Group Work: B2+

Introduction

Collins Academic Skills Series: Group Work will give you the skills you need to take part in successful group work activities at university and college.

Designed to be used on a self-study basis to support English for Academic Purposes or study skills courses, it is intended for students on pre-sessional or Foundation courses as well as for first year undergraduate students.

The book has twelve chapters which cover the most important aspects of working with other students. You will learn:

 why group work is important

 how to prepare for group work and group assignments

 how to work collaboratively

 how different students learn and how to apply this knowledge to group work

 how to deal with difficult students

 how to write and present in groups

 how to reflect and learn from your group work experience.

At the back of the book there is:

 a list of useful phrases for group work

 transcripts of interviews with students on their experiences of group work

 transcripts of interviews with lecturers on their thoughts about group work

 a list of the skills, abilities and qualities needed for group work

 an example of a group presentation

 a glossary of key terms

 a comprehensive answer key

Chapter structure

Each chapter includes:

 Aims – These set out the skills covered in the chapter.

 A self-evaluation quiz – By doing this you are able identify what you already know on the subject of the chapter and what you need to learn.

 Information on academic expectations – These sections will help you understand university practices and expectations so you understand what is required.

 Practical exercises – These help you to develop the skills to succeed at university. You can check your answers at the back of the book.

 Tips – Key points are highlighted for easy reference and provide useful revision summaries for the busy student.

 Glossary – Difficult words are glossed in boxes next to the section where they appear in the chapter. There is also a comprehensive glossary at the back of the book.

 Remember sections – This is a summary of key points for revision and easy reference.

Glossary boxes

Where we feel that a word or phrase is difficult to understand, we have glossed this word/phrase. All definitions provided in the glossary boxes have been taken from the COBUILD Advanced Dictionary. At the end of the book there is a full alphabetical list of the most difficult words from the book for your reference.

Using Group Work

You can either work through the chapters from Chapter 1 to Chapter 12 or you can choose the chapters and topics that are most useful to you. The Contents page will help in your selection.

Study tips

 Each chapter will take between two to three hours. Take regular breaks and do not try to study for too long. Thirty to sixty minutes is a sensible study period.

 Regular study is better than occasional intensive study.

 Read the chapter through first to get an overview before you do any exercises. This will help you to see what you want to focus on.

 Try the exercises before referring to the Answer key. Be an active learner.

 After doing the exercises in the book, put what you have learned into practice when you are given real group work to do. The exercises will prepare you for group work but they are also examples of exercises you should do to make your group work successful.

 All university departments are different. Use the information in the book as a guide to understanding your own university department.

 Write questions you can ask to find out how your department expects you to work in groups.

 There is no one correct way of working with others. Use the experience you gain from doing the exercises to learn what works best for you. Adapt the suggestions in this book to suit your learning style and context.

 Learning to work in groups is an on-going process, which means you need to practise the same skills many times. Revise regularly.

Other titles

Also available in the Collins Academic Skills Series: Lectures, Numbers, Presenting, Research and Writing.

1

Why do group work?

Aims

  understand why university students work in groups

  discover what teamwork skills involve and why you use them

  appreciate the value of working with other students

  recognize the importance of process over product in your work

Quiz

Self-evaluation

Read the statements, then circle the word which is true for you.

Now check the key for comments on this exercise.

What is group work?

Glossary

assignment An assignment is a task or piece of work that you are given to do, especially as part of your job or studies.

Group work involves working with other students who are on the same course as you to complete a task or an assignment. You will find that lecturers in English-speaking universities often ask you to carry out work in groups.

There are different types of tasks and assignments that you can do when you work together. Some of them may be quite short, for example:

Glossary

common practice Common practice is a generally accepted way of doing something.

option An option is something that you can choose to do in preference to one or more alternatives.

random A random sample or method is one in which all the people or things involved have an equal chance of being chosen.

 holding group discussions

 checking your answers in groups.

Group discussions are usually held between small numbers of students and it is common practice for the lecturer to ask one group member to report their discussion to the whole class. Other group work activities may take more preparation, for example:

 giving a group presentation

 writing a group assignment.

These tasks will probably involve meeting your group outside class to spend time working together. Some group work assignments may even last several weeks or months. Examples of these from Business Studies are:

 setting up and running a university-based business

 designing a product and the marketing campaign for it.

When you work in groups, you sometimes have the option of choosing your own group members; this means you might decide to work with friends. Alternatively, you may be told who to work with by the lecturer. Another option is to have a random selection process. The size of groups might be small with two, three or four students, or there could be ten or more.

For more information on forming a group, see Chapter 2.

Tips

 Try not to feel nervous when working in a group with people you do not know; use it as an opportunity to meet new people and make friends.

 Use the opportunity of working with others to develop your English language speaking skills, as well as to get help when you are not sure what to do.

Reasons why university students work in groups

Glossary

participate If you participate in an activity, you take part in it.

collaborate When one person or group collaborates with another, they work together, especially on a book or on some research.

Understanding the purpose of working in groups will motivate you to participate. This is important as a high percentage of your marks at university will come from group work. If you do not understand the reasons for working with others, it is unlikely you will participate well. University lecturers generally believe that:

 you can learn more about a topic when working in a group than when working alone

 teamwork skills are very important and can only be learned through group participation

 the most important part of learning happens while you are working with other students, not when working alone

 group work is an important preparation for the world of work as you will need to collaborate with colleagues in your professional life after university.

Compare what happens in group work assignments in an English-speaking university with what happens in your own country. Read the statements and tick the columns that are true for you.

Now check the key for answers and comments on this exercise.

What is the value of working with other students?

Glossary

background reading Background reading involves the reading of related works in order to get background (contextual information) on a topic that you are intending to study or write about.

As already stated, lecturers in English-speaking universities believe you will learn more when you work with other students than when you work alone. The following example of a group work assignment will help you to think about whether you agree or not.

For example: Identify a shopping mall in the city and carry out a survey of its customers’ shopping habits.

There will be a number of stages to this assignment. The first stage might be to do some background reading on people’s shopping habits. The information below shows how much you could do if you worked individually compared with working as part of a group.

Stage 1: Find out as much as you can about people’s shopping habits by doing some background reading.

The next stage might be to design a survey and write questions to ask shoppers. As before, this task will be easier to do as part of a group rather than done individually.

Stage 2: Write a list of questions to ask shoppers about their shopping habits.