Cooperative Groups Recommendations

9 Recommendations are tagged with "Cooperative Groups"

How can I help students work well in small groups, so they are more likely to engage?

June 20, 2017 by Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado Boulder

Groups do not always work productively, and not all tasks are suited to group work. Poor group dynamics, or ill-suited tasks, can reduce student engagement. This article focuses on helping students engage productively in active learning classrooms through the type of tasks that are used, and support of productive group dynamics.

cooperative groups,  active learning,  worksheets,  productive engagement


How can I design (or find) a good group activity for physics students?

January 3, 2017 by Joshua Von Korff, Georgia State University

I want to give my students something to work on in groups, but what should they work on? I know that researchers have created many physics activities, but I don't know what I'm looking for. What does a good activity look like? OR, I'm really excited about inventing my own labs or worksheets to give students, but I don't know how to design an activity.

active learning,  cooperative groups


Where can I find good activities for small group discussions?

September 26, 2016 by Sam McKagan, PhysPort director

Nearly all research-based teaching methods in physics involve some kind of small group discussions of challenging conceptual activities. Finding good activities is an important component of making small group discussions work in your class. This recommendation includes links to collections where you can find activities to use in your class.

active learning,  cooperative groups,  SCALE-UP,  Peer Instruction,  CAE Think-Pair-Share,  Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment,  clickers


How can I design an effective in-class student worksheet for PhET simulations?

June 28, 2016 by Yuen-ying Carpenter and Stephanie Chasteen

PhET simulations are free, online interactive simulations for teaching and learning science. In this document, we will discuss using PhET in a guided worksheet; a strategy which has been found to support student learning. But how do we help students use the questions and the simulation to think about the physics, or to practice new skills – not just focus on getting to the end of the worksheet?

active learning,  PhET Interactive Simulations,  worksheets,  cooperative groups,  inquiry


What are some tips for facilitating PhET with in-class worksheets?

June 28, 2016 by Emily Moore and Stephanie Chasteen

PhET simulations are free, online interactive simulations for teaching and learning science. Some teachers use the simulations in-class with guided worksheets or labs. This document describes some suggestions for facilitating activities using PhET -- in a class, lab, or recitation -- in order to get your students to engage with PhET activities.

active learning,  PhET Interactive Simulations,  worksheets,  cooperative groups


How can I train teaching assistants and/or learning assistants?

March 22, 2016 by Sam McKagan, PhysPort Director

Many research-based teaching methods in physics include activities in which graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and/or undergraduate learning assistants (LAs) facilitate students working in small groups. The success of these methods thus depends heavily on how well TAs and LAs are trained in effective facilitation. Ideally, TAs and LAs should take a course in which they learn about the…

cooperative groups,  teaching assistant training,  learning assistant training,  active learning


How can I get students to have productive discussions of clicker questions?

March 15, 2016 by Jenny Knight and Sarah Wise, University of Colorado - Boulder

Clicker questions are increasingly being used to stimulate student discussion and provide faculty and students with timely feedback. Research suggests that discussing clicker questions can lead to increased student learning, and that students exchanging constructive criticism can generate conceptual change.
What can you do as an instructor to encourage all students to have…

clickers,  cooperative groups,  active learning,  best practices,  peer instruction


How do I facilitate Tutorials in Introductory Physics?

March 15, 2016 by Sam McKagan and Stephanie Chasteen

Tutorials in Introductory Physics are a research-based student activity, developed by the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington (UW). Students work in small groups to complete worksheets based on common student difficulties. Extensive research has demonstrated that Tutorials can improve student learning when implemented properly. Tutorials have been implemented…

Tutorials in Introductory Physics,  active learning,  cooperative groups,  case study


Best practices for facilitating Periscope lessons for TA/LA training or faculty PD

February 10, 2016 by Rachel Scherr, creator of Periscope

Periscope connects authentic video episodes from best-practices physics classrooms to big questions of teaching and learning. Periscope lessons are useful if you:
-supervise learning assistants (LAs) or teaching assistants (TAs)
-lead faculty development
-seek to improve physics teaching in your department
-want to improve your own physics teaching

Periscope,  teaching assistant training,  learning assistant training,  faculty professional development,  active learning,  cooperative groups,  best practices


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