Learning sets fall within a wider category of group work. And with all group work there are benefits and challenges, rewards and risks.
In 2014, a learning set on a professional development module (Evaluating and Investigating your Teaching in Higher Education, Brookes P70409) investigated group work. The following gratefully summarises their work.
Group work is widetly regarded as beneficial. Co-operation and collaboration leads to improved learning outcomes (Chikering and Gamson 1987). Participants develop important social cognitive & reasoning skills. Group work leads to better learning, better retaining of information than individual teaching, and (sometimes) better satisfaction (Sawyer & de Zutter, 2009, Kyprianidou et al., 2011, Littleton & Mercer, 2013). Participants become active learners & create knowledge, instead of being passive recipients of knowledge (Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1992, cited in Mitchell et al., 2004). Employers are asking for skills related to team-working (Morey et al., 2002, cited in Gordon). Groups should be formed & managed in an effective way, Students should be responsible for the quality of group & individual work. Feedback should be given to participants frequently. Activity needs to promote group development and cohesion as well addressing subject matter or task (Michaelsen & Sweet 2008).
Groups can share common challenges arising from members' possible approaches, among which are:
Facilittion or coaching may be required to prefer more valued approaches such as collegial, co-operative, collaborative, or critical.
Gordon, J. The Group, the Team and the Task Force: The enhancement of group work as a teaching methodology. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/subjects/
Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec (2009). Strategies for promoting and managing effective group work. Quality Learning and Teaching Induction & Early Professional Development.
Littleton, K. & Mercer, N. (2013). Interthinking: Putting talk to work. Abingdon: Routledge.
Michaelsen, L.K., & Sweet, M. (2008) The Essential Elements of Team-Based Learning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no 116, DOI: 10/1002/tl.330.
Mitchell, S.N., Reilly, R., Bramwell, F.G., Solnosky, A., & Lilly, F. (2004) Friendship and Choosing Groupmates: Preferences for Teacher-Selected vs. Student-Selected Groupings in High School Science Classes. Journal of Instructional Psychology, Vol 31, no 1, pp. 20-32
Kyprianidou, M., Demetriadis, S., Tsiatso, T., & Pombortsis, A. (2012) Group formation based on learning styles: can it improve students’ teamwork? Education Tech Research Development, Vol 60, 83-110.
Wilson, J.M., Goodman, P.S., Cronin, M.A. (2007) Group Learning. Academy of Management Review, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 1041-1059