How can we create a dynamic group culture during PBL?
Season 2 Episodes
EP1: What are the steps to becoming an impactful PBL educator?
EP2: How can we use portfolios to enhance our teaching practice?
EP3: How can we elevate our PBL unit with community partners?
EP4: How can we create a memorable experience via project-based learning?
EP5: How can we teach standards and implement project-based learning?
EP6: What role does reflection play in the PBL process?
EP7: How can we create a dynamic group culture during project-based learning?
EP8: How can students support a cause via project-based learning?
EP9: How can we promote STEM education via project-based learning?
EP10: How can we get students excited about the project-based learning topic?
EP11: What type of creative artifacts/public products can students create via project-based learning?
EP12: How can we write a project-based learning unit?
EP13: How can we write a compelling scenario for a PBL unit?
According to CASEL, which stands for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, social-emotional learning is when people acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities. By developing social and emotional skills, people learn to manage their emotions, feel empathy for others, develop supportive relationships and make responsible decisions. There are five competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Project-based learning is an effective way to help students foster their social-emotional learning skills, especially during group collaboration.
During phase eight of the Impactful PBL™ Roadmap planning guide, we focus on uniting students and building a collaborative culture. It’s easy to assume that all students enjoy collaborating, possess the skills to handle conflict effectively, and understand how to interact with feedback. However, as educators, we must teach students how to effectively contribute as a member of a group. It starts with creating a positive and supportive classroom environment where collaboration is the norm. Classroom culture is multifaceted, but it is essential in fostering an environment where project-based learning can thrive.
It is usual for teachers to become excited about implementing their first project-based learning unit, only to discover that students struggle to engage in this form of learning. Most commonly, students struggle with brainstorming ideas, sharing ideas, taking the initiative to work on tasks, and working as a team.
🎧 Do you prefer to listen to this article instead?
Even as adults, we can recall both positive and negative experiences with group collaboration, whether during our K-12 school career, college years, or at work. I know I've been part of some workgroups that made me want to complete all the tasks myself to avoid dealing with specific team members. Sometimes it was due to personality conflicts and not having the proper tools to handle the situation. Other times, it was due to my inability to hold others accountable because I was avoiding tough conversations with friends or someone with seniority.
Students experience similar challenges in group work environments. There are many reasons why students may have difficulty engaging in group work, but there are several common factors that I hear teachers share and that I've seen with working with students.
Factors that impact group dynamics
Confusion: The students don't know what to do, so they do nothing. Perhaps they lack clarity or have a low skill set in the assigned task. Maybe students don't understand the task or their role in the group. Perhaps the student is asked to complete a task that they cannot do or don't feel comfortable doing, so they rely on their classmates to complete the work because they believe their classmate is more equipped to do the task than they are.
Lack of academic confidence: If a student feels inadequate about a topic or a subject, they may be afraid to say or do the wrong thing or afraid to share an incorrect answer. They don't want to cause the group to get negative results, so they refrain from contributing. I've also seen this happen with students who believe another student is more intelligent than them or more capable.
For example, I worked with a group of students and began asking them questions about a film they had just viewed. I noticed that many of them were deferring to this one student. Every time I asked a question, they would look over to him. And I said, "Is he the only one that just saw this movie? Everyone saw the movie. What are your thoughts?" And a few students immediately said, "He knows everything about dinosaurs, so I know he's going to have the answer." They didn't even want to attempt to answer because they had already decided that this other student knew more than them.
Lack of investment: Maybe the students aren't invested in the project, so there's no buy-in. This could be due to the topic, the perceived amount of work, or students feeling like they have no voice and choice. Perhaps they think that PBL is another forced assignment by the teacher, so they don't see the project's purpose.
Imbalance: Students may disengage because they feel like their groupmates aren't working as hard as they are or have a conflict with the project itself. Students can have different thoughts about which actions to take and feel like they're not being heard.
