Guidelines and Criteria for Group Work 

You will be expected to work in groups for the writing of the Critical Essays at the end of each unit.  Groups will be assigned at the beginning of the semester. There will be a peer review component of group work, and you will be expected to participate fully in the group assignments. Your instructors will consider your peer evaluations confidential.  You may want to discuss with your group members the standard and the criteria by which you will evaluate each other.  Since your peer group evaluations are confidential, if you want to discuss any individual paper grade with your instructor, please be aware that she/he will only address your own contributions to peer work, not how you were evaluated by your peers.  Your e-mail peer evaluations will be due on the date and time in which the last papers of the semester is due.  If you do not submit a peer evaluation with this last papers you participation will be graded as a "No Show."  Your contribution to group work will be graded numerically by your peers according to the scale listed on the Peer Evaluation form.

Interactive Learning Philosophy 

Overwhelming research conducted internationally at the university level has proven that students working in classes that have structurally implemented group work perform better on exams, participate in class discussion more, and achieve higher overall semester grades than students in classes with the traditional, independent format.  R. Brent and R. Felder have been conducting controlled experiments and teaching workshops demonstrating a direct correlation between interactive learning and student achievement.

As you will be working in your groups, keep in mind the following benefits that you will gain from the experience: 

• Positive interdependence: Group members will need to rely on one another to post the assignments on a regular schedule.
• Individual accountability: Members will be held accountable for (a) doing their share of the work and (b) learning all the material.
• Face-to-face interaction: members working together will do all work.
• Appropriate use of interpersonal skills: You will gain skills in leadership, decision-making, communication, and conflict management, all abilities that will be crucial for you to master when you go out into the “real world.”
• Regular self-assessment of group functioning: Your groups should periodically reflect on what you’re doing well as a group, what you could improve, and what (if anything) you could do differently in the next essay.