Small Group Interaction Research Articles

Comparison of Feedback and Small Group Dynamics During In‐person and Online Gross Anatomy Courses

Introduction Giving and receiving constructive feedback is necessary for healthcare professionals, and the anatomy lab traditionally has provided an ideal environment to develop this skill. Little is known about how the pandemic and conversion to online learning have impacted small group dynamics that typically occur in an anatomy “lab” setting. For summer 2020, an anatomy course for allied health students, held in-person in summer 2019, was shifted to an online format for lectures/labs. At the end of both courses, students completed self and peer evaluations based on small group interactions. The purpose of this study was to examine feedback given during the traditional in-person course versus online. We hypothesized that feedback would be similar between curricula, with students being more critical of themselves than peers. Methods Human Gross Anatomy is a 9-week course for allied health (physician assistant, occupational therapy, and physical therapy) students (2019 n=133; 2020 n=129). In 2019, the in-person course consisted of lectures and dissection completed by groups of 4-5 students. In 2020, the course consisted of online lectures and lab activities conducted via Microsoft Teams, with groups of 4-5 students identifying structures on cadaveric images. At the end of each course, students provided self and peer feedback consisting of rating rubric statements (score 1-4) and narrative comments, addressing medical knowledge, professionalism, communication, and practice-based learning domains. Comments were themed and rating rubric scores were averaged and analyzed using a two-tail, two-sample t-test. Results Students in the 2020 online course rated peers significantly higher in all categories of evaluative questions compared to students in the 2019 in-person course. These categories include communication (3.8 vs 3.6), teamwork (3.6 vs 3.5), responsibility (3.9 vs. 3.8), self-awareness (3.8 vs 3.6), and preparedness (3.8 vs 3.6) (p≤0.05). Online students rated themselves significantly higher than in-person students in communication (3.6 vs. 3.4) and preparedness (3.6 vs. 3.4) (p≤0.05), but there was no significant difference in ratings in other categories. Online students rated themselves significantly lower than peers on questions assessing communication (3.8 vs. 3.6), teamwork (3.6 vs. 3.5), self-awareness (3.8 vs. 3.6), and preparedness (3.8 vs. 3.6) (p≤0.05), but not in regard to demonstrating responsibility and respect toward cadaver images (3.9 vs. 3.8). A similar trend was seen when in-person with the exception of teamwork and self-awareness, which did not show any significant differences. Conclusions Students evaluated peers more critically when in-person than when online. This may be due to different small group dynamics in these settings. In-person students have more opportunities to interact with each other and may thus be more comfortable giving feedback. Students from both cohorts evaluated themselves more critically than peers, suggesting they may still be uncomfortable giving constructive criticism. Understanding how students perceive themselves and others in different situations will give insight into methods to improve multidisciplinary communication and professionalism within the healthcare setting.

Physiology going viral: Redesigning active learning instruction

Over the past two years and coinciding with a curricular change in our Pharmacy program, we planned a partial shift for our physiology content moving from lecture-based physiology topics to an active learning setting. Part of these active learning activities using a gamification process were presented last year together with student assessments (EB 2020 poster: Tejada-Simon and Silverthorn; “Low-tech” gamification and TBL strategies to teach physiology). With the current COVID-19 pandemic, we had to transform the newly developed TBL and game session to a new and engaging system for the online world. The task required more effort than originally predicted, as instructors were trying to learn new technological skills at the same time than developing new materials. The goals for those new materials were to conserve equivalency and reusability for future academic years, as well as possible application to all, face-to-face, hyflex, hybrid and online delivery systems. Our learning objective was to assist first year Pharmacy students in understanding the autonomic nervous system structure and function using an interactive approach coupled to a team-based learning session. The original 2-hour session was converted to a 3-hour interactive problem-solving game (InProGAME). As in prior years, the students completed pre-class activities in form of diagrams, crossword puzzles and fill-in the blank to engage them with anatomical terminology and function. During the InProGAME, the whole class (123 students) met first in a Zoom room to discuss foundational learning, followed by 15 breakout Zoom rooms with eight students/group to facilitate small group interaction and initiate the collaborative/active learning part of the session. Group learning activities mainly included the use of Jamboards and Wisc-Online, with instructor facilitation. Jamboard is an interactive whiteboard system with compatibility for online collaboration and more capabilities than Google docs. Students worked together in real time using these boards with instructor supervision and feedback. Wisc-Online is an open educational resource library that contains a game builder platform to create educational games designed to reinforce learning, allowing friendly competition if desired. To evaluate the success of this approach on student learning we will discuss our grading rubric, post-session assessments, student evaluation/survey, as well as faculty peer observation and evaluation.

