Skip to main content

‘Facilitating group work’

“I was trying to re-create the magic of impromptu, small group, in-class work.”: Julie Johnson shares key lessons from her Fall 2020 teaching

Feb. 11, 2021—Julie Johnson, Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, recently joined Marcy Singer-Gabella and Jesse Blocher for a Conversation on Teaching about the hybrid courses they taught in Fall 2020. You can see the recording of the entire session here. In the clip below, Julie shares key lessons from her teaching: Persistent groups are critical...

Read more


Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Heather Fedesco and Consulting Groups

Jan. 27, 2020—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern During Spring 2020, the Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt blog series will highlight teaching innovations that CFT staff have implemented and evaluated in their own courses. Most students can give an example from their own life from a group project gone wrong, but working in groups is often integral to...

Read more


Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Garrett Tate, Lily Claiborne, and student analysis of real-world data

Sep. 30, 2019—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern It’s pretty hard to not find volcanoes exciting. That’s part of the reason why I think a new active learning activity in EES-1510: The Dynamic Earth: Introduction to Geological Sciences, is so cool. The other reason I think it’s amazing is that it represents a great example of an...

Read more


Teaching 101: Part 2 Graduate Student/Postdoc Workshop

Mar. 8, 2019—Do you want students to view your class within the framework of their lives or communities? Have you considered strategies for connecting class materials to social realities? This interdisciplinary workshop will introduce basic strategies for incorporating active and collaborative learning, community engagement, and social outreach activities into a variety of classroom environments. We will also...

Read more


Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Corbette Doyle and Group Work Promises

Feb. 22, 2019—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern I recently had the privilege to talk with Professor Corbette Doyle, a Senior Lecturer in Organizational Leadership in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations. She has made recent changes in one aspect of her course that strikes fear into many students’ hearts: group work. Doyle, like many professors,...

Read more


New CFT Teaching Guide on Group Work

Oct. 22, 2015—We’ve all been there: victims of unproductive and frustrating group work. Perhaps an instructor poses a question, tells us to turn to our neighbor and discuss it, and we all sit silently…because the answer’s obvious and there’s nothing to discuss. Or perhaps we have an end-of-semester project to develop, and two of the four group...

Read more


What makes group work work?

Sep. 2, 2015—by Cynthia Brame, CFT Assistant Director We’ve all been there: victims of unproductive and frustrating group work. Perhaps an instructor poses a question, tells us to turn to our neighbor and discuss it, and we all sit silently…because the answer’s obvious and there’s nothing to discuss. Or perhaps we have an end-of-semester project to develop,...

Read more


Group work: Using cooperative learning groups effectively

Aug. 7, 2015—by Cynthia J. Brame and Rachel Biel Print Version Cite this guide: Brame, C.J. & Biel, R. (2015). Setting up and facilitating group work: Using cooperative learning groups effectively. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/setting-up-and-facilitating-group-work-using-cooperative-learning-groups-effectively/. Many instructors from disciplines across the university use group work to enhance their students’ learning. Whether the...

Read more