Group work in physics and in work-life?

In summary: These are group exercises.In terms of student outcomes, it's hard to say. Unfortunately, what often happens in group projects is that a single 'strong' student will dominate the activities, defeating the purpose. Not always. The strong student may not always stay strong on all laboratory exercises. Sometimes the strong person is tired, overworked, confused, and then the weaker person needs to work both students through the exercise processes.
  • #1
ohannuks
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I would like to start a discussion about group work both in education and in work-life.

Group work, especially in smaller groups, tends to be 'active learning'. Active learning tends to be more efficient than passive learning. I would like to know if you as a teacher like to assign group work and whether you have noticed any significant differences in students' learning. Alternatively, I would welcome any particularly interesting research on the subject.

According to your experience, how much does your university/workplace promote group work?

I'm sorry for scattering the post into two topics. I can make a separate topic for both education and work if people deem it necessary.
 
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  • #2
I'm an experimentalist, and group work is actually essential to my research. There's no way to do the work that we do without close, active collaborations. And, frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way. I think this is a general statement in experimental physics. It's almost never a solo pursuit. The university doesn't have to promote group work.
 
  • #3
Thank you for your reply e.bar.goum. May I ask how closely you are working together? When you say group-work is a part of your work, do you mean that you share your results in weekly meetings, daily, in coffee tables, or do you mean actually sitting next to someone working on the exact same thing?
 
  • #4
No, we don't sit next to each other working on the exact same thing. But in my case, there is a core group of 4 people (3 postdocs and a PhD student) working on understanding the same physics phenomenon with the same tool (but in different directions and experiments/theory), and a larger research group of ~18 people (phd students, postdocs, professors) who work in my sub-field.

The core group meets pretty much on the fly - popping into offices, exchanging scripts, pointing out discoveries, interesting papers, asking questions ("hey, when you looked at X, did you see Y?"), reading drafts, etc. The core group meets with the heads of the research group somewhat regularly (from weekly to monthly) to share results/concerns. Results are shared with the entire group on occasion, but it's a pretty big group.

When we perform an experiment, or prepare one, things get a little different. The core group + professors will work very closely together to get it going ("here, hold this", "can you go get a 'scope?"), and the entire group contributes to running the experiment (we run 24 hour shifts, so everyone gets a shift).
 
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  • #5
Work organisation in a large technology based engineering company is usually based on an inverted tree structure .

Large numbers of people work solo and are also part of a small group .

Small groups are parts of larger groups which are in turn parts of departments etc right up to board of directors and CEO .

Technical investigations are made or requested at all levels and decisions are made at all levels .

Flow of information is mainly structured and bi directional but is often part chaotic as well as individuals and groups interact at all levels as need arises .

Interactions also take place regularly at all levels with other companies , customers , government organisations , services et al .
 
  • #6
ohannuks said:
<snip>According to your experience, how much does your university/workplace promote group work?

I don't know about 'promote' (other than empty sloganeering), but we have group work in all teaching labs (intro physics, intro chem, bio, etc), and a few of us (Physics) assign group work in class and homework as well. Of course, some students then assume that 'group work' also applies to tests, and so they have to be (politely, at first) disabused of that notion.

I also work with the Math department to develop/evaluate "problem-based learning" modules in the pre-calc and calc sequence. These are group exercises.

In terms of student outcomes, it's hard to say. Unfortunately, what often happens in group projects is that a single 'strong' student will dominate the activities, defeating the purpose.
 
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  • #7
Andy Resnick said:
...
In terms of student outcomes, it's hard to say. Unfortunately, what often happens in group projects is that a single 'strong' student will dominate the activities, defeating the purpose.
Not always. The strong student may not always stay strong on all laboratory exercises. Sometimes the strong person is tired, overworked, confused, and then the weaker person needs to work both students through the exercise processes. (for the lab partner situation but potentially for lab group, too).
 
