Learning Group

The learning group is a number of two or more people meeting together to share their knowledge and experiences. Meeting together is either face-to-face at a fixed time and place or via email as a part of a computer-supported community/group.
We mean by a group (learning group)* a number of persons who communicate with one another often over a span of time, and who are few enough so that each person is able to communicate with all the others, not at second-hand, through other people, but face-to-face (Homans: 1950: 1)[1]
To put it simply, they are units composed of two or more persons who come into contact for a purpose and who consider the contact meaningful (Theodore M. Mills: 1967: 2).[2]
The purpose of the learning group is to explore the ideas of the participants in the group in order to develop a diversified understanding of the topic under discussion. It is not necessarily that the group members comply with one’s idea(s) but rather the members understand each other’s view(s) related to the topic under discussion.
The learning groups in Yei Workshop for V.T.D were formed as a means to facilitate their learning process. The participants were therefore asked whether they wanted to work in a group or as individuals and all were in support of working in groups.
Groups can be formed using self selection, random assignment or criterion-based selection. The participants selected the different groups they wanted to belong to. As Walvoord describes, self-selected groups seem to work best in small classes, for classes of majors who already know one another, or in small residential college (Walvoord, 1986).[3]
In reference to the above quotation of Walvoord, our experience as a small self-selected learning group, living in one residential area at Arassen, we find that we are able to work best as a group in proximity. This is so because we found ourselves to be the only English speaking Masters’ students in Vocational pedagogy who are on a full time programme.
The learning groups in the VTD workshop were five (5), numbered from one (1) to five (5) with a maximum of four (4) participants each and only one group had three (3) participants. According to Rau and Heyl (1990), “smaller groups (of three) contain less diversity; and may lack the divergent thinking styles and varied expertise that help to animate collective decision making. Conversely, in larger groups it is difficult to ensure that all members participate.”[4]
In general, groups of four or five members work best. Larger groups decrease each member’s opportunity to participate actively. The less skilful the group members, the smaller the group should be. The shorter amount of time available, the smaller the group should be (Johnson Johnson and Smith, 1991).[5]
According to our interpretation, the criteria for group formation in the V.T.D workshop in Yei may have had some challenges such as the different backgrounds of participants’ experiences. For example in the group of three, we observed that one of the participants was not contributing to the discussion and the other two members continuously talked. Reflecting on that, it is perhaps because she was a woman and as a woman in the African culture, she may have felt the lack of freedom to express herself as well as her opinions among men. Secondly, the two may have been talkative and thought that their experiences about the subject in discussion were more than what the lady had, hence leading them controlling the discussion.
On the other hand, in the group of four there were equal chances given to each member to express and listen carefully to the comments of the group. There was a reconsidering of the opinion and judgment of each member in the group. By allowing the participants to give their ideas equally, this may result into generation of a diversity of ideas by the group and this may lead to a powerful decision.
We also observed that each of the groups was asked to setup some rules that can guide the discussion to enhance their cooperation. To mention, some of those rules were punctuality, respect for each others ideas/contribution, record keeping, one person talking at a time among others.
According to our reflection, having rules to guide or facilitate the progress of a learning group is good because it gives the participants a sense of responsibility and members assert their own ideas without attacking the ideas of others, which leads to respect for each other’s ideas. On the contrary, members’ participation in the group may be restricted by the rules and they may not come to meetings, or they attend but withdraw from discussion or even not doing any work.
Group work, under proper conditions, encourages peer learning and peer support and many studies validate the efficacy of peer learning. Under less than ideal conditions, group work can become the vehicle for acrimony, conflict and freeloading. It may also impose a host of unexpected stresses on, for example, students with overcrowded schedules living long distances from the University. (University of Wollongong assessment policy, 2002)[6]
Referring to the above quotation and our experiences as a learning group, the effectiveness of a learning group is related to its importance to learning for example; Peer learning can improve the overall quality of participant’s learning, Group work can facilitate the development of skills, which include: teamwork skills (skills in working within team dynamics; leadership skills); analytical and cognitive skills (analyzing task requirements; questioning; critically interpreting material; evaluating the work of others); collaborative skills (conflict management and resolution; accepting intellectual criticism; flexibility; negotiation and compromise); organizational and time management skills.
During the groups’ discussion, we observed that some participants would monopolize the group discussion and this could have blocked the learning process of group as well as of the individual’s. Similarly, there were also strong points in their group discussion such as sharing personal experiences from a vocational point of view, discussing the weakness in teaching among others.

Learning group is important because it may enhance an individual’s understanding. It may also help participants to learn from each other and benefit from activities given to the group to work on in order to acquire knowledge and skills. The learning group helps an individual to improve his or her own practice. As Johnson, Johnson, and Smith outline that;

The students learn best when they are actively involved in the process. Johnson, Johnson, and Smith reported that, regardless of the subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats. Students who work in collaborative groups also appear more satisfied with their classes. (1991)[7]
* By Group according to the citation, we refer to a learning group.
[1] Homans, George, (1950) the human group, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
[2] Mills, Theodore M. (1967) the sociology of small groups. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
[3] Walvoord, B. F Helping Students Write Well: A Guide for Teachers in All Disciplines; 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 1986
[4] http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals(JTE/jte-v7n1/Gokhale.jte-v7n1.html
[5] Johnson and Johnson, Cooperative learning: Increasing College Faculty instructional productivity. ASHEFRIC Higher Education Report No.4. Washington, D.C.: School of Education and Human development, George Washington University: 1991
[6] http://www.uow.edu/about/teaching/teaching_code.htm



[7] http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/collaborative.html