Week 7 Reflection Answers

GRDSCH 630 B
Active Learning for Engineering Education
Spring 2002

Briefly, what key point would you use to motivate group learning for your students?

1. Preparation for real life: engineering jobs and academia all require these skills.
2. Developing group skills is a learning process like developing any other type of skill.
3. Better to develop these skills where the stakes are low, i.e., in class, so that you have them in place where stakes are higher, i.e., at work or on projects where the outcomes really matter and there are major evil consequences if the group work doesn't go well.
4. The benefit of working with classmates is you can achieve more than individuals working on their own. This is especially important where confidence is concerned, as groups tend to support their members and foster risk-taking, such as doing presentations even when this terrifies students.
5. In an engineering setting or any work environment, people solve problems in groups. When you get a job, you won't have the luxury of choosing your co-workers. Here, in this class, you'll get a chance to experience working in groups and develop skills to make group work productive.
6. By taking on different tasks in groups, students willl learn many skills from grunt work to communication.
7. You need it to succeed after school and after you graduate. "Everybody's doing it!" Also, " you don't have to do all the work yourself!"
8. [For when things aren't going so well,] group work allows for peer review which can help students feel better about the process if their group isn't doing well together. [Frequent monitoring and review gives instructors a way to step in and help if group processing skills still need to be developed.]