Small group teaching

Abstract

Two’s company, three’s a crowd, and four is...a small group (actually some would say that two or more people constitutes a small group, but we nit-pick). Most clinical educators teach groups. Over the many years that we have run ‘teaching the teachers’ sessions, on both small and large group teaching, participants have consistently identified several problems. These include teaching at the right level, finding out what learners already know, keeping everyone actively engaged, dealing with challenging behaviour (for example, the dominant or the silent group member) and knowing how they (the teachers) are doing. We aim to provide participants with strategies and solutions to these problems, and a few techniques to add to their repertoire. One resource we offer is a list of recommended texts, that we, as teachers, have found invaluable, some of which I hope to share with you here. Each has a different take on teaching and learning in groups, but all cover the same core material, including strategies for dealing with problems, techniques for engaging learners, keeping things on the move and, in particular, the importance of planning! I hope that those of you who are already familiar with these publications will feel encouraged to re-visit them and share them with colleagues. For those whom these are new resources, I hope you will find them of great assistance in achieving your teaching goals. The most scholarly of these works is ‘Learning in Groups’ by David Jaques.1 The fourth edition is co-authored by Gilly Salmon, an e-learning authority, and neatly incorporates a discussion about online learning into the text, rather than treating it as a separate entity, in the authors’ words ‘to demonstrate how transferable so many of the principles and practice are’. There are chapters on theoretical aspects of both group function and learning. The aims and purposes of using groups are followed by chapters on activities (i.e. techniques), the role of the facilitator (or ‘e-moderator’), the broader context of learning in groups, and assessment and evaluation. Finally, there is a chapter describing practical ideas for training others in group work and leadership. There are case studies and exercises, and each chapter ends with discussion points; the book is clearly intended to be more than just a reference document. Although it might not appeal to the busy, ‘jobbing’ clinical teacher, I would say that this book is a must for staff developers and anyone studying aspects of group learning, particularly online learning. Of all the books in the collection, ‘Groups: a guide to small group work in healthcare, management, education and research’ by Elwyn et al.2 attempts to cover the most ground, as the title suggests. It does manage to do justice to all of these areas, succinctly and without being superficial, and for this reason alone is a useful reference text. There is introductory material on theoretical aspects of groups, and the chapters that follow in the section on ‘Small group process’ include an excellent chapter on facilitation, the inevitable chapter on group techniques, and a chapter with suggestions for ‘when groups go wrong’. Other chapters in this section are cleverly built around the well-known stages of group development delineated by Tuckman in the 1960s,3 i.e. ‘forming’, ‘norming’, etc. There is a chapter on ‘the virtual group’, but as an indication of the pace of change in this area, the content seems a bit dated (the book was published in 2001). The sections on small group work in organisational settings and in research are not especially relevant to teachers, but are interesting nonetheless. The book is from the Radcliffe Publishing camp, and is written in the familiar style, which makes it accessible and highly readable. Again, anyone interested in broader aspects of group work, as well as small-group teaching, could do worse than to get hold of this book; hopefully there will be a new edition in the not-too-distant future. Exley and Dennick’s book, ‘Small group teaching: tutorials, seminars and beyond’4 is one of a series of ‘key guides for effective teaching in higher education’, aimed primarily at new university or college teachers, and not just those in health care education. There is some theory scattered throughout, but the book is very practically orientated, and as such is full of ideas and suggestions, including case studies from a wide range of subject areas. As in all of the books discussed here, the importance of communication in group facilitation is emphasised, especially the role of questioning. There are group techniques aplenty, and chapters on problem-based learning, and using communication and information technology in groups, as well as chapters on some ‘bigger picture’ issues such as student diversity and student-led group work. ‘Further reading’ lists at the end of each chapter are supplemented by ‘Useful websites’, and indeed the book itself, as with all of the books in the series, is linked to a web-based guide to student learning compiled by Professor George Brown5 to ‘provide a substantial foundation for the teaching and assessment practices recommended in the texts’. Morry van Ments’ book on role play6 is (inevitably) the most specialised. Indeed, several of the other books refer to Ments in their respective (short) sections on role play. In our staff-development sessions it’s clear how much people hate role play, often, sadly, as a result of bad experiences when role play has been used inappropriately or ineptly. This is a great pity because, used judiciously, it is a powerful educational tool. Simulation and gaming have been used in education for, well, millennia, and there are a great number of variations and possibilities. However, as van Ments says ‘...there are better and worse ways of using it’. He emphasises the importance of taking a systematic approach, not least giving careful thought to where and how role play fits into the overall teaching and learning process. He offers some useful frameworks, checklists and flow charts for using role play, and, yes, details about specific techniques. ‘Debriefing’ is considered in some detail, and van Ments argues that it is an oft-neglected component of the role-play process, perhaps one of the reasons why so many people end up disliking it. By the by, one tip given to me by a colleague, partly with tongue-in-cheek, is not to use the term ‘role play’ at all, but to refer instead to ‘skills practice’ or ‘rehearsal’– that way you might be able to introduce role play into a session by stealth, and at the very least you can start to discuss the issues without invoking a negative reaction. There are many other books on teaching and learning in groups, as well as smaller texts (such as the Association for the Study of Medical Education's own ‘Understanding Medical Education’ series7) and web resources. However, I feel that the four I have described should serve the needs of most clinical teachers, whether as something to read from cover to cover, as a resource for more scholarly work or just to dip into for specific guidance or information. Good reading!