A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

Teaching and learning in small groups
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A HIGHLY SKILLED ACTIVITY
Many writers (Bligh, 1986; Griffiths and Partington, 1992) argue that small group teaching
is among the most difficult and highly skilled of teaching techniques. In addition to the
primary objective of teaching students to think, the tutor must have a number of
subsidiary objectives if the small group is to function. Writers generally agree that the
method requires a wide knowledge of subject matter and ability to attend to detail while
keeping an eye on the overall picture. Appreciation of how groups function, openness of
spirit, accommodation of different views, receptivity to new ideas and maturity to manage
a group of students without dominating them are all necessary for effective small group
teaching. These attributes are best thought of as skills to be developed over a period of
time.
Not only do tutors have to learn how to teach using small group methods but students
also have to learn how to work in small groups. Here, it is assumed that it is the tutor’s
job to assist students to learn, to equip them with self-confidence and facilitate group
cohesion. Therefore, a tutor using these methods is much more than a subject matter
expert.
In recognising that small group teaching is a difficult and highly skilled teaching
technique, it is important to know that it is also one of the most potentially rewarding
teaching and learning methods for tutors and students alike.
GROUP SIZE
Small group teaching, broadly speaking, is any teaching and learning occasion which
brings together between two and 20 participants. The participants may be students and
their tutors, or students working on their own. Because of the relatively small numbers
of students involved, the financial cost of the method can be high.
CONTEXT
In recent years the experience of small group teaching and learning has come under threat.
With the expansion of student numbers in higher education, class sizes have increased
dramatically; tutored small group teaching is expensive when compared with the lecture.
A resulting re-examination has had a profound impact on small group teaching and
learning. It has led many tutors to re-evaluate critically the nature of the method and to
maximise its potential to the full with some quite interesting and innovative results. Peer
tutoring, peer assessment, peer learning and peer support have become more common
(see e.g. Griffiths et al., 1996). In defence of the method, it has been necessary for assurances
to be made that time devoted to teaching in this format is well organised and well spent.
It is not only that there are more students participating in higher education than before;
it is also the case that students are coming from more diverse backgrounds. Inclusion and