Benefits of Group Study for Children
Group study is one of the keys to helping make school life more bearable for children. When it comes to education, it’s easy for children to fall into stages of apathy and lack of motivation, especially during adolescence.
At this complicated stage, dropping out may seem like a viable option for them. The important thing here is to listen to them and offer solutions to help them face their duties in the best possible way.
While it’s true that group study has a lot of benefits, the fact of the matter is that it isn’t always easy to make it work. It’s necessary to define goals correctly, divide the work, and take advantage of each member’s capacities.
At the end of the day, it’s a collaborative effort that will also help them face life, as we have to coexist with people who are very different from us and it’s very rewarding to learn to interact with all of them.
Let’s make teams
When it comes to group study, you must take some premises into account, as they ensure that it’ll work in the best possible way. The size, organization, or resources are some of the points we’ll discuss to ensure that everything flows smoothly.
Richard Hackman, an acclaimed organizational psychology professor and researcher at Harvard University, dedicated himself to studying collaborative intelligence and the way that teamwork can benefit us.
He concluded that, for teamwork to be positive, you have to take into account five main points, which he called the “five factor model.”
Five factor model
- To form a good team, each of its components must fully understand the tasks they’re responsible for. Thus, one member can focus on research, others make summaries, and one draws conclusions. The important thing is for everyone to have a role and be 100% proactive. In a nutshell, this model is about working as a team and playing your part with commitment.
- Being a real team. All the team members must share the same vision, advancing and working towards a shared goal. The team must define its goals clearly and remember that they’ll have to deal with challenges sooner or later. In this regard, we should clarify that if the group is well-formed, its members will stay motivated.
- Small teams work better and in a more organized way. It’s always easier to agree with a few people than with many. In addition, in large groups, you can fall prey to the passivity of some of the team members.
- When you study in a group, you should have the necessary resources. This ensures that you’ll get the job done in an easy way. Guides, books, online information, and summaries written by team members are good options. Today, young people use technology for everything and they can resort to some helpful learning applications.
- The support or collaboration of a guide or teacher is an important part of group study. A teacher or guide can provide feedback on the acquired knowledge, which helps maintain the children motivated and driven.
Some benefits of group study
- Motivation. The synergy between group members can trigger a positive effect between them and a commitment that will keep them positive and eager to reach shared goals.
- Learning from conflict. As long as it’s controlled and focused on achieving goals, conflict always leads people to seek creative solutions that will create group harmony.
- Experiencing roles. Seeing how it feels to be a leader or how to better complete the assigned tasks is a great way to get to know yourself better. It’s very necessary for children to experience different roles.
Group study can be very positive and success is guaranteed if you follow the tips we shared in this article. Working with peers always makes children learn and improve. Socialization is an essential part of young people’s development, which is why group study is a very effective technique.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Cartwright, D., y Zander, A. (1992). Dinámica de grupos: Investigación y teoría. México: Trillas.
- Editorial Vértice. (2008). Técnicas de estudio. Editorial Vértice.
- Huici, C. (2012b). Los procesos de decisión en grupos. En C. Huici, F. Molero Alonso, A. Gómez y J. F. Morales (Eds.), Psicología de los grupos (pp. 373-426). Madrid: UNED.