A Case Study of ASEAN EFL Learners’ Collaborative Writing and Small Group Interaction Patterns in Google Docs

The study investigated the interaction patterns of six ASEAN EFL university students when they worked in small groups on two collaborative writing tasks: a descriptive essay and an argumentative essay. Both groups were homogeneous in terms of gender and heterogeneous in terms of home countries. Data collection included pre- and posttest writing, pre- and post-task questionnaires, participants’ work on essays, their reflections, observations, and semi-structured interviews. The students worked on their essays in Google Docs, and the researcher(s) used DocuViz as a tool for visualizations of students’ collaborative writing contributions and styles. The findings showed different interaction patterns (a cooperative revision style for Group A vs. a main writer style for Group B) across the two collaborative writing tasks. While revising, both groups added and corrected their essays and employed almost the same writing change functions and language functions, which were suggesting, agreeing, and stating.

Sociometric analysis of the structure of interpersonal interactions between the members of Ukrainian Antarctic expeditions

Introduction. The author analyzes the problems of organizing and conducting long-term Antarctic expeditions related to the structure of interpersonal interaction in small groups of specialists of different profiles. Aim: to determine the structure of intra-group relationships and to analyze the interpersonal interaction between the members of Ukrainian Antarctic expeditions. Methods: J. Moreno "Sociometry" (intra-group relationship). Results. Based on the obtained sociometric data, the author determined the indicators of the Antarctic expedition members' sociometric statuses, the structure of their relationships in relation to their activities (professional, home, leisure) as well as revealed the seasonal cycle of these relationships. Conclusions. The organization and conduct of polar expeditions should be based on the determined structure of intra-group relationships, as well as the psychological, interpersonal and season-dependent features of intra-group interaction (activation and recession).

Patient Perspectives on Hospital Falls Prevention Education.

Hospital falls remain an intractable problem worldwide and patient education is one approach to falls mitigation. Although educating patients can help their understanding of risks and empower them with prevention strategies, patient experiences of hospital falls education are poorly understood. This study aimed to understand the perspectives and preferences of hospitalized patients about falls prevention education. Three focus groups were conducted in Australian hospitals. A phenomenological approach was used to explore patient perspectives and data were analyzed thematically. The focus groups revealed that most people did not realize their own risk of falling whilst an inpatient. Experiences of falls prevention education were inconsistent and sometimes linked to beliefs that falls were not relevant to them because they were being cared for in hospital. Other barriers to falls mitigation included poor patient knowledge about hospital falls risk and inconsistencies in the delivery of falls prevention education. A strong theme was that individualized, consistent education, and small interactive groups were helpful.

Communication skills training in undergraduate medical education at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Objective: The objective of this article is a description of the longitudinal communication curriculum in the Model Medicine Curriculum (MSM) at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The authors describe the planning and integration of the curriculum into the study program, outline how communicative competence is taught and evaluated in the MSM, and identify which challenges need to be mastered in the process.Project description: Starting with the introduction of the MSM in 2010, students have been spending 102 class hours, spread out over seven semesters, practicing social and communicative competences in the interactive small group format “Communication, Interaction & Teamwork (KIT)”. The course contents are closely linked to the topics covered each semester and increase in complexity over the course of their studies. The contents are selected by the KIT planning group whose members continually check the curriculum’s timeliness and determine any changes. Students as well as instructors have opportunities for evaluating KIT throughout, and their evaluations are taken into consideration as KIT continues to be updated. Instructors from different disciplines teach KIT courses. They participate in mandatory didactic trainings that prepare them to teach KIT. During their 4th and 9th semesters, respectively, students take summative exams that test their communicative competence. Results: According to the semester evaluations by students and instructors, students participating in KIT improved their conversation management skills (students: M=2.2, SD=1.1, instructors: M=1.9, SD=0.7, on a scale of 1-5). In addition, students and graduates rate KIT to be (very) relevant, consider the degree to which it is taught in the MSM to be (very) high, and consider KIT to be a meaningful part of the curriculum.Students taking the summative exams in their 4th and 9th semesters achieve a mean score of 75.9%, respectively 76.9%, in the purely communicative stations and 82.6%, respectively 83.3%, in the global evaluation of communicative competence in clinical-practical stations. Discussion: Survey and exam results alike indicate that the communication training is well accepted by students and instructors and that the training led to an improvement in general and specific communicative skills.Due to a lack of control groups or a pre-post design, it has thus far not been possible to unequivocally demonstrate a causal relationship between communicative competence trainings and good test results. Quality control measures, such as trainings for instructors and regular course evaluations, have been designed to address any challenges in the implementation of the communication curriculum at the faculty level.Conclusion: Building on the experience with the Charité’s Reformed Medical Curriculum, a longitudinal, competence-based communication curriculum was integrated into the MSM’s overall curriculum. This measure remedied a gap in the medical training that many graduates of regular study programs had previously bemoaned (Jansen 2010 [1]).

