This exercise may be used to divide the students in a course into groups based on their fields of study. The exercise will ensure that several subjects are represented in each study group, causing the students to benefit from their different academic competences and strengths.
The purpose of the exercise is to create new study groups and is particularly useful in interdisciplinary courses, where it may bring the students’ diverse competences into play. The exercise causes the students to reflect on and communicate the importance of their own academic competences and what these may contribute. At the same time, they learn about the other academic competences represented in the group. The exercise explains and simplifies the jigsaw puzzle that may otherwise be involved in forming meaningful study groups.
As a teacher, you must introduce and facilitate the exercise.
The students should reflect for ten minutes on the following questions and write their answers in a sheet of paper:
What are the most important things you have learnt so far in your studies?
What do you notice in particular from your discipline-specific angle?
The students now move to stand in a circle and take turns to say their names and fields of study.
The students then team up with students from the same field of study. If a student does not share their field of study with any other students, they should team up with the students of the field of study that most resembles their own.
In the individual groups, the students share their reflections with each other. They should prepare a two- to three-minute presentation about their field of study and share this with their fellow students.
After the presentation round, the students should team up in study groups based on the following criteria:
Three to five students per group;
a minimum of three fields of study should be represented in each group.
Complete the exercise by summarising the students’ experience of this group formation process in class.
The first and individual part of the activity may be carried out by the students as homework.
How many students are there in the class?
How much time should be set aside for the exercise?
