Guidelines for Math/Stat Course Study Groups

John Zweck

What is a Course Study Group?

I recommend students form a course study group for courses for which there is not a formal discussion session. Course study groups should be run along the same lines as a discussion session, except that there is no TA. Instead the leadership comes from within the group.

Course study groups are different from groups that form spontaneously among friends who are all taking the same class together. In fact, one of their goals is to provide a group-work environment for students who otherwise do not have the opportunity to actively work with others on the course material.

The goals of a course study group are the following:

To go over homework problems that have already been graded and handed back to students.
To create opportunities for students to explain the important concepts in the course to each other.
To practice speaking about mathematics and statistics with each other using English
To learn from each other. This requires good active listening skills. Active listening involves asking questions to seek clarification, until the listener both understands the material and is convinced that the speaker understands the material too.
To increase understanding and confidence in the material for all students.
To help prepare individuals for exams.
Course study groups should NOT be used to work on homework problems that have yet to be handed in. This rule should be strictly adhered to in order to minimize cheating and plagarism.

Guidleines for Effective Course Study Groups

I recommend that participants of study groups adhere to the following general guidelines. (I would appreciate feedback on these guidelines and suggestions for additional guidelines based on your concrete experiences.)

Groups should meet once a week for about 1 hour at the same time and in the same place each week.
The meeting time should be chosen to maximize participation.
Meet in a classroom if possible. The course lecturer can help arrange to book a room.
It may be appropriate for a course to have more than one course study group.
A facilitator should be chosen for each week, in a rotating fashion. The course lecturer shall appoint the facilitator for the first meeting, and each week the current facilitator will be responsible for making sure the group elects a facilitator for the next meeting.
The role of the facilitator is to inform students of the meeting time and location (if different from usual) and make sure a room has been booked. In addition the facilitator shall moderate the discussion as described in the following bullets.
The most important rule is that all participants shall show respect for the other participants.
All participants should be given the opportunity to speak during each session. If the group is too large, it could be split into 2 or more subgroups, which should ideally change from week to week.
Each week, students should come prepared with a list of questions/topics they want to discuss.
In the first 5 minutes of a session, the facilitator should compile a list of the board of the topics to be discussed, based on each person's individual list. People should volunteer to present one/more topics each. This way, the whole group has an idea of what will be covered on any given day.
One person in each group shall play the role of the recorder. This person will take notes of the discussion. These can be photocopied for all participants, and a copy should also be given to the course lecturer to get feedback.
Any unresolved issues shall be noted by the recorder. Participants should follow up on these before the next meeting and report back to the full group. In particular, the group can seek clarification from the lecturer when required.
To discuss old homework, I suggest students take turns presenting at the blackboard. The presenter should be fairly confident they can at least start the problem. When they get stuck, others can help out. The goal here is to start a group discussion to increase everyone's understanding of the problem. Even if you think you understand a problem, there is probably something new you can learn by listening to another's perspective.
Try to catch each others mistake, but do so in a respectful way.
A great way to work on mastering concepts is to split into twos. Have one person as speaker and the other as listener. The speaker's job is to explain the concept as well as possible. The listener can ONLY ask questions of the speaker, to help the speaker clarify things better. After a short session of one-on-one work like this, the whole group can reconvene and compare notes.