5 Groups

Successful execution of group work should be supported with evidence and best practices on what fosters an effective team. Features of effective groups include intra-team diversity to bring varying perspectives to challenges and tasks, an absence of existing coalitions or conflict, and time for the members to develop functional strategies and dynamics to work with each other. In order to facilitate functional team dynamics, teams should be selected by the instructor, teams should be diverse, all teams should have a balance of strengths, the teams should be 5-7 students and the teams must be consistent throughout the duration of the course (Brickell et al., 1994; Feichtner & Davis, 1984; Sibley & Ostafichuk, 2015).

Creating diverse, functional teams with students you are not familiar with can be a challenge. Depending on your course, you may have students who are an established program cohort, or students who have never met each other and are taking a common course between different programs.

It is suggested that an even distribution of attributes and characteristics such as age, work experience, academic experience, culture and research interests be considered and distributed randomly between the groups (Sibley & Ostafichuk, 2015). In the context of a program cohort where some of these characteristics may be more homogenous, the personality typing program, True Colors could be used to distribute individuals with differing priorities, communication styles and team interactions.