Now you have found your study group. You are getting go know them, so you are excited and look forward to beginning your group work – you probably also hold back a little with your strong attitude, opinions, and ideas.
The first steps in your group work
Now you must begin to make the structures of your teamwork, balance your expectations, and begin to get to know each other. You will experience that you are all more focused on getting to know each other and finding out if you work well together than on your tasks.
Spend some time on matching your expectations
Spend some time on matching your expectations, creating structure, and working with roles in the group. It might seem time-consuming, but it will be worth it once you get your new teamwork going, and in the end, it will help you to learn and evolve throughout your studies.
Once politeness is thrown out the window and you begin feeling obligated to put your foot down when you don’t agree, you are headed toward the Storming phase. See Good advice on study group habits.
The purpose is to match your expectations.
You each come with your different experiences with group work. Your differences really benefit the group work, but they can also become a challenge if you don’t talk about your differences, experiences, and expectations for the study group.
Try Which working method do you prefer, My personal strengths, and Role types.
Agree on how the group’s teamwork is going to work. Through the exercises you have done, you have talked about your expectations for some important topics that mean something for your teamwork. With those talks, discussions, and “aha” experiences you are now ready to make your group’s declaration of intent.
At one of your first study group meetings, you need to talk about how you want to go about your meetings. Try some different methods until you find the one that works best for you.
Eventually, as you become more experienced in your studies and with each other, you can change the methods that might not work as well anymore and find new methods.
Try Meaningful meetings and Check-in/Check-out
See Agenda with and without a facilitator and Good advice for the facilitator
The material is made by The Student Guidance Service at the Faculty of Humanities based on Bruce Tuckman’s model “Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing.”
The exercises are made with inspiration from the books “Studiegruppen” by Annelise Dahlbæk and “Anerkendende procesøvelser” by Pia Halkier Bjerring & Annika Lindén.