Small Group Teaching
NEW: A vision for education and skills at Newcastle University: Education for Life 2030+
Small Group Teaching
Small group teaching in Higher Education involves structured learning with a limited number of students (recognising that what counts as a ‘small group’ varies across disciplines), typically in seminars, tutorials, workshops, or problem-based learning sessions. It emphasises active participation, dialogue, and collaboration rather than passive listening. Its purpose is to deepen understanding through discussion, practice, and timely feedback.
Why small group teaching works
Small group teaching is central to effective learning in Higher Education. Small group learning can:
- Increase student engagement and motivation
- Support deep learning rather than surface learning
- Enable dialogue, questioning, and feedback
- Help students learn with and from each other
Designing effective learning outcomes
Start by asking ‘what should students be able to do by the end of the session?’
How does this connect to the wider teaching in lectures and assessment?
Write outcomes in active terms, for example:
- Analyse a case using theory x
- Compare two perspectives
- Apply a framework to an authentic problem
Case-based learning
Use short cases the messier the better no perfect answer preferably. Works well if roles are assigned (particularly when introducing small group work in earlier stages of programme learning) e.g., chair, scribe, challenger. Asks the groups to justify any decisions made and be clear they not just stating a decision. This approach encourages learning by doing and mirrors professional practice.
Student-led seminars
Provide a clear brief for small groups to design an activity for other students based on a key theme, theory, or research area to be explored in future sessions. Build into the brief the feedback opportunities from peers and facilitator.
Benefits: This encourages creativity, active learning, and avoids presentation fatigue by shifting the focus from presenting to engaging peers.
Assessment rehearsals
Assessment-driven learning engages students by making expectations explicit and demystifying the assessment process, helping to reduce anxiety and uncertainty. Using elements of previous assessments in small groups allows students to actively explore criteria and standards. Activities might include analysing an essay question, marking a sample assignment and generating group feedback, or collaboratively creating an outline plan for a written assessment.
Practical considerations
Encouraging participation
- Keep groups as small as possible 3-5 people work best
- Give clear written task instructions
- Allocate roles to prevent dominance and this also provide a clear point of contribution
Inclusive practice
- Acknowledge different cultural expectations of participation before starting the activity
- Make expectations explicit
- Vary the outputs of the group task written, verbal, visual
Facilitate the learning don’t transmit
In small group tasks the lecturer is facilitator. Tempting as it can be to just talk and intervene take a step back your work is done mainly in the preparation phase.
- Listen more than talk in these sessions
- Ask open questions
- Give short, targeted verbal feedback
- Make the learning explicit – ‘What are we learning here?’
Small group teaching works best when it is purposeful, active and feedback rich. The focus should always be on what students are doing, not just what teachers are saying.