Episode 19-Accessible Group Work
0-0:12 Orthotonics Accessible as Gravity plays and fades out
0:13 Hello and welcome to Accessagogy a podcast about accessibility and pedagogy. I’m your host Ann Gagné and this podcast is recorded on land covered by the Upper Canada Treaties and within land protected by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Agreement, which is the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples.
0:33 Welcome to episode nineteen. In this episode, I want to talk about something that many instructors, teaching assistants, and educational developers think about when they’re planning their courses for the term or as the term progresses which is group work. More specifically I want to talk about what accessible group work could look like and some things to consider to make group work more accessible to more learners.
0:57 Group work is often very difficult for learners. A lot of that difficulty comes from the organizational piece, but it also comes from the actual purpose of group work which is to build a team that is responsive to the needs of its members and the goal of the team or the group work in the first place. So, sometimes that is, like that actual distinction, between whether we working as a group, or you know which tends in some ways to feel like very much like a random collection of individuals, or whether we’re working as a team, which is more like everyone has their role, everyone has a goal and we all can work sort of reactively to support the rest of the team.
1:42 We often default to the term group work because honestly without the proper supports and intentionality it does seem like a lot of group of people just working together. But if we give some ways for the group to become more like a team, or even like a community, and then frame it that way it may suggest something different pedagogically, and may provide more accessible outcomes for everyone.
2:07 So today I want to outline four strategies that may help group work and support group work in an accessible way. I’m also going to ask for an open call for all articles or resources that you feel that speak to accessible group work. I’m going to direct you to some websites and resources that support group work in the episode notes, but if you have an article or a resource that speaks to this accessible group work or team work please feel free to share it and I will be sure to highlight that in subsequent episodes.
2:40 So, suggestion one, set foundations for group members to communicate effectively. Often times one of the biggest barriers to group work is for them to actually have the time and the space and ways to work as a group. So depending on what you teach, whether your institution runs on a cohort model or not, you’re probably going to have folk in the same group that have very different school schedules. That also means that they are going to very different work and life schedules. Finding and having an accessible way for the students to communicate, which could mean having time in class to work together, have educational technology tools as part of the class design that will help them to communicate as a group, which could be through your learning management system or something else, could be very helpful. Basically, groups need time to become teams and communities, and the more time you plan in to your course design for that to happen, the more chance is that the students will become successful at their group work tasks.
3:45 Two, provide choices and authentic connections. Allowing individual learners to select the topic or case that they want to work on and then forming groups that way instead of randomly assigning them to a topic of a group can do a couple of things. One it will ensure that the learners actually want to work on the topic and that will improve the chances of them putting in an effort that is meaningful to them, and two it will likely decrease the chances of a group member being activated by the content or the resources that could be part of the topics that you are selecting in the class and that they will be working on as part of their group. This is more accessible and a trauma-informed way to do this group forming and create buy-in in terms of the goals for their group work. There’s a lot of anxiety attached to group work, and that anxiety can be made worse if there’s a lack of empowerment felt around what they are even going to be working on. This way they can bring in more of their lived-experience in to the assignment, and probably more resources that can be helpful for getting the work done as a group.
4:51 Suggestion three, scaffold group work components. If the group work goal is a presentation or a report for example, then what smaller tasks or shorter term goals can be put in place to support the learners getting there? For example, what can be done to help support group formatting or forming and community cohesion at the beginning of the group work? What kind of resources can you provide to guide them through this decision-making process in terms of the roles that each person has in that group? The more that the groups know they have resources to reference, and support from you as the instructor, and the teaching team, the less it will seem like something nebulous and something that’s very anxiety producing.
5:37 Are there examples, you know that, you can have like a draft review, or peer review as part of the group process. Maybe two groups can exchange ideas, maybe you have built-in guided critique sessions for your course. This all depends on the discipline and the course context of course. And you probably find this easier as an instructor to do this these kinds of things in a smaller sort of upper year group than maybe a larger first year course. However, this can still be done in a larger course too, but may mean that you will have to use these scaffolded components with the learning management system or any other educational technology that you have at your disposal and it can also be work that is done asynchronously.
6:28 A final suggestion for this episode, which is number four-have opportunities for sustainable connections. So what do I mean by that? Oftentimes group work feels a lot like a one and done. And you hear this from students too. You ask them about their group work and often the refrain is like, well I just need to get this project over with this particular group because it’s too much and they don’t communicate. And group work is often treated like this thing to hurry up and get over. Group work in a more accessible and sustainable way again moves towards what I was saying at the beginning, it’s less about groups and more about what can be put in place to create a community or connections.
7:12 You should want to see your group members again, you should want to work with them if you happen to find yourself in another class with them next term. Oftentimes that group work is not framed in a sustainable way, it’s much more about let’s hurry up and get this presentation done this term, and it’s less about having an opportunity to find your people, which is sad because it’s a real opportunity to find supports in a real way from your peers often times. Just framing it in that way can change a lot of the perspective and accessibility of group work design. Learners have an opportunity to share lived experiences and learn from each other beyond the course content or even how the course content resonates from them in a way that can open other perspectives.
8:00 In my teaching career I’ve had groups who have stayed in touch for years. I’ve had group members who may have, for example maybe, an invisible disability and felt comfortable enough to share with their group members, and those other group members went on to become advocates for the kinds of access needs that they knew would benefit their peer, like captions, like accessible slides, like visual descriptions of visuals, asking professors to use microphones, you know all that great stuff. So group work yes is ultimately about meeting the learning outcomes in the context of your course, but there is so much more that is possible there. So much more connection that is possible.
8:41 So that’s it, that’s episode 19 of Accessagogy, with a discussion of how to make group work situations more accessible.
8:48 Remember as well that I also want this to be a space where you can ask questions and share concepts that you would like me to discuss. So if there’s anything that I mentioned here, that you would like me to clarify, please ask. And if you have great accessible group resources that you want to share also please do reach out.
9:05 As always if you have any ideas or aspects of your pedagogy that you would like me to address in this podcast, please feel free to send me an email at Accessagogy so that’s acc e ss a gogy at gmail dot com. I will try to include as many suggestions as possible in this podcast because ultimately, this podcast is for you. So that’s it, that’s episode 19 of Accessagogy, thanks so much for following along and asking how can I make my space more accessible today? Have a great week!