignment is possible if necessary. An initial questionnaire matches team members so that an equitable distribution of sex, age, class, and grade-point averages is assured. An instructional system for the two-hour periods was as follows: summary of previous lecture (10 minutes), group study and review (10 minutes), question and answer period with instructor (20 minutes), break (10 minutes), daily objective test (10 minutes), grade and discuss the test (10 minutes), lecture (50 minutes). Tests are given on prepared sheets that can be torn in half. One half is handed in and graded by a teaching assistant; the other half is graded by the student as the instructor calls out the answers and discusses each question. Immediate feedback on grading produces the well-established positive results of learning by immediately understanding one's mistakes. Daily grades are a composite of the student's score (50%) and the average score of his or her team members (50%). Because of