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Researchers in co-operative learning have identified five key elements that should be built into all group assignments. When these factors are not thought through, problems can occur that will weaken your team work!

As a team discuss each factor ...what are the key ideas that you need to be aware of?

1. Face-to-face interaction

For groups to work well, there has to be time allocated to the process, especially for the beginning stages of setting goals and planning. It's important for students to spend some time getting to know their partners, sharing information about their learning preferences and expectations for the assignment. As the process develops, you and your partners may go on your separate ways to complete assigned parts of the research or writing, but before that happens the group should have a definite plan for maintaining contact and sharing progress.

2. Positive interdependence

For a project to work well, it really should require the combined efforts of all group members for its success. There's no sense bringing 4 people into a project that three people could complete quite easily. It also helps if there is a combination of talents or strengths represented in the group members. That diversity provides opportunities for each student to take a leadership role and for members to learn from one another. While it might be fun to work with friends who share similar interests, ideas or styles, such "affinity grouping" doesn't always result in the best project or presentation.

The best way to prevent slacking off by any one in the group is to make sure that each member has a specific leadership role. If you have done a good job of analyzing the tasks that need to be done to complete or plan your project or presentation, then you should have a list of leadership roles. Don't make the mistake of dividing up the jobs so that one person has total responsibility for it (for example, one student does the research, another does the presenting, a third does all the technical work). Instead, spread those responsibilities among group members, but give each person primary responsibility for planning and quality control. That way, everyone has a chance to be in charge and to report to another group member at some point in the process.

You'll also want to include one additional responsibility in the job list: group maintenance. Most successful groups have at least one member who is a cheerleader for the group. He or she makes sure there's some fun built into the process. That's often the key to keeping people from dropping out.

3. Individual accountability

While ultimately the group stands or falls together, there must be clear individual accountability for participation in the process and for the quality of the work produced. The group needs to analyze the assignment, determine the research needs and the presentation format, then negotiate the roles and responsibilities of each group member.

This is when it's important to be specific about expectations, - even taking the time to record who's doing what and getting group members to sign that agreement.
That doesn't mean there can't be some re-negotiating during the process if some part of the task turns out to be more time-consuming or complex than anticipated, but it's best to start with an equitable distribution of the work. One strategy that some groups have used to good effect is to color-code individual work (i.e., each student uses a different color of ink or prints out his or her work on a different color of paper) so that the group can monitor the contribution of each person.

4. Social skills

Working effectively with others requires some fairly sophisticated communication and social skills. Setting some group norms as part of the process will help. Here are a few suggestions. All group members should:
• demonstrate mutual respect (for example, accepting differences of opinion, acknowledging varied abilities, sharing leadership, preserving confidentiality)
• listen attentively (paraphrase to clarify understanding, withhold judgement when others are speaking, avoid interrupting)
• give positive feedback and encouragement to others (compliment and acknowledge others' contributions, avoid put-downs and sarcasm)
• focus on problems, not personalities (raise concerns or issues using neutral problem statements that do not blame or prejudge others)

This is a fairly short list, but a group that paid attention to these social norms would probably work effectively and also enjoy one another's company.

5. Group processing and evaluation

It's almost a given that when teachers structure group assignments, they will ask for an evaluation of the group process at the end of the process. Frequently that self-assessment is considered as part of the total mark for the assignment. However, taking some time during the process to evaluate how the group is working is time well spent, especially if the group has negotiated their working conditions up front! A quick way to do this is to ask each member to complete a checklist or ranking scale to evaluate specific group behaviors. When the group shares these assessments, any low rankings or differences of opinion can become the basis for some group problem solving. What do we need to do to get our process back on track? What needs to happen to assure that we meet our learning goals?

In lesson #5 is a scale that you can use for this group assessment process. Each student can use the scale to evaluate his or her individual contribution to the group process or the ratings can be applied to the combined efforts of all group members.

If these five factors have been considered in designing a group project or presentation, there is a better chance that the group process will run smoothly and that the final product of all that hard work will be a source of satisfaction to everyone. If the instructor has overlooked one of them (for example, individual accountability because there is one mark for the entire group and, thus, no specific way of acknowledging the contribution of individuals) you might raise that as a concern in the classroom or with the members of your specific team.