Take charge of study groups for better student learning and wellbeing

Every teacher who's experienced the successes of group work has also seen it go wrong. You have students who stay quiet, students who take on the whole load, and students who do nothing at all. As a teacher, you're left wondering: is this really worth it? The answer is yes. 

When students are in study groups that work, learning outcomes and student wellbeing are higher. The structure outside of class is stronger. You will have an infrastructure around your teaching that you're not able to have if it's just you teaching students without them working together.

Study groups are worth it, but only if we as teachers take charge of forming them, facilitating them, and—maybe most importantly — telling the students why we are forming them. That may seem like more work for you. In this spotlight, we will show how it can actually become less work. 

What is a study group?

A study group is:

Let's break down this definition:

Safe and egalitarian work community:  In the group, students have equal standing and everyone can speak up without judgement. This is ensured by you as a teacher taking charge of forming the groups based on logistics and not preferences or personality traits.

Built on negotiated norms and values: Members of the group actively discuss and agree together on how they will work. This can be supported by different tools and teacher facilitation.

Academic and social purpose: Sometimes we assume study groups will be good just because they create a social space for students. That's true, but it only works if they also have a purpose beyond that. For study groups to work, they need collaboration around socially shared values and academically shared purposes and tasks.

Works in and outside formal structures: During the COVID lockdown, we learned that students who coped best were those in study groups that worked. These groups formed an extra collaborative infrastructure—a mental structure and collaborative structure they could lean into, even without a physical space.

Why teachers must take charge

Students may ask to form their own groups and be eager to do so. But as teachers, we have a crucial role to play in framing why we're doing group work and study groups in the first place, and in defining why and how they should be formed.

Letting students form their own study groups without any structuring or facilitation would be similar to inviting a large group of people to a party without having any idea of what should happen, where they should be seated, or when things should occur. While it might work out, chances are that the shy types would leave early, and people who stayed would only talk to those they already knew.

Imagine 100+ students coming into a first-year class in the auditorium. Some are mature learners, some are fresh out of secondary school, some have neurodiversity. They all need to feel comfortable. The way they will feel comfortable is if you, as a teacher, take charge and let them know what the structures and expectations are.

The benefits of teacher-formed groups

When you, as a teacher, take charge of setting up groups, there are massive benefits:

Students feel safe. They know what to do and where to go. It takes away the pressure of "if things go wrong, you formed your group so that's your own fault." When you've formed the groups and made clear why they're in those types of groups, students feel more comfortable.

You can provide conflict resolution tools. Conflicts happen all the time. When you've formed the groups, you're positioned to provide students with tools to solve these problems.

You create genuine diversity. When we form groups based on visible diversity or visible traits—mixed genders, different personality types—we risk creating superficial diversity. Focusing on logistics instead of common ideas about what makes a group work is a way to ensure stronger diversity and more well-functioning groups.

You support neurodiverse students: We have an increasing number of neurodiverse students in higher education. Making sure there are very visible and articulated structures around the work we do is a way to ensure they can thrive better in these settings. Making it clear why we're doing the groups, how we're setting them up, and what students should be doing is a way to include more students in our higher education.