Group Assessment Essay

Improving Teaching and Learning

Group Work and Group Assessment
UTDC Guidelines

G4

Improving Teaching and Learning

Group Work and Group Assessment

2004 Edition

University Teaching Development Centre Victoria University of Wellington

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Table of Contents
Introduction Section 1 Working effectively with groups Planning for group work Establishing groups Scheduling group work Training and guidance Managing the group process Section 2 Assessing group work Section 3 Evaluation and review – reflecting on the quality of the group work Appendices Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E Bibliography 1

2 7 11 13 13 14

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25

27 34 36 45 47 48

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Group Work and Group Assessment Guidelines

GROUP WORK AND GROUP ASSESSMENT GUIDELINES
Introduction
For many years, groups have been used in higher education as a teaching/learning strategy. However, the widespread assessment of group work is a more recent phenomenon. Both group work and its assessment (including self and peer assessment) has been the subject of considerable research and discussion in the higher education literature (e.g., Boud et al., 1999; Nightingale et al., 1996) There are a wide variety of teaching contexts where group work has been shown to enhance student learning. These guidelines are designed to assist teachers to use group work in an educationally appropriate way that also meets the requirements of VUW Assessment Handbook. (see Appendix A for the VUW policy and relevant extract from the Assessment Handbook) These guidelines are divided into three sections. The first identifies strategies that can be used to ensure that group work is appropriate, well planned and managed. The second section deals with the assessment of group work. The final section of the guidelines provides some suggestions for evaluating the effectiveness of group work.