Large and Small Group Facilitation Techniques

Facilitation: The act of assisting (or ease) the progress and/or improvement of projects.

Groups will not typically facilitate themselves. Do not assume group facility will emerge in the absence of your conscious attention to facilitation techniques and skills that support effective group dynamics. Become aware and apply the techniques and tips below right away. Why? A great deal of student buy-in (or lack thereof) will take place within the first two weeks or so of your any group you are leading. An effective leader plans thoughtful processes aligned with goals. Facilitating these processes requires awareness of various skills and dynamics that can affect the group’s capacity to effectively enact even the most meticulously planned activity.

Establish and Apply Norms

Norms are principles and behaviors established by the group to guide how members interact with each other. Leaders or members may assume that establishing norms is unnecessary and these things just take care of themselves. Establish and live the norms. Norms are easy to establish, and establishing, living and revisiting them will help your group be healthy, harmonious and productive

Check-Ins

This is a facilitation strategy that enables a group to continuously build relationships, engage in periodic “climate checks”, discuss common issues or just have a bit of fun before diving into an activity.

 You can start each session with a “check-in” –a check-in is a short question or prompt that each group member quickly and succinctly responds to. You can have the entire group participate in check-in as a large group or (to save time and preserve engagement) you might have check-ins within a smaller group and then a quick report-out. Here are just a few example; the possibilities are endless.

o Academic . Rate your understanding of a particular topic within a class from 1-10 . What is one thing you really understand and one thing you are confused about in this week’s Chemistry material? o University Engagement – what have you participated in so far on campus and how was it (lame, OK, very good, awesome). o Advising – Have you met with your advisor yet? o Group Dynamics – Rate how we are doing with our norms from 1-10? What are we doing well? What can we improve? What has been your favorite activity so far? What would you like to do that we have not done yet? o Silly - What is your absolute favorite snack in the universe?

If you have a larger group, you can do check-ins and/or closings in small groups (to save a bit of time) and then have someone from each small group summarize. Remind the groups to keep group norms in mind!

Check-ins:  Put relationships first and help everybody to get to know each other better and to remember everyone’s names!  Can help the group to continually monitor the quality of its processes and progress on goals.  Build in good facilitation strategies such as sharing air time (everybody talks), listening and getting feedback.

Speak clearly and deliberately; use effective prompts

How clearly and precisely – and with what tone - you convey a message and/or introduce an activity is vital. It can set the stage for success or for disappointment. Consider what you are going to say to introduce an activity before you do so. Write it out beforehand (and/or rehearse to a friend), make sure the language is coincides with the message you want to get across and check the tone. Make sure your body language is positive and your tone enthusiastic.

If you will be conducting an interactive group activity such as a discussion or group study session, carefully design the questions or study prompts you will use. The clarity of a question and how it is posed will affect the quality and depth of responses. Keep in mind also that norms regarding expectations of participation and listening can also have a strong positive impact on the quality of discussion. Remind the group of the norms and/or appoint a norms monitor.

Utilize a variety of small group formats and sizes

Do not rely exclusively on large group. Do not rely exclusively on large group. Do not rely exclusively on large group. This is not a typo. Certainly, there is a time and place for large group processes in meetings but many of the students will feel bored, disengaged and excluded if you exclusively facilitate in a large group setting. Your goal as a facilitator is to involve and engage everybody. Moreover, larger groups are very hard to manage. Smaller group processes allow more people to be authentically engaged. Interpersonal communication literature defines the optimum group size as between 3 and 6. Breaking large groups into smaller groups opens up possibilities of more participation and more ownership by each student, and of the cultivation of co-leadership in the group. As a Peer Educator, you need to develop the skill of facilitating small group activities. The chart below suggests a variety of ideas for utilizing small groups. You may find this to be especially applicable to study groups but it can be adapted to many activities. Be creative and ask students for their ideas and preferences.

Small Group Facilitation Tips and Suggestions Technique Example Have students work together to create solutions to a problem and the present them to Brainstorm the larger group. Break students into groups and ask them to discuss what they perceive to be the best Case Study course of action for a sample situation. Designate the four corners of the room as representing particular topics or subjects – for example a particular Math or Chemistry problem or segment of a chapter in a textbook. Have the group members solve the problem (or explain the material) and present findings. Corners Alternatively, designate each corner as a particular problem or subject area and have members choose the corner pertaining to where they are having issues or where they are an expert. Break the room up into groups of three to learn about three topics related to one subject. Each group member becomes an expert on the topic. They pair up with other people in Jigsaw the room who are also experts to share their ideas. After pairing with three different people, the group comes back together to teach the group about their part of the subject. Ask small groups of students to prepare a lecture to present to the group, allowing them Lecture to become experts. Each person initially writes on a topic using a prompt. Each person them pairs with another to share their information – alternating speaking and listening roles. The listener Pair/Share reiterates what they've heard. This Promotes active listening, sharing of ideas and voicing of any confusion in a comfortable setting. Same as Pair/Share, but the two pair up with another two and each dyad shares with Pair/Share/Square another dyad. Pair students and have them quiz each other on problems or questions from lecture notes and/or texts. This activity gets students thinking about what they already know and what Paired Quiz they need to know in more detail. Explaining something to another person is a powerful form of enhancing understanding and/or unearthing confusion. If there is a group short reading, the facilitator can read the first paragraph out loud and Popcorn Reading then ask community members to “pop out” of their seats to read subsequent paragraphs. Have small groups discuss how they may apply something learned in class to another Application Q & A setting or situation. This would be an excellent thing to do with guests who already have professional experience in a particular area. Quick Write Ask students to briefly write about a recent task to allow for reflection. Have students rank a list of things from most important to least. Then ask students to stand in a line based on where they ranked a specific item from the list. Each group can Ranking discuss with each other and the group why they would rank such an item as having great or little importance. Small-Group Have students discuss a topic in small groups. Ask one person in each group to report to Discussion the whole group a summary of the discussion. *Source: Robin Middleton: “Empowering Students to get On Course”