Module 6: Group Work and Presentations
What do we mean by group work and presentations?
Group working in all its forms can be seen as a valuable way to engage students in discussion and debate, building and reinforcing understanding and ownership, generating new ideas and overcoming misunderstandings. Group working might include a small group of students working in-class on a problem set by the tutor or a longer terms group task carried out inside the classroom and beyond where students set the agenda and agree ways of working independently of the tutor.
![Three male students working at a laptop in the university library](https://scale.wp.worc.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/priscilla-du-preez-XkKCui44iM0-unsplash-2-1024x683.jpg)
Group working helps to develop key skills such as critical thinking, communication, facilitation, presentation and decision-making. It involves interaction between students, in contrast to the passive activity experienced in a lecture situation.
Likewise, presentations enable students to showcase their presentation design skills, condensing complex arguments into coherent and bite sized oral and visual content. Presentations also illustrate a student’s communication skills and understanding of audience. The audience may be a tutor, other students or invited guests. (Need more here).
Contexts for group work
Group working might include such diverse activities as:
- Informal sharing of information and ideas with peers (face to face, social media etc)
- Semi structured paired and group discussion as a part of lecture/seminar
- Structured group activity – e.g. within tutorials
- More formal group tasks (often assessed) such as creation and delivery of presentations, projects and/or joint assignments
Contexts for presentations
Like group work, presentations can span a wide range of contexts and activities:
- Informal feedback from a group activity to a larger group
- Poster presentations
- Formal presentations where the student produces a presentation on a given topic and presents this to an audience
- VIVA – where a student is asked to present their research and then defend it to a panel of expert questioners.