Measuring Healthy Group Dynamics

Credit: iStock.com/Jacob Ammentorp Lund
Credit: iStock.com/Jacob Ammentorp Lund
The importance of small group dynamics is hard to overstate. Group functioning directly influences how well students learn the content, what they learn about working with others, and the attitudes they take with them from the experience. Most groups experience problems; while they usually start small, they’ll likely grow larger if left unaddressed. Being new to collaborative work, students don’t always recognize unhealthy group dynamics or know how to respond to them. Fortunately, researchers (O’Neill et al., 2018) have developed a measure that students can use to assess the health of their team. It “defines effective team health in terms of communication, adaptability, relationships and education,” or CARE (O’Neill et al., 2020, p. 1122). The first iteration of the instrument contained 64 items. The goal of this research was to create a shorter version (dubbed Bare CARE) that still produced stable and robust results.

To continue reading, you must be a Teaching Professor Subscriber. Please log in or sign up for full access.

One Response

  1. I have students complete peer evaluations in some of my courses and the workload for me to compile all the info is a lot sometimes. Therefore, I was very excited to see the survey on ITPmetrics.com. It looks amazing and very useful for the instructor as well as the student. However, upon signing up to use the site, I read over their privacy information and was surprised how much information they collect when you are using their site. I don’t feel comfortable now having my students use this site. How disappointing :(

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles

I have two loves: teaching and learning. Although I love them for different reasons, I’ve been passionate about...
Active learning is a mostly meaningless educational buzzword. It’s a feel-good, intuitively popular term that indicates concern for...
Perhaps the earliest introduction a student has with a course is the syllabus as it’s generally the first...
Generative AI allows instructors to create interactive, self-directed review activities for their courses. The beauty of these activities...
I’ve often felt that a teacher’s life is suspended, Janus-like, between past experiences and future hopes; it’s only...
I teach first-year writing at a small liberal arts college, and on the first day of class, I...
Proponents of rubrics champion them as a means of ensuring consistency in grading, not only between students within...

Get unlimited access to The Teaching Professor

Stay informed. Subscribe Now.

WELCOME OFFER

$19.95 $14.95/month

Billed as $14.95 every month for your first 6 months, then $19.95 thereafter. Cancel or pause anytime.

Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Teaching Professor

You only have  free article views remaining.

WELCOME OFFER

$19.95 $14.95/month

for your first 6 months.

$19.95 a month thereafter. Cancel or pause anytime.

Create a free account, or log in.

Gain access to limited free articles, news alerts, and select newsletters

Login here

Are you signed up for free weekly Teaching Professor updates?

You'll get notified of the newest articles.