Study groups and how they work
Trying to be successful at university requires more than attendance at classes. You will need to spend time thinking about and reflecting on the course materials in order to absorb and make sense of complex new knowledge. But the loneliness of the long distance runner may not be the best way to be a university student. Students attend lectures and tutorials together, frequently work on group projects, and sometime collaborate on library research.
A study group can assist you in managing your learning.
Why form a study group?
Not all of your course content is delivered in lectures and tutorials. You are expected to find the rest of the information needed to complete a course yourself. There is so much reading to do that sharing the discussion and understanding of it with other students makes it more manageable. Part of being a professional in your future employment requires the ability to work in teams. Study groups begin that process of teamwork for future job readiness.
So, don't study alone. Work with fellow students and share the load.
What is a study group?
A study group is ideally made up of about 6 to 8 students studying the same course. It does not have to be made up of best friends. The purpose needs to be clearly established at the beginning. What do you want the group to achieve? It could:
- establish a revision program
- share reading of set texts
- peer edit assignments
- work as a research team
A study group meets regularly - once a week, once a fortnight, or once a month.
Finding a study group
Advertise in your subject lectures or tutorials. If you are uncomfortable about doing this, ask your lecturer or tutor to advertise for you. You could also make a posting on a Vista discussion board for your unit (if this facility has been provided for you). State what you want your group to do. Don't give out personal information - ask to meet people at a university location such as the Café at a certain time, or straight after the lecture or tutorial.
Collaborative and cooperative study
At your first session talk about your study and get to know each other. Work out what you want to achieve and set some priorities for the study group. Swap university e-mail addresses so that you can communicate with your group. Set the date for the next meeting. Have a rotating chairperson who will ensure that everyone knows where the next meeting will take place.
Use a meeting format to enable the meeting to be successful and keep participants focussed on the issues. This means being a bit formal and reviewing what was done at the previous meeting, setting the agenda for this meeting, and allocating tasks (if needed) for the next meeting.
Making the most of a study group
Meeting for the sake of meeting will soon become tedious. Agree on the specific focus for each session. It could be
- Analysing a particular assignment task
- Going over a difficult lecture
- Preparing for a tutorial
- Holding a revision session
Some specific study group activities
Shared reading of set readings
The goal for this activity is to enhance your understanding of texts in your course. Depending on the nature of the text you can agree on a variety of strategies. Each student can take the responsibility for reading a text and present it to the group with dot point notes. The time taken reading more thoroughly for one piece is then shared among the group.
Each student could prepare two or three questions on a set chapter for discussion. This provides you with a real opportunity to understand material in order to discuss it. The questions could be test questions for revision or problem questions, i.e. something you do not understand.
Shared revision
You can get more out of revision by doing some of it in your study group. Before revision can start you need to collect past exam papers, and build up a set of revision cards to test each other. You can set short answer questions and mark each other's work.
You can book a group room in one of the Learning Hubs (Hobart and Launceston) and put yourselves through a mock exam. Naturally, the amount of time your group puts into revision will depend on the type of courses you are studying.
Research teams
Sometimes the assignments you are set require you to search for articles on the web or contact community groups for information. By collaborating on such exercises you can coordinate your work and produce a better project as a result. Check with your lecturer, but in most cases, this kind of collaboration and discussion is quite appropriate.
Peer editing of assignments
Before handing in any work it is an advantage to have someone else read it. If you do give your work to someone, you must ensure that you have established very clear guidelines. The purpose at this stage is not to be swapping information or getting new insights, but to proofread your work, and ensure your meaning is clear.
Your main goal in asking a fellow student to read your work is to identify whether or not you have got your message across. Ask your peer editor to tell you what you have said in the essay. If they tell you something that you didn't know you said then you need to have another look at your writing. You can also ask your peer editor to look out for your common grammatical errors (e.g. apostrophe use or subject/verb agreement).
So, what are you waiting for? Get studying with fellow students.
Learning Development lecturers can be invited to work with your study group by arrangement, either through our Student-Requested Workshop or Academic Development Appointment approaches.
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