Teachers’ instructional talk in a partly scripted language intervention targeting young second-language learners: developments over time

ABSTRACT Despite huge investments in interventions designed to support oral language skills in early childhood and beyond, many of the interventions fail to identify impacts on children’s language learning. Programmes may have limited impact because they do not sufficiently succeed in supporting teachers’ instructional talk, and thus, more efficiently promote children’s language learning. The present study examined the extent to which 15 teachers in Norway implementing a language intervention programme designed to enhance students’ second-language learning in first and second grade demonstrated changes in their instructional talk over the 8-week programme. The programme consisted of scripted parts (labelling pictures of targeted words, repeated exposures), as well as soft scripted parts (word relations and definitions) and minimally scripted parts (narratives and explanations that extended the here-and-now). Teachers received professional development that qualified them to implement the programme. Analysis of modifications in teachers’ instructional talk was based on audio-recorded small-group interactions, comparing characteristics of teacher talk at the beginning and end of the 8-week programme. Results revealed that teachers’ instructional talk developed to include more word definitions and extended discourse, talk categories aligned with the less scripted parts of the intervention. Conversely, teacher talk during the scripted parts of the programme did not change.

“Habit and creativity in judges’ definition and framing of legal questions”

The dominant social scientific approach to studying judicial behavior treats judges as strategic actors pursuing their political preferences under institutional constraint. The intellectual roots of this rational choice approach are in American law’s long but sporadic engagement with pragmatist ideas. This article challenges that approach: a fully pragmatist account of judicial action provides a better description of the intellectual and social work of judging, and better explains how judges reach a decision in difficult cases that most affect the development of law and its relationship to society. The article argues that the foundational intellectual problem for appellate judges is how to define the legal questions presented in a case. Definitions of legal questions arise from the interplay of habitual and creative action in the local social context of an appeals court. Professional and local interpretive habits and legal forms ordinarily do a great deal to define the key questions, which are not strictly determined when a case comes before a court. Unscripted small group interactions at oral arguments also figure in question definition; oral arguments are most important in the rare but legally important cases where habitual practices alone are insufficient to delimit the legal question judges must answer. Supported by extensive interviews with federal appeals judges and clerks, the article illustrates judges’ creative, interactional efforts to define an answerable question in a major asylum case decided in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Building from this case, the article describes the factors that shape judicial question definition, and describes the conditions when creative judicial action is likely to be most prominent.

The influence of small groups on leader stability and task engagement in the language classroom

Groupwork has become ubiquitous in language education, with the clear benefits of interaction and output on language acquisition. A body of research has investigated this interaction in pairs and small groups, and there is an increased understanding that individual group context is a key factor in determining the behavior of students. This article reports on a study that first investigated emergent leadership within groups, and the influence of the group on leader stability. The study then examined how leadership is represented in student task engagement. Students were placed into fixed small groups for the first semester, and then allowed to self-select into groups for the second semester. Perceptions of leadership were measured three times in each semester, and leaders were identified in each group. Results showed that changing group membership had a considerable impact on leadership stability, and student interaction was then analysed to determine how leadership influenced engagement with tasks. Students with high leadership displayed high engagement with tasks, and took a central role in driving the conversation. When a student chose to reject the role of leader there was a dramatic impact on their engagement in conversation. The stability of leadership and its impact on performance has practical implications both for researchers and teachers.

