The Power of Group Learning

Come and experience it for yourselves

As I, like everybody else, have spent more time alone than normal due to ‘lockdown’, I have allocated some of my time to looking into learning in groups. I have done this to discover the benefits of learning in groups as opposed to one-on-one and to see if there are any detrimental elements to group learning from remote locations when compared to all delegates being in one location. It has been a fascinating read.

Teaching and learning in small groups has a valuable part to play in the all-round development of delegates. It allows them to negotiate meanings, express themselves in the language of the subject and establish a more intimate understanding of the material than one-on-one training does. It helps to enhance the vital skills of listening, presenting ideas and, where challenge and discourse are encouraged, persuasion. And it also promotes one of the most fundamental benefits to embedding understanding: co-operation.

Co-operation is a key word in learning in groups, it seems. Co-operation will help to sharpen the appetite for discussion and further learning in most delegates. It also means that each and every member of the group will be more likely to take an active role for the overall success of each part of the session. As people learn best when they are personally involved in the learning experience, you can see how taking an active role is of huge significance and how much easier it will be for a group to achieve learning objectives within the session and maintain the hunger and motivation to embed the learning as quickly as possible on their return to work.

Let us have a look at some of the other benefits of groups.

When a group is constructed, its members are immediately aware of the existence of the group as an entity. This is so strong that the sense of ‘group’ persists even when members are not in the same physical location. Groups are largely made up of people with shared or similar aims and the members are motivated by the achievement of these aims AS A GROUP and members want to remain within the group and contribute to its overall wellbeing. Regarding learning, then, the group is an exceedingly powerful unit – members are not simply learning from the tutor or presenter – they are learning from the other members of the group at the same time, accelerating learning and deepening commitment.

So, for me, the key benefits from learning as a group are

• ·      Co-Operation – people learn best when they are personally involved
• ·      Powerful – not just learning from the tutor, but from each other
• ·      Lasting – the sense of a ‘group’ survives even when delegates are remote from each other

This is all very heartening in the current climate. It means that the work we do at The Forum – educating, spreading best practice, supporting continual professional development – are all able to continue and maybe even thrive as we move into a more virtual world. We are launching our Assisted Learning Pathways on 8th June – groups or cohorts going through a 6-month group learning programme with a virtual launch week and regular group tutorials making sure that everybody networks and learns from their fellow delegates. Places are limited but still available – please get in touch with me today via david.preece@theforum.social.