Techniques for Studying with Groups One of the many resources available to students is their fellow students. Those individuals who create and take full advantage of study groups and group learning activities will be better able to propel their academic careers and find success in learning the material. Students from all degrees and programs can benefit from group learning. From business administration degree programs to nursing school programs, those students who are willing to collaborate together on their projects and assignments will be far more likely to learn well the knowledge and instruction that they are being taught.
Difficulties of Group Study But learning together as a group of students can be a challenging task for many individuals. Such difficulties as conflicting schedules and personalities often lead to the failure of a group’s efforts and, at times, the complete dissolving of the group before the end of the course. To combat this common failure of study groups in school, those individual students who comprise the group will have to learn the skills necessary to hold together and be productive in their efforts to learn and complete projects. One of the first skills that groups must master is the skill of interacting with differing personality types. Every one of the students who comprises a study group will have a different personality and, more than likely, a different way they think the proceedings of the group should take place. This means that all will have to work together to make compromises and effective uses of differing skills in order to get the most production and efficiency from the group.
Becoming an Effective Team Students can start this process of teaming up to become the most effective team they can become by devoting their first meeting to getting to know one another and developing a plan or a system that will enable future meetings to be effective and successful. To do this, each member should tell about themselves, their strengths and their weaknesses, and then group should decide as a whole how best to use their combined strengths to their advantage. Because it is likely that some in the group will have the personality of taking control, the group as a whole should decide how best to lead each session, as having the personality for leadership and being a quality leader are often two very different things. If the group as a whole decides that it is best to have
one group member take the lead at each meeting, then so be it, but if the group decides that the responsibility of leading the group during the online study sessions should rotate with each session, then a plan will need to be established and communicated. After the complications of dealing with the human aspect to group work has been accomplished, then the group can focus on the practical steps that will make their group more effective and successful. Such practical measures to a successful group include keeping meeting times short in length and regular in occurrence as well as focused on goals and continually striving to learn the material.