Emergency remote learning in anatomy during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study evaluating academic factors contributing to anxiety among first year medical students

Background‘Emergency remote learning’ (ERL) has been undertaken as an emergency response globally to facilitate online shift of medical education due to COVID-19. Although medical students world-wide have reported an increased level of anxiety, factors in the academic setting during ERL that influenced anxiety levels have not been studied yet. The present study aimed to evaluate anxiety levels of first year medical students and its correlation with academic factors during ERL. MethodsERL for neuroanatomy was conducted for six weeks mainly by online small group teaching. At completion, feedback was collected from students (n = 97) which included a GAD-7 questionnaire for anxiety levels and a modified VARK analysis to record changes in learning styles. ResultsOf 97 students (M46, F51) 43.30% had minimal, 31.96% mild, 10.31% moderate and 14.43% severe anxiety. Academic exchanges such as student–teacher interaction (80.41%), tutor feedback (90.72%) and mentor meetings (81.44%) were reported to be advantageous. There was a significant (p = 0.0056) correlation between enjoyment of small group discussion and lower GAD-7 scores. There was significant change in perceived learning styles during ERL. Video calls (p = 0.018) and gaming (p = 0.022) were significant modes of stress relief. There was significant correlation (p = 0.022) between gaming and GAD-7 scores. ConclusionAbout one-fourth of the students faced anxiety issues during ERL period. Small group interactions with focus on promoting connectedness and interaction, augmented by feedback, mentorship, familial and social support are important in reducing anxiety which should be kept in mind by educators while delivering such learning experiences.

Social positioning in small group interactions in an investigative science learning environment physics class

The most effective student groups have more equal conversations, are better able to sustain their attention during periods of frustration, and sit closer to one another.

A Coding Scheme for Studying Group Interactions in International Negotiations: A Methodological Advance on the IPA protocol

AbstractOur increasingly complex global business environment inevitably brings counterparts to the negotiation table. However, the lack of user‐friendly coding systems, and other associated complexities over the last 6 decades, may have discouraged scholars to further their research in negotiation, communication, and its related fields. A viable coding scheme in place can help scholars and practitioners unfold the negotiation process by explaining the ‘cause and effect’ relationship within this social context. We propose a 24‐category typology that stems from Bales’ IPA model, with Field Theory as our theoretical framework. Our empirical data comprises of two‐party negotiation simulations. Some distinct features of our proposed scheme when compared to the IPA model are reduced coding time experienced, a straightforward framework that is less complicated to follow, a valid and reliable scheme and lastly, a scheme with a robust theoretical‐methodological underpinning in its development. The reliability of our scheme is determined through Krippendorff's Alpha (α). Through our methodological contribution, we aim to investigate the dynamics in small group interactions; and encourage future scholars to study the multidimensional nature of international negotiations.

ProtoTeams

Team dating, or small-group interactions, can expose people to diverse perspectives and inform the potential for longer-term collaboration. However, rapidly configuring groups and facilitating interactions among strangers can be difficult, especially in co-located settings. We present ProtoTeams, a system that leverages personal mobile devices to support rapid group formation, to facilitate group activities, and to collect data about the potential for future collaboration. We report on a field study where 406 students in eight different project-based classes used ProtoTeams to interact with classmates through multiple rounds of brief discussion activities before selecting teammates for a term project. We found that the system enables groups to form in about one minute, allows for meaningful interactions with a diverse range of peers, and can significantly influence subsequent teammate selection. We discuss design implications and challenges for in-person team dating in classrooms and other contexts.

Breakout Group Allocation Schedules and the Social Golfer Problem with Adjacent Group Sizes

The current pandemic has led schools and universities to turn to online meeting software solutions such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The teaching experience can be enhanced via the use of breakout rooms for small group interaction. Over the course of a class (or over several classes), the class will be allocated to breakout groups multiple times over several rounds. It is desirable to mix the groups as much as possible, the ideal being that no two students appear in the same group in more than one round. In this paper, we discuss how the problem of scheduling balanced allocations of students to sequential breakout rooms directly corresponds to a novel variation of a well-known problem in combinatorics (the social golfer problem), which we call the social golfer problem with adjacent group sizes. We explain how solutions to this problem can be obtained using constructions from combinatorial design theory and how they can be used to obtain good, balanced breakout room allocation schedules. We present our solutions for up to 50 students and introduce an online resource that educators can access to immediately generate suitable allocation schedules.

