Preface

The success students find in groups, along with their satisfaction with the experience, is determined in part by course designers and tutors and in part by their own efforts at improving the functioning of their learning group. That is, you yourselves can have a major impact on how well you get on together and how well your group tackles the assignment. While you can expect your teachers to help with facilitation and a supportive working environment, none of that will get you far unless you pay attention to process, that is, how your group works.

The aim of this Guide is to provide you with some knowledge of group processes, some conceptual tools for helping to understand what is going on in your work group and some simple aids to use as tools for reflecting on and understanding your group. Previewing the list of Contents now will provide you with a quick overview of the topics. Follow-up on this by reading one or more of the areas that most interest you (and your group) at the moment and you’ll be well on your way to using this Guide.

The production of this Guide arose out of Jim Macbeth’s concerns that, while students in Sociology were ‘learning collaboratively’, there was scope for improvement. He obtained a grant to find out what Sociology students thought and to develop teaching policies and aids to improve the delivery of collaborative learning in Sociology. Besides this Guide, also available is a Report to staff and a Tutor's Guide to Facilitating Collaborative Learning.

We hope you find this Student’s Guide useful

Jim Macbeth and Sarah Veitch