Eight ways to foster a collaborative culture
Help students understand the project goals. Students need to understand the driving question and why this project is meaningful. The project goals should help them understand why they should explore the issue.
Help students monitor project milestones. Remember, in phase six of the Impactful PBL Roadmap™, you created milestones for the project. We explored how to share the milestones with students and ways to allow them to track their progress as well. When students understand where they are along the PBL journey, they're more engaged, and it becomes easier to hold them accountable.
Help students celebrate academic risk-taking. Praise the effort and not the outcome, but point out the connection between their effort and outcome by focusing on growth. When someone shows effort, for example, by attempting to answer questions, whether right or wrong, praise them for sharing their ideas. Remember to reinforce that mistakes are a vital part of the learning process.
Help students develop individual roles. Think of positions that would be suitable for the type of tasks that students will complete during the project-based learning unit. I've seen teachers have a materials manager, a reporter, a timekeeper, etc. You can name these roles whatever you like, but be sure to explain the roles, expectations, and what success looks like in each role. This will help students hold themselves and each other accountable.
Help students create a group agreement or contract. Ask students to share what an effective group learning environment looks, sounds, and feels like, and encourage them to keep that in mind as they write their group contract. Model the process by creating shared norms for the entire classroom.
Help students build conflict resolution skills. Allow them to role play group conflict and practice how they would address it. Give students actual language to try during a disagreement. Get students to investigate the why behind someone's actions. An example could be, "I've heard your point of view, and I would like to share mine," or "I see your point, but I have another idea." The point is for them to hear different viewpoints and respectfully express theirs.
Help students share their experiences. Encourage them to discuss what's going well, then brainstorm and implement solutions based on what can be improved. When necessary, serve as a mediator to help them overcome significant challenges within their group. It's essential that students take responsibility for their actions and not blame every challenge on their peers' actions. Therefore, students need to develop self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship skills, which are social and emotional learning competencies.
Help students reflect. Promote self-reflection throughout the project-based learning experience. Students can process by using their group agreements as a guide. For example, they could use their group contract to reflect on whether or not they have been honoring group agreements.
How to create productive groups
Groups can be determined by teacher choice, student choice, or student choice with teacher management. Let's look at the pros and cons of each option.
Teacher choice: When the teacher chooses the groups, it can minimize hurt feelings because the teacher makes all the choices. It saves time. It allows the teacher to be strategic with grouping. It mirrors the real world since we don't often get to select our coworkers in the workplace. But some of the cons of teacher-selected groups is that students may feel a loss of ownership. They may be unhappy with the groups. Students also lose the opportunity to practice choosing group mates wisely because the teacher makes the decisions for them.
Student choice with teacher management: What about allowing students to choose the groups, but with teacher guidance? One idea, especially for middle and high school classrooms, is for students to create a short resume or answer a few questions about themselves. What are their strengths? What can they contribute to a group? What makes them a good partner? Then, students review their peers' answers and select five people they would like to have as a groupmate. The teacher can then use that information to form the groups. Tell students that they will have at least one person on their list in their group, but you can't guarantee that every person they select will be in their group.
Ask students to submit their lists privately to relieve the pressure of placing someone on their list that they don't want in their group. This process is an excellent way for you as a teacher to still have a voice in group placement. It also allows students to have input and a voice in the process. They learn how to choose group mates wisely because they can look at their peers' attributes. It reduces disagreements and could increase satisfaction with group placement because you did a matchmaking process rather than just arbitrarily placing students in a group.
Some of the cons are that it can be difficult without an inclusive classroom culture. Students' feelings may still be hurt because even though you tell students in advance that they may only have one or two people in their group from the list, they're still going to want to be in a group with all of their friends. It can also be more time-consuming. Since students need to learn what makes a quality groupmate, you will have to allow time for them to share their best attributes, and you will need time to review the list to make the groups.
Take action:
Decide how you will build a collaborative culture in your classroom. Which strategies will you implement to promote healthy group relationships?