Step 6: Using Small Groups to Expand Participation and Deepen Thinking

Engaging in partnered and small-group work gives many students a chance to join the classroom discourse at the same time. Christina Villarreal highlights how she uses these smaller conversations to help students engage with the curriculum and work through challenging topics more safely. These more intimate conversations can also help fuel subsequent whole group discussions. Especially when students are showing signs of discomfort or shyness, Villarreal finds that these smaller discussions encourage participation: “Generally speaking, my experience has been that students are just more talkative and more comfortable when they only have an audience of one or two as opposed to an audience of 20 or 50.”

Profiled: Christina “V” Villarreal, Lecturer on Education, teaches "Ethnic Studies and Education" to 23 students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Takeaway Tips

If you are unsure how comfortable students are discussing a particular topic, you might take a quick poll (e.g., electronically, “eyes closed, hands up”) to determine whether students would prefer to start in small groups or move straight into a whole group discussion.

Decide whether self-selected groups or randomized groups are most appropriate given the content discussed. Each has advantages: Students might feel more comfortable talking first in groups with people they already know, but they might hear different ideas from students with whom they haven’t already worked.

Rather than rehashing the same conversation students had in small groups, use whole-group time to build on key learning or insights gleaned in small groups.

Related Resources

The Bok Center at Harvard offers tips for instructors looking to incorporate more small-group work into their courses. 

This HGSE Discussion protocols tip sheet offers guidance on how to scaffold small group work through discussion protocols. 

This tip sheet from the University of Waterloo includes suggestions for appropriate tasks for small group work. 

Reflection Questions

Do you use partnered or small-group discussions in your class currently? Is there room for more activities like these in your classroom practice? 

How might you use these activities to bring more voices into whole-class discussion? 

Small group conversations can both increase participation and make it more equitable.  In the next video, we’ll learn about methods for encouraging student participation outside scheduled class time.

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