Source: The Daily Beast
Discussing the topics you’re learning about can be one of the best ways to cement the information in your mind. But it can be tough to get a good group together and to keep it running throughout the length of a class: people learn at different speeds, schedule changes come up and sometimes you wind up working with a fellow student who just isn’t as committed to the class as you are.
But creating a discussion group is worthwhile — even if you’re taking an online class or a class not for credit — because of the deeper understanding you can gain. The effort of overcoming the potential problems will pay off.
Here are four strategies for building your successful discussion group:
Create a Structured Group
It may be easy to tell your peers that you just want to get together and chat about the coursework when ever it’s convenient, but that sort of approach will only get you one meeting, at best. Treat organizing your study group as a serious matter. If the classmates who you’ve recruited don’t take the idea as seriously as you do, find new members to bring in. Set a standing time every week for your group to meet. You should even consider ways to structure the discussion, like asking everyone to bring a question to ask the group.
Assign a Group Leader
Someone has to be in charge when the discussion gets off topic and steer the group back on track. It’s hard to do, especially when a tangent is interesting, but it’s necessary. If you’re not sure that you can take on that role, consider asking another person to help make sure the group stays focused.
Choose Study Partners Who Do Well
Don’t be afraid to ask people who are busy or seem far ahead of you on the assignments to join your discussion group. The people who often do the best in college have a lot on their plates, but are able to manage their time effectively. If you can show them that your discussion group is going to help them learn the material better, they’ll be willing to attend.
Encourage Participation
Don’t ever be afraid of looking bad within a discussion group — unless it’s for not doing the work. Going over the material together gives you and your classmates an opportunity to clear up any pieces that each of you don’t understand. You need to maintain a group attitude that encourages questions, even if some seem too basic to put in front of the group. With that mindset in place, it will be easier for the whole group to learn.