  • #8
Andy Resnick said:
I don't know about 'promote' (other than empty sloganeering), but we have group work in all teaching labs (intro physics, intro chem, bio, etc), and a few of us (Physics) assign group work in class and homework as well. Of course, some students then assume that 'group work' also applies to tests, and so they have to be (politely, at first) disabused of that notion.

I also work with the Math department to develop/evaluate "problem-based learning" modules in the pre-calc and calc sequence. These are group exercises.

In terms of student outcomes, it's hard to say. Unfortunately, what often happens in group projects is that a single 'strong' student will dominate the activities, defeating the purpose.
Hey, thanks a lot for the helpful post. I really appreciate it! I particularly liked the fact that you pointed out that a strong student may dominate the activity. I remember that when I was studying in a group doing experiments we also encountered a a similar problem; one student was significantly weaker than the rest.

It's nice to see you have group work being actively conducted at your university. From your experience, how large are the groups usually?

e: Do you have any comments on group work after the initial results, e.g. everyone works separately and then compare and discuss their results.
 
  • #9
ohannuks said:
<snip>It's nice to see you have group work being actively conducted at your university. From your experience, how large are the groups usually?

The sizes vary- lab groups have 4 people, in-class groups range from 2 to 4 people, and our PBL groups are 2 people.
 
  • #10
symbolipoint said:
Not always. The strong student may not always stay strong on all laboratory exercises. Sometimes the strong person is tired, overworked, confused, and then the weaker person needs to work both students through the exercise processes. (for the lab partner situation but potentially for lab group, too).

I'll allow for this possibility, but I have *never* seen it happen. Once a student decides to let another take a lead role (for whatever reason- disinterest, lack of confidence...), that student remains in the background for the remainder of the semester.
 
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  • #11
Andy Resnick said:
I don't know about 'promote' (other than empty sloganeering), but we have group work in all teaching labs (intro physics, intro chem, bio, etc), and a few of us (Physics) assign group work in class and homework as well. Of course, some students then assume that 'group work' also applies to tests, and so they have to be (politely, at first) disabused of that notion.

I also work with the Math department to develop/evaluate "problem-based learning" modules in the pre-calc and calc sequence. These are group exercises.

In terms of student outcomes, it's hard to say. Unfortunately, what often happens in group projects is that a single 'strong' student will dominate the activities, defeating the purpose.

I have seen this happen to me a few times. Students that me and my partner have never talked to (mostly girls), try to enter our group because we tend to study the material. Therefore, we would receive the best marks. These girls would not contribute nothing at all, and if they did the work is rushed or not even done. Which leaves me and my friend to do it all. I give everyone a chance. If you contribute, then you joined the group. If not, then go somewhere else.
 
  • #12
Now that the conversation is starting to go into an interesting direction, does anyone know of tested methods to contribute the work evenly to a group? E.g. keeping meetings based on the effort done or something similar?
 
  • #13
symbolipoint said:
Not always. The strong student may not always stay strong on all laboratory exercises. Sometimes the strong person is tired, overworked, confused, and then the weaker person needs to work both students through the exercise processes. (for the lab partner situation but potentially for lab group, too).
Andy Resnick said:
I'll allow for this possibility, but I have *never* seen it happen. Once a student decides to let another take a lead role (for whatever reason- disinterest, lack of confidence...), that student remains in the background for the remainder of the semester.

My personal experience as a student; mostly just in a couple of courses of one series of courses. The lab work exercises were done as student pairs. I started weak for a few class meetings and the other student partner was better, sharper, and carried most of the decisions. Later he became uncertain and frustrated, did not know how to proceed. I had become, fortunately by then, stronger at dealing with the written lab manual instruction and arranged what to do to carry out the lab exercises. The partner was not trying to test me; he never seemed deceptive. He was just weaker during some of the lab class meetings and just was confused about the instructions.
 
