Community building

Academic instructors, hired for their content expertise, are rarely trained in skills like classroom facilitation or community-building. But successful collaborative learning requires a degree of trust and cooperation that may not happen automatically–it needs to be cultivated with purpose and intention. Research shows that social factors can greatly affect the depth and quality of student learning, and that social connections with mentors and peers are one of the best predictors of collegiate success. In light of this knowledge, how can instructors build classroom communities and lay the groundwork for successful collaborative learning? Consider the following approaches to establishing community in your classes:

• Communicate a sense of shared belonging and purpose: classroom communities are transient, but can have a powerful influence on students’ academic success. Instructors play a key role in establishing and communicating a sense of belonging and common purpose through first-day-of-class messaging, syllabus language, framing of assignments and prompts, and other verbal and non-verbal communications.
• Use social icebreakers: you can help learners establish social presence (the ability to bring an authentic self into the academic community) through the use of social icebreakers that invite students to integrate their out-of-class values and interests (music, food, hobbies, social engagements) with academic work.
• Facilitate content-based collaboration: curate and scaffold peer-to-peer experiences in which students process and apply course content together.
• Make room for metacognition and ongoing reflection: share research on the benefits of collaborative learning and create space for students to exchange insights on how they learn, including the honest sharing of academic struggles, setbacks, and coping strategies.

Check out these related teaching tips on developing respectful class relationships, creating inclusive class communities, and  cultivating community in online courses [Requires Sharepoint Login]

Class discussion

While class discussion may be the most commonly used collaborative learning tool, moderating authentic, inclusive, and fruitful discussions is much harder than it seems. Many instructors observe a phenomenon called consolidation of responsibility, where a small minority of students takes up the majority of discussion airtime. Barriers to student participation may include social anxiety, lack of preparation, divergent cultural norms about public speaking, lack of perceived value, conflict aversion, and plain old disengagement. Structuring and moderating class discussions in intentional ways aligned with course goals and values (and articulating this alignment to the students!) can help address these common barriers and yield a more productive and enjoyable learning experience for everyone. To upgrade your in-person and/or online class discussions, consider the following recommendations:

• Create a welcoming and inclusive environment: student willingness to interact in class correlates with their perceptions of the instructor and class environment. Make an effort to adopt a welcoming tone, use correct names and pronouns (name tents can help with those!), select relevant and diverse discussion prompts, and communicate that the goal of class discussion is intellectual exchange and exploration rather than arriving at a single correct answer.
• Create community agreements: discussion guidelines and community agreements can be a powerful tool for inviting participation and preempting conflict. Invite students to vote on or co-create a set of principles to guide class discussions.
• Offer early practice: many students need a warm up before mustering the courage to speak in class. Before scheduling a full-on class discussion, engage students in low-stakes speaking activities like the round robin, where each student responds briefly to a prompt with a single word or phrase.
• Build in processing time: many students need processing time before responding to a prompt or question. Minute papers (where students take one minute to brainstorm or write down a question), think-pair-share activities, or simply waiting longer before calling on students can increase participation and allow the slower/more deliberate thinkers to have their voices heard.
• Structure the discussion: adding structure to class discussions can increase participation and engagement. For example, you can break up a whole class discussion by dividing students into smaller groups (the circular response or circle of voices technique invites students to listen actively while others take turns speaking for a designated amount of time before inviting interaction and connection-making); by having students interview one another; or by using the snowball technique: starting with pairs and then consolidating them into groups of four, eight, and so on, until the whole class is discussing together.
• Moderate inclusively: when moderating discussion, don’t be afraid to affirm your commitment to including as many student voices as possible. Instead of calling on the first students to raise their hands, consider announcing “I will wait a moment longer so that we get to hear some new voices”; or, invite the more active participants to “step back” and others to “step forward”. You can also leverage your classroom space by inviting speakers from various parts of the room, or use talking chip tokens that students have to surrender each time they speak.
• Assign discussion roles: assuming temporary identities (as historical figures, disciplinary experts, or stakeholders in contentious issues) can help students get more involved in class discussion. Another approach is to assign roles reflecting different dimensions of discussion participation: synthesizer, devil’s advocate, cheerleader, historian, storyteller, etc.
• Let students take the lead: designing discussion prompts is a great way to process course material. Invite students to create prompts and lead class discussions, following agreed upon guidelines.
• Use alternative discussion formats: students can exchange ideas without speaking out loud. Social annotation applications like Hypothesis or Perusall, as well as numerous other online tools (Padlet, Google docs, blogs, LMS discussion boards, social media) allow students to share ideas–synchronously or asynchronously, anonymously or with attribution–without the stress of public speaking. Low-tech silent discussions using sheets of paper or index cards provide another way to engage students in exchanging ideas with peers.
• Leverage metacognition: engage students in meta-discussion about discussion. What cultural norms govern their public speaking patterns? What are their default discussion moves (refutation? illustration? synthesis? amplification? listening?) and how might they expand their repertoire? Are they aware that class discussion boosts learning and develops critical thinking skills? Students can also observe discussion dynamics using a fishbowl exercise, where a smaller inside circle of students discusses a point while a larger outside circle observes and listens.
• Wrap it up: few students take notes during class discussions and many leave class not realizing what they have learned. Discussion wrap-up tasks can help  students to take stock, organize material, summarize, refine their own position, connect discussion points to larger class themes/goals, and reflect on their emerging discussion skills. Wrap up assignments can be especially fruitful in online discussions, where the entire archive is readily available to students.

