Resumen de Group Teaching Strategies for Promoting Individual Skills in Problem‐Solving
An innovative method for conducting a course in plant anatomy, using a variety of audiovisual media, has already been described (Brewer, 1977a); it was given the acronym SIMIG — self instructional modules and interactive groups.
This paper provides evidence for the effectiveness of this instructional technique. From 1972‐77 comparable samples of students were exposed to the course. Their performance in formative (progressive) assessment by group quizzes and in summative assessment (by final examination) were recorded in such a way that comparisons could be made between the examination scores in successive years, and especially in the solution of problem questions. At the same time the group quizzes which are an essential component of the technique were refined over the six years and the proportion of quiz items requiring skill in simple problem‐solving was increased from one to 27 per cent, with a corresponding decrease from 72 to 33 per cent in the proportion of quizzes requiring only a recall of knowledge. Similarly, the proportions of complex problem questions in examination increased from 40 per cent in 1972 to 76 percent in 1977.
The analysis shows a highly significant improvement in the capacity to answer questions in final examination which involve problem‐solving, and a correlation between this improvement and the strategies used in small group teaching. Although solution of examination problems requires multiple chain thought processes, these were neither taught nor practised in groups, but were presented for the first time in final examinations. Nonetheless, the component skills and strategies required were practised first individually in the group and then collectively by group members. The evidence presented supports the hypothesis that individual and group experiences with skills of comprehension, application and simple problems requiring double or triple unit operations is an effective strategy for the development of competence of individual students in solving complex problems in this discipline.
