Skip to content
Home » Teaching Effectiveness » Student Motivation » Maximize Successful Group Work

Maximize Successful Group Work

The mere mention of group work in college often elicits groans. Many of us can likely recall our own experiences of uneven workload distributions, challenging communication, and perhaps even the feeling of “I could have done this better on my own.”

However, when group work is intentionally designed and connected to course/program objectives, it has the potential to boost student engagement, deepen learning, and provide an opportunity to develop and practice critical collaboration skills.

Like many pedagogical strategies, there are variables that impact the effectiveness of group work. Successful group projects should be carefully designed by the instructor. Additionally, the students must be taught how to work effectively in groups, with ongoing support for navigating emergent dynamics.

Let’s start by exploring key design choices:

According to Li (2023), effective group projects share three key characteristics:

  • Open‑ended and complex: They require analysis, exploration, and problem‑solving rather than finding a single correct answer.
  • Require interdependence: The task must be challenging enough that students need each other’s skills to succeed.
  • Offer multiple entry points and roles: This allows students with diverse strengths (e.g., analytical, creative, organizational) to contribute meaningfully.

Tip: Before assigning a task to groups, ask: Could a motivated student complete this alone? If the answer is yes, redesign it.

Be mindful of group size.

Evidence suggests that smaller groups of three to four students encourage each individual to actively engage while still providing a diversity of skills and perspectives. Of course, the project may require a larger group, especially if it mimics the experience students will have in a particular real-world setting.

Assign students into groups thoughtfully.

There is not consensus in the literature about whether instructor-assigned or self-formed groups are most effective, likely because the context of the project may influence this variable (Thom, 2020).

For example, if students have varied background knowledge or skills going into a project, it can be effective to group similar students together, so that they are able to progress as a group versus placing advanced and novice students together, which may lead to a great deal of frustration. In this case, instructor-assigned groups could lead to the best outcomes.

In other situations, self-formed groups may allow students to begin the project with autonomy, build on existing relationships or shared interests, and be a more authentic replication of how group efforts come to fruition in the workplace.

Tip: You may wish to survey your students in advance of forming groups. You could ask for their preference for self-formed or instructor-assigned groups (and honor both choices), gather information on their schedules/availability outside of class, or learn more about their interests and background knowledge/experience to help your decisions about group formations.

Utilize transparent assignment design.

A group project is an excellent opportunity to transparently design the assignment.

  • Purpose: Be prepared to articulate the purpose of the group project to students, including whether the expected emphasis is on product, process, or a combination. Increasing student buy-in, from the start, is essential. For instance, teamwork and communication are two of eight career readiness competencies identified by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which tie to many VTSU program outcomes.

    Tip: Introduce a group project by creating one or more skill-based bullet points that students should be able to add to their resumes at the conclusion of the work.
  • Tasks: To set groups up for success, provide step-by-step guidance for how they should move through the project. If there are steps that they are expected to figure out as a group, be explicit about why you aren’t providing those details.
  • Criteria for Success: Explain how the project will be assessed, including whether students will be earning grades/feedback as individuals, a group, or a combination. Include rubrics for both process and product. If students will be engaging in peer-assessment, provide those criteria and evaluation tools up front.

Define roles in advance.

Having a diversity of skills and ideas within a group often enriches the group process and can improve the final product, and defined roles can help students maximize their strengths and delineate responsibilities.

Many students will find it beneficial to receive some guidance in defining the particular roles necessary for success with any given project.

Define roles in advance that you expect students to adopt, relevant to the scope and duration of the project. Additionally, require students to rotate roles, so they avoid a “divide-and-conquer” approach. Drew (2022) suggests 21 Group Roles for Students that might be useful in selecting the skills and tasks needed for a particular project.

Careful pre-planning is only half of the picture. The second half of the picture is teaching students how to effectively build trust within and navigate the dynamics of their groups.

Tuckerman & Jensen (1977) identified the five stages of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. While each group will move through these stages on different timelines, pertinent and well-timed class activities should assist in increasing group functionality.

Let’s consider some ways to effectively use class time to help students work effectively together:

During the forming stage, providing students class time to engage in a group expectations activity will allow the students to reflect on past experiences and anticipated needs for success.

Additionally, this is a good time for students to select their initial roles as they kick the project off the ground.

As tasks and roles begin to be fulfilled and groups enter the storming stage, students may find it useful to be oriented to tools that they can adopt for project management. As part of students’ VTSU Microsoft 365 license, they have access to Planner, an online, collaborative way to assign and track tasks, view project progress, and communicate with groupmates.

Group expectations should not be created at the start and then never reviewed. As groups settle into patterns and behaviors—the norming stage—it is the perfect time to revisit group expectations and make revisions, as needed. During this norming stage, groups may start to see social loafing (aka free-riding) emerging amongst one or more group members. Typically when this occurs, there is an underlying reason someone engages in social loafing, such as a low feeling of self-efficacy to complete their assigned tasks. Encouraging groups to explore barriers to success, early, will allow them to identify proactive solutions.

By the performing stage, groups should have submitted some milestone deliverables may have also engaged in formative evaluation. Public in-class recognition of individual groups’ achievements is motivating for all students, as they learn about the successes of other groups and see their hard work acknowledged.

At the end of the project, as students move through the adjourning stage, include a summative evaluation process, involving both individual reflection on group contributions as well as peer assessment, which can be facilitated with a tool as simple as a Group Work Self and Peer Assessment Rubric. Ask students to reflect on both process and product.

References and Resources

Drew, C. (2023, August 29). 21 Group Roles for Students (List of Examples). https://helpfulprofessor.com/group-roles-for-students/

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. (2007). The state of cooperative learning in postsecondary and professional settings. Educational Psychology Review, 19(1), 15–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-006-9038-8

Karau, S. J., & Williams, K. D. (1993). Social loafing: A meta-analytic review and theoretical integration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(4), 681–706. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.65.4.681

Li, R. (2023). How can group work be more effective in classroom? Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media, 6, 255-261. https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7048/6/20220302

National Associate of Colleges & Employers. (n.d.) Career readiness competencies. https://naceweb.org/career-readiness/competencies/career-readiness-defined#competencies

Page, C., Perera, N., & Gedak, L. (2020). Facilitating Student Collaboration in Groups and Teams. Kwantlen Polytechnic University. https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/groupwork/

Thom, M. (2020). Are group assignments effective pedagogy or a waste of time? A review of the literature and implications for practice. Teaching Public Administration, 38(3), 257–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0144739420904396

Tuckman, B.W. & Jensen, M.C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group and organizational studies, 2(4): 419–27.

Western Michigan University. (n.d.). Group norms. Teaching and Learning. https://wmich.edu/x/teaching-learning/teaching-resources/activities/group-norms

Wilson, K. J., Brickman, P., & Brame, C. J. (2017). Evidence-based teaching guide: Group work. CBE—Life Sciences Education. http://lse.ascb.org/evidence-based-teaching-guides/group-work/

Zhang, B., & Ohland, M. W. (2009). How to assign individualized scores on a group project: An empirical evaluation. Applied Measurement in Education, 22(3), 290–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/08957340902984075