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Pamela McKinney explores student conceptions of group work in drawing the group


Pamela McKinney of the Information School has undertaken a project, which explores student’s perceptions of group work and how they work with each other in formally assessed, and casual group work situations. In order to research this complex topic Pamela adopted the “Draw and Write” methodology first designed by Jenna Hartel from the University of Toronto to investigate student conceptions of information.


Students from across the Information School were asked to create a drawing on a square piece of paper (10cm x 10cm) called an ‘isquare’ that describes or shows their conception of a phenomena, in this case their experience of group work.  They were then asked to write a brief description on the other side of the isquare of what their drawing represents.  This unusual data collection methodology led to the creation of rich qualitative data that gave an interesting insight into what students think about group work.  This builds on Pamela’s research analysing student’s reflective writing about their experiences of working in a group.


More information on the project and analysis can be found here. The findings from the project will be reported at the 2016 University of Sheffield Learning and Teaching conference on 7 January 2016 and the SURE showcase event in February 2016.   



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