Although the G in POGIL does not stand for “groups”, perhaps it should. Students working in groups – self-managed teams – of three or four is definitely a required element of teaching with POGIL. So what are some of the advantages of asking students to work in groups? Here are my thoughts:

• Students working in groups must develop teamwork skills, which are needed for most jobs (it is hard to think of a job that does not require you to work well with others). Requiring students to work together gives them a chance to learn and practice those skills. Sometimes it is hard to work on a team! And teamwork is hard work – when the students are challenged, they must be learning something.
• Good teamwork skills include strong communication – without anything electronic to mediate. The students have to communicate verbally, face to face, during class. They have to figure out how to work with each other’s quirks and moods and strengths and gaps. Although it takes time, and effort!, some – most? – groups do figure this out.
• I use POGIL activities in my physical chemistry courses. Often the students are using tools from calculus to understand chemistry (operators & integrals & derivatives). The students truly need each other to work through this material. Just listening to me and writing down what I say won’t get them to see the concepts with their own minds. By talking to each other, explaining to each other, they do start to understand. And they have many, many opportunities to ask each other (and me) for and individualized explanation – one that fills in their specific gaps in comprehension.
• Groups help large classes feel small! Perhaps it is counter-intuitive, but groups are most useful and most effective (in my perhaps not-so-humble opinion) in large classes. The larger a class, the easier it is for students to hide. They can go on facebook, play a video or video game, shop for shoes, send email… They can sleep! They can just not come! But when they are working in a group – they have a commitment to come to class to help their group. And if they are in a group, they are responsible for doing the work – not drifting off into an electronic or dream world. Being in a group makes the students accountable – to each other, and by extension, to the class. This last reason alone is enough for me to use groups.

Even when some groups don’t gel (and some won’t – that is unavoidable), I know that asking students to work in groups is “better” than the alternative. Even when students tell me “I can’t learn in groups”, I am confident that they are learning.

So what does the G in POGIL stand for? We’ll save that for another blog!

by Sally Hunnicutt