Check out these related teaching tips on asking the right questions in class, and interactive discussion boards [Requires Sharepoint Login]

Peer instruction

Disciplinary experts are very good at understanding their subjects but not always good at understanding the struggles of academic novices–a phenomenon Steven Pinker calls “the curse of knowledge”. Novices, on the other hand, can easily explain new material to fellow novices as soon as they grasp it themselves. Research into reciprocal peer teaching confirms peer-to-peer instruction to be one of the most effective teaching methods. Peer-to peer learning can be introduced in classroom settings (on site or online) in a number of ways:

• Peer instruction with classroom response systems (CRS): reciprocal peer teaching champion Eric Mazur developed a simple procedure using classroom response systems. First, students respond individually to a question or problem and record their response. Then, students work in groups to advocate for their chosen solutions. A second round of responses yields a higher percentage of correct answers, demonstrating that students who got the answer right the first time were able to persuade their peers and educate them in the process.
• Two-stage exams: following the same logic as peer instruction with CRS, two-stage exams require students to respond to questions or problems individually, and then collaborate with one another to reach group consensus.
• Jigsaw: jigsaw activities provide an efficient way to introduce large amounts of content, while asking students to take responsibility for each other's learning. First, students work in groups to master one aspect of a topic. Then, groups are reshuffled so that each new group contains one representative from each original group. Students are then tasked with conveying the knowledge gained in their original group to the new set of peers.
• Peer support systems: students gain academic and social benefits from formal and informal peer systems, including note-taking partnerships (where learners compare class notes and fill the gaps in each other’s records), learning cells (where students develop questions on class materials and pose them to one another), and peer study groups.

Group work

Like class discussion, group work offers great benefits to students but requires intentional design and thoughtful set up. Instructors preparing collaborative group activities must consider a number of variables: group size (two students? four? six?), selection criteria (random? instructor-curated? self-selecting?), durability (single session? whole term? something in between?), constituency (heterogeneous? homogeneous?), and then decide which options best align with course-level and session-level learning goals.

Preparing students for collaborative learning likewise requires an investment of time and thought. Many students, even at the graduate level, do not possess the skills required for meaningful group collaboration. Drafting ground rules and community agreements can help lay the groundwork for successful collaboration, as can budgeting time for intra-group bonding. Groups engaged in long-term collaborative projects might even consider creating a “group resume,” documenting the background knowledge and skills of each member and planning the group’s work flow accordingly.

Many students approach group tasks with trepidation, so a layer of structure can help alleviate anxiety and move the work forward. When assigning in-class or out-of-class group tasks, make sure to:

• Clearly communicate the task, procedure, and outcomes/deliverables
• Clearly communicate time limits
• Budget time for debriefing and reflection
• Assign clear roles (or allow students to assign roles themselves) to ensure equitable labor distribution. For example, a short in-class group activity might involve a moderator, timekeeper, note-taker, cheerleader, and reporter. A longer group project might require more clearly defined roles, ideally aligned with the strengths and goals of each group member.
• Develop a clear assessment plan
• Have a contingency plan if group dynamics go awry (but allow students space to grapple with and resolve challenges)

The possibilities for in- and out-of-class group activities are endless. Groups are well-suited for quick tasks like brainstorming and reflection, as well as complex projects like presentations (e.g. panels, poster sessions, or gallery walks), collaborative writing (e.g. anthologies, glossaries, or dialog journals), and problem solving (e.g. Think-Aloud Pair Problem Solving, where one student listens while the other talks through their thought process, and Pass-the-Problem, where multiple groups consider solutions to the same series of problems and then compare results). Whether used as brief in-class intervals or weeks-long projects, group activities can foster community, promote intellectual independence, and instill valuable collaboration skills that students can transfer into future professional contexts.

Next: Active and Collaborative Learning Strategies