Formal Group Learning Activities

Discovery learning: In a discovery format, the instructor presents a novel situation, an interesting puzzle, a set of observations to explain, or an open-ended question that students explore in a largely self-direct manner. In the purest form of discovery learning, an instructor sets the problems and provides feedback on students’ effort but does not direct or guide those efforts. This pure form is rarely used in higher education because it can be very time consuming. More often, the instructor provides guidance throughout the process, in the form of identifying problem-solving activities, facilitating those activities during the discovery process, helping students stay on task, and pointing students toward appropriate resources.

Guided design: In guided design students work in groups of four or five, and they are led through a complex sequence of steps to solve real-world problems, with the instructor providing feedback at each step. These steps might include defining the situation, stating the problem and goal to be achieved, generating ideas and selecting the best one, defining the new situation that would result when the selected idea is implemented, preparing a detailed plan to implement the idea, implementing the plan, and evaluating and learning from the success or failure of the process and the plan. Guided design serves as a bridge from single-solution textbook problems to applied open-ended problems.

Authentic learning: Authentic learning focuses on complex real-world problems and their solutions. The instructor selects a problem that is ill-defined and that requires sustained investigation and collaboration. Students are not given a list of resources but must conduct their own searches and distinguish relevant from irrelevant information. Authentic activities engage students in making choices, evaluating competing solutions, and creating a finished product.

Inquiry-based instruction: In structured inquiry learning, students are given a problem to solve, a method for solving the problem, and the necessary materials, but not the expected outcome. In guided inquiry or inquiry-guided learning, students must also figure out a method for solving the problem. Students thus develop their abilities to formulate good questions, identify and collect appropriate evidence, present results systematically, analyze and interpret results, formulate conclusions, and evaluate the worth and importance of those conclusions. Teaching methods, used singly or in combination, may include interactive lectures, discussion, group work, case studies, problem-based learning, simulations, fieldwork and labs.

In process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) students working in small groups are given data or information and a set of leading questions designed to guide them to formulate their own conclusions. The learning cycle consists of exploration, concept invention or formation, and application, under the guidance of the instructor. The POGIL Web site (www.pogil.org) offers descriptions of the method and instructional materials.

Project-based learning: Project-based learning begins with the assignment of one or more tasks that will lead to the creation of a final product. Different types of project-based learning offer students different degrees of autonomy:

• On task projects, student teams work on project that have been defined by the instructor and they rely heavily on methods prescribed by the instructor.
• On discipline projects, the instructor defines the subject area and the general approaches to be used, but the students identify the specific project and select the particular approach.
• On problem projects, students are almost completely free to choose their project and their approach.