Medical Pedagogy in the Time of COVID-19

Medical teaching is about giving a student a collaborative experience of the art and skill of the practice of medicine. This is acquired through authentic patient experiences. A clinical teacher uses clinical lectures, simulations, lab sessions, small group interactions, cadaver dissection and technical classes (eg: ultrasound) to create a complete clinical immersion experience. For this we use both the in-patient and out-patient facilities.

Transitioning to a new era: Future directions for staff development during COVID-19.

The COVID‐19 pandemic created an urgent need for staff development. However, COVID‐19 has created many challenges, including the inability to meet in‐person, travel restrictions to conferences, overwhelming clinical demands on already overextended faculty members and the increased need to focus on personal health and safety. Although current challenges were immediately met with solutions borne out of an emergency, questions remain on how to identify and sustain best practices and further evolve staff development beyond the immediate crisis. Reviewing the Medical Adaptations series revealed several lessons. Several authors used cognitive apprenticeship to provide scaffolding upon which learners can build skills, knowledge and attitudes. Additionally, moderators were recommended during live educational sessions in order to manage the chat box and engage the audience. Comprehensive IT support was key. A post‐session debrief helped deepen understanding and provided a space for peer support and community building. Building a repository for educational materials was recommended. Although we made significant gains in the ability to offer staff development, we must consider potential and unintended consequences and explore how we can use transformative learning theory to capitalize on what we have gained. Utilizing technology can potentially increase access to online learning; however, when not implemented carefully, it can magnify inequities. While providing IT support can serve to mitigate some inequities borne by socioeconomic and generational differences, additional strategies should be implemented to account for English as a second‐language learners; those with disabilities who do not have access to adaptive technology; and other marginalized groups who may already feel vulnerable to presenting arguments in oppositions of authority or the majority. Crafting online education experiences to allow for small group, peer‐to‐peer and social interactions is vital to continued professional and identity development. Now that the urgency has lessened, taking time to ensure what is being offered follows best practices in developing and disseminating quality online education is paramount for broad acceptance.

The Impact of Meeting Patients with Neurological Disorders on Medical Student Empathy.

Empathy tends to decline during medical education, typically beginning in the third year of medical school and often continuing throughout residency and the physician's medical career. The purpose of this study was to determine if first year medical student empathy is affected by small group interactions with patients with neurological disorders, and to investigate if changes in empathy persisted over time. Eighty first year medical students participating in a Neuroscience Module interacted with a variety of neurological patients in a small group informational session. Prior to the experience, participants completed the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Student (JSPE-S) version. After the experience, students completed a post-test JSPE-S questionnaire, and a final post-post-test JSPE-S questionnaire was completed 5 weeks later. Empathy scores were compared with a repeated measures MANOVA. The relationship between gender and empathy, and the effect of the age of the neurological patients on empathy scores were also examined. Empathy scores for seventy-one students who completed the JSPE-S questionnaires were analyzed. Students had significantly higher empathy immediately after the patient interaction experience, and the change in empathy was sustained over the course of 5 weeks (p = 0.015). The age of the neurological patients had a significant effect on empathy scores. There was no significant difference between empathy scores and gender. This study supports the incorporation of a group patient interaction experience into the medical school curriculum as an inexpensive and practical method of enhancing medical student empathy in a non-clinical setting.