  • #14
symbolipoint said:
My personal experience as a student; mostly just in a couple of courses of one series of courses. The lab work exercises were done as student pairs. I started weak for a few class meetings and the other student partner was better, sharper, and carried most of the decisions. Later he became uncertain and frustrated, did not know how to proceed. I had become, fortunately by then, stronger at dealing with the written lab manual instruction and arranged what to do to carry out the lab exercises. The partner was not trying to test me; he never seemed deceptive. He was just weaker during some of the lab class meetings and just was confused about the instructions.

Can be true. I am currently in a community college, which is located in the "hood" so to speak. Maybe the level of motivation of individual students is higher so to speak at a university. There was one course I took, were all the students in my group were motivated and we contributed equally. However, for the most part I stand behind my previous remarks.
 
  • #15
Andy Resnick said:
I'll allow for this possibility, but I have *never* seen it happen. Once a student decides to let another take a lead role (for whatever reason- disinterest, lack of confidence...), that student remains in the background for the remainder of the semester.
Depends on how each student can respond to the subject and the activities. Laboratory sections of some courses, I was always far less effective; others, I was strong. One of the worst laboratory class sections for me - beginning computer programming. The lab partner always figured what and how to do. I was usually too confused. The only way I improved, was extra review, long after the course was finished. Back at the time, I had never previously done anything with a computer. Everything was difficult and too new for me.
 
  • #16
MidgetDwarf said:
Can be true. I am currently in a community college, which is located in the "hood" so to speak. Maybe the level of motivation of individual students is higher so to speak at a university. There was one course I took, were all the students in my group were motivated and we contributed equally. However, for the most part I stand behind my previous remarks.
MidgitDwarf, I was just telling my personal experience as a student, as was happened at that time. "Can be true", and WAS TRUE, and can still happen.
 
  • #17
symbolipoint said:
MidgitDwarf, I was just telling my personal experience as a student, as was happened at that time. "Can be true", and WAS TRUE, and can still happen.

Yes, correct. I am aware that peoples experiences will differ based on time and place.
 
  • #18
ohannuks said:
Now that the conversation is starting to go into an interesting direction, does anyone know of tested methods to contribute the work evenly to a group? E.g. keeping meetings based on the effort done or something similar?

One usual method is for the TA or instructor to circulate around the room, making sure everyone is equally engaged.
 
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  • #19
I am not sure if your interests extend to high school, but I use extensive group work in teaching science. I tend to introduce skills and reasonably concrete concepts through individual homework, then use group work in class on much more challenging, open-ended questions problems and questions. When class size permits, I give group oral exams in which student collaborate to come up with answers (or, in the harder cases, speculation) and then I choose who presents the answer.

There is also group work on projects. I recently gave students images of sunspots over time, for example, and let them discover that sun does not rotate as a solid body.

My colleagues and I encourage students to do original lab work and plan this coming year to establish research groups to support that. Some the the comments above are being very helpful as I start to model that.
 
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  • #20
Group work was central to our student research program at the Air Force Academy. You can find a fuller description in the paper, "Impossible? Publication Quality Research with the Weakest 10% of Incoming Freshmen." http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.7194

There were occasions where some members tried to ride the coat tails of other members who were more motivated and harder working. We gave the cadets ample opportunity to work it out before stepping in and moderating amicable divorces if they did not. On the whole, it was a very positive experience.
 
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  • #21
e.bar.goum said:
core group meets pretty much on the fly -
Communication ... good.
Nidum said:
decisions are made at all levels
Level appropriate decisions? Not taking issue with your specific experience, but this has the sound/smell of chaos --- "horse designed by committee."
Andy Resnick said:
single 'strong' student will dominate the activities, defeating the purpose.
The usual experience.

Kelly Johnson and the "Skunk Works?" Great. Oppenheimer/Groves and Manhattan? Same. Johnson/McNamara and the TFX? :confused: The Edsel? :confused:o0) Von Braun and Mercury/Gemini/Apollo? Not too bad. NASA as a "mature" bureaucracy and the shuttles?
 
