
Rules to govern the tutorial group are best established in the first meeting . This creates an opportunity for students to become familiar with each other and sets the tone for future meetings. Tutors and students can participate in the development of the rules that will govern civil class room discussion and active participation.
This ensures that all will be committed to the rules and that they will be rules that students will adhere to. Offer advice and suggestions for ground rules if there are none forthcoming.
The rules may need some changes made with regard to any specific problems encountered in a particular group or as a result of a particular topic.
Put the onus on the students for ensuring equal and fair treatment.
An important factor in student success in university studies is opportunities for students to work in groups. While many academics would like to include group work, they often hesitate because of bad experiences when groups fall apart and fail to complete the tasks or leave the work to one or a few students who then feel badly put upon. There are many advantages to including some group work in the assessment design, but it must be thoughtfully managed.
When students have to explain and negotiate their contributions to a group project it can assist them to develop and increase their meta cognitive awareness. That is, in low risk contexts they begin to know what they know and know what they have yet to learn or find out.
Group projects can provide opportunities for developing generic skills such as: organisation, negotiation delegation, team work, co-operation, leadership, following etc.
However, students don't automatically pick these up through being involved in a group project, these skills that must be explicitly taught and critically evaluated.
Students need to be explicitly aware of such skills to intentionally develop them and to include them in their personal attributes in job applications.
A distinguishing feature of the history of successful university students is that they have strong social/learning networks with other students. Group work is useful for encouraging social interaction for new students who might be isolated; especially for shy, rural and overseas students.
Group work can be a means for acknowledging and utilising the strengths and expertise of individual students. They can contribute their unique capabilities in completing a group project or performance.
When a small group of students explores a topic in a limited time frame there are opportunities for their collaborative efforts and the products of their studies can go to greater depth and breadth than if they work individually.
Learning and production of projects in the real world rarely requires individual effort. While individuals may have specific responsibilities most projects and enterprises require marshalling a mix of expertise and responsibilities.
Group work in university projects can be used for real world work on authentic real world projects and to harness opportunities to work in multidisciplinary teams as learning communities exploring specific themes or issues.
A field trip is a structured activity that occurs outside the classroom. It can be a brief observational activity or a longer more sustained investigation or project. Field trips offer an opportunity for students to see the relationship of theory to the real world. While field trips take considerable organisation, students can be involved in the process as a way of deliberately developing their organisational skills. They can also design their own individual field trip in their own time. Whatever the situation it is important to: