Making Group Learning Work. Processes and Pedagogical Designs in Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter departs from a general acknowledgement that collaborative activities in small groups are productive for students’ learning. A range of so-called ‘student-centred’ approaches include elements of group work, in which students are required to engage in collaborative investigations, problem solving or knowledge co-construction. However, what it means for teachers to organize and support such learning, what students experience as challenging, and what support they might need is to an extent overlooked in the pedagogical practice in higher education. This chapter uses observations, interviews with teachers and students, course documents, and findings from case studies in two higher education courses wherein group work was a prevalent activity, to identify aspects what matter for the quality of collaborative learning in small group settings. Furthermore, the chapter highlights ways in which such learning activities are and can be pedagogically designed and enacted in order to support student engagement, and what are challenges accompanying this endeavour. Based on the insights gained through the aforementioned studies and analyses, the chapter discusses ways to inform quality work in higher education with a focus on the processes of teaching and learning.