  • #22
I think that much of my undergraduate career has made me disillusioned with group work, but looking through this thread I've found that it can, in fact, be helpful. When I think group work, I think of my PER-focused E&M professor who split us up into groups on the first day of class, handed us a 3-ring binder full of worksheets, and then never lectured (but walked around the room instead... in a class of 120 students all in groups of 3). We did a pre-semester and post-semester evaluation with the same questions, and I did better before I took the class!

Now that I'm a TA, I shy away from group work, though I do notice students "slipping through the gaps" when I try to teach to the whole class (usually 20-30 students). I've gotten some pretty good suggestions from this thread, though.
 
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  • #23
I've heard that group work is most effective when each member works individually, then collaborates with the group and then repeats this process. Kind of like a series of idea pot lucks so to speak.

With that being said, I have noticed that at where I used to work tutoring high schoolers. This type of group work with the tutors seemed to be very effective in creating better strategies for the kids to learn. But as for whether or not I've tried it at my university. I can honestly say that group work has rarely been promoted so far outside of the English classes that I have taken.

Ofcourse I am talking about group projects or group assignments. Studying in a group only seemed to help when we huddled our textbooks to ourselves and only lifted our heads to ask the group a question about a certain problem or something. Which seemed to be pretty helpful all around.
 
  • #24
ohannuks said:
According to your experience, how much does your university/workplace promote group work?

Well . . as a student, about 40 % of our project specially for physics is doing Group Work. The percentage is not that small , group work is really superb activity for us, the learning community , especially if from time to time you are working with a different kind of people in terms of attitude , experiences and willingness to collaborate with each other. It really helps a lot to sharpen your skills in terms of interacting and communicating with each other which is for me its necessary ingredients in Science.
 
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  • #25
Group woks can either be a success or failure in direct correlation with the people in said group, Of course a group full of motivated and intelligent people would be ideal but in school that is just not possible there would be people that would just "leech" the answers of his/her group mates as such It is recommended that the group work be turned into a "discussion" instead of doing things together it would be more helpful to the people doing the group work if they would do their work individually and then discuss them as a group.
 
  • #26
*I didn't read all the posts*

About the strong student. Most of the time when some one get the lead for his skills, he do all the work and let the others just watch him.
It happened to me in general physics 2, I didn't have any Idea "nor the others" about how to connect the electric component in the board, but one of us did a circuit material "electrical engineering" before. He did everything without letting us do anything! "actually we were hopeless and we didn't had time"

The thing continued to happen in the first three labs, till I recognized that I didn't learn that skill !. I just asked him to connect the circuit and then teach me and the other how to connect the circuit .I did it my self while he supervised me. -- after that the thing that made him above us vanished and we somehow with time got to same level "except those who didn't want to do anything from the beginning"

The thing in my opinion depend on the people who work, if they really want to work and help each other and share info .
 

1. What is the importance of group work in physics?

Group work in physics allows for collaboration and the sharing of ideas, which can lead to a deeper understanding of complex concepts. It also promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential in the field of physics.

2. How does group work differ from individual work in physics?

Group work in physics involves working with others to solve a problem or complete a task, while individual work is done independently. Group work allows for different perspectives and ideas to be considered, while individual work allows for a more focused approach.

3. What challenges may arise when working in a group in a physics setting?

Some challenges that may arise when working in a group in physics include differences in knowledge or understanding of the material, conflicting ideas or approaches, and difficulty with communication and coordination.

4. How can group work in physics be effectively managed in a work-life setting?

To effectively manage group work in a work-life setting, clear goals and expectations should be established from the beginning. Regular communication and feedback should also be encouraged to ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal.

5. What are some benefits of incorporating group work in a work-life setting outside of physics?

Group work in a work-life setting outside of physics can lead to improved communication and teamwork skills, increased productivity, and a sense of camaraderie among colleagues. It also allows for the sharing of ideas and perspectives, leading to more creative and innovative solutions.

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