9.G. Workshop: Evaluation of scale-up of health systems interventions: what and how? Lessons for scale-up projects

Abstract Objectives Non-communicable diseases (NCD) are a major challenge for health systems across the globe. Although effective interventions for prevention, detection and control exist, these do not reach all people in need, especially the poor and most vulnerable. Scale-up strategies are developed to increase universal access to those interventions, addressing demand-side and supply-side barriers and to facilitate integration in the health system. While there are useful frameworks to conceptualise and operationalise scale-up of NCD interventions, there is a knowledge gap on what and how to evaluate. This session addresses that knowledge gap, presenting evaluation methods for scale-up from four large multi-country research projects. The objectives are: To increase knowledge on four dimensions of scale-up evaluation: 1) contextualisation of methods; 2) implementation evaluation; 3) cost-evaluation and 4) use of health information systemsTo present methods and results of implementation research on NCDs as an example for other chronic diseasesTo illustrate how contextualisation, implementation and evaluation varies across different stages of scale-upTo stimulate learning by experience through small-group discussion with session participants This workshop provides added value through the four coherent presentations combined with small group interactions on the same topics. It allows the audience to link the case study lessons to their own research and wider application. Format Four different elements of scale-up evaluation are addressed: 1) Contextualisation of evaluation methods from a common framework; 2) Implementation evaluation at operational level; 3) Cost-evaluation of NCD interventions; and 4) Large-scale evaluation through routine health information systems (HIS). Case studies from four large-scale Horizon2020 funded research projects in 14 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia will be presented, each case focusing on one dimension. Cross-cutting themes of adaptation and transferability of methods will also be addressed. After the presentations, there will be an interactive session to promote experience-based learning in small-group discussions. Presentations Self-Management Approach and Reciprocal Learning for Type 2 Diabetes (SMART2D)Scaling-up Packages of Interventions for cardiovascular disease prevention in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa (SPICES)Scaling-Up NCD Interventions in South-East Asia (SUNI-SEA)The Scale-Up of Diabetes and Hypertension Care (SCUBY) The presentations will provide the introduction to subsequent small-table discussions, around the following questions: How to measure and monitor implementation and outcome of intervention scale-up?How to generate transferrable lessons from cross-country studies?How to conduct cross-setting evaluation of the effect and cost of NCD interventions? Key messages The global scale-up of NCD interventions calls for robust evaluation methods of effect, implementation and cost. Evaluation methods need to be fit to the country context and health information systems.

Discourse Analysis in Integrated STEM Activities: Methods for Examining Power and Positioning in Small Group Interactions

Integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is becoming increasingly common in K-12 classrooms, and small group activities are ubiquitous to STEM instruction. This article includes both theoretical and practical descriptions of a microethnographic approach to critical multimodal discourse analysis that we used to explore power and positioning within a mixed-gender group of students working together on an engineering design challenge. We drew upon social semiotics, positioning theory, and activity theory to ground this work and utilized three phases of data analysis: microethnography to develop individual and group storylines, critical multimodal discourse analysis of key events, and the integration of storylines and discourse analysis. This multi-phase approach granted us insights into our data that would have otherwise been lacking. Microethnography revealed the significance of the shift between science and engineering activities in relation to power and positioning within the group. Multimodal analysis revealed that the introduction of new physical artifacts influenced power and positioning within the small group, with different modes of communication having different intensities across the unit. We argue that our approach is useful in analyzing complex small group interactions within science classrooms and highlight key methodological decisions for researchers interested in employing a microethnographic approach to critical multimodal discourse analysis.

Students\u2019 knowledge of emerging technology and sustainability through a design activity in technology education

The purpose of this study is to explore whether, and if so how, a design activity could encourage students to express and develop knowledge on emerging technology in relation to issues about sustainability. Several researchers have asserted that, in today’s technologically dependent society, it is important to be able to control technology and make informed decisions connected to technology. Design activities could make a significant contribution to technology education while students are developing their knowledge about technology. Thus, the present study aims to analyze students’ verbal interactions as they work in a design project, which includes designing a model of a house, regarding their ability to develop technological literacy with the support of a physical model. The study is based on several small-group interactions that were recorded, transcribed, analyzed, and discussed. This research project was conducted as an observation of technology education in a Swedish compulsory school. The students (aged 13–14) negotiated and shared knowledge about technology as they interacted with their fellow students. The results indicate that, in a relatively large number of situations, the students expressed knowledge about emerging technology and adopted a sustainability perspective while working in a design activity, and thereby, successively developed technological literacy. This meant that the students were able to integrate knowledge on emerging technology like graphene, nanotechnology, and algae batteries in their models. Furthermore, the results indicate that, during technical development work, students were able to develop reasoning, communication, and collaboration skills.