How Group Dynamics Research Can Inform the Theory and Practice of Postsecondary Small Group Learning

After a brief review of integrative small group learning models that have appeared in the educational psychology literature, this article then looks into the group dynamics literature and describes one of that field’s most well-documented findings: that interactions among group members change somewhat predictably over time. How theorists from various traditions within educational psychologymight explain and explore the phenomenon of “group development” is proposed, followed by a description of the theoretical and practical features of an increasingly popular post-secondary instructional strategy designed to stimulate group development and leverage it to instructional ends. This strategy is a very specific form of collaborative learning called Team-Based Learning (TBL), and is considered as a promising context for future research into learning group development.