Big Results from Small Groups

Member training and development are shared responsibilities between AmeriCorps program staff, site supervisors, training coordinators, and trainers. TrainingBriefs are designed to provide these individuals with useful information and innovative ideas for member training and development.
Cooperative Learning Roles

Facilitator - ensures group stays on task, participates last

Recorder - takes notes and/or prepares the newsprint

Reporter - shares the small group's work with the full group

Timekeeper - ensures the group completes tasks within the allotted time

Observer - reports on the group members' interactions

Small groups
Optimally, small groups should have 3-5 members. While pairs ensure the highest participation, small groups offer interaction with more members, exposure to varied experiences, and more in-depth discussions.

Large groups
Large groups of six members or more make it difficult to use interactive training techniques appropriately. Large groups discourage participation, limit access to varied information, decrease personal contact, and inhibit the development of team spirit. Large groups make it easy for one or two inactive members to rely on others in their group to do the work.

Need Help?

MOSAICA provides telephone technical assistance free of charge to all Corporation-funded programs on their training concerns. Call Diane Cabrales at: (202) 887-0620.

A Useful Resource

MOSAICA developed Starting Strong: A Guide to Pre-Service Training to help AmeriCorps programs plan and deliver effective pre-service training. Its user-friendly approach is perfect for staff with limited training experience. The manual explains in detail how to design effective training, and provides over 35 sample training activities (also included on disk) that can easily be modified to reflect program needs.

Request a copy from the National Service Resource Center at ETR.

TrainingBriefs are produced by MOSAICA, under Cooperative Agreement #CA95-15 with CNS. This TrainingBrief written by Marilyn Noguera, Training Specialist, and Diane Cabrales, Project Director. This material represents the opinion of MOSAICA, and does not necessarily represent official Corporation policy.

To begin or stop receiving MOSAICA's TrainingBriefs by fax, or find out about training and other available assistance, contact: Diane Cabrales, Project Director, MOSAICA, 1000 16th Street, N.W., Suite 604, Washington, DC, 20036, telephone (202) 887-0620, fax (202) 887-0812, e-mail mosaica@ix.netcom.com

Small groups provide a valuable training tool that can simultaneously transmit information, teach project-specific as well as general skills, and reinforce the "sense of team" among members. With limited time and resources for training, program staff and site supervisors find that having members work in small groups during training sessions maximizes learning and provides supplementary benefits to their member development efforts as well. Members enjoy working in small groups during training because they have more opportunities to participate and share ideas with their fellow members. 

Small groups maximize learning. Research shows that experiential learning maximizes retention in adult learners. Small groups provide a natural forum for discussion groups and for teaching others, two methods which offer high retention rates (see the Pyramid).

Assign roles within the small groups. Small groups are most effective when members have clearly defined roles and tasks. Some members may not be familiar with group work. To ensure success in using small groups during training, introduce cooperative learning roles and use them for all group work. (see box at right for more information and Starting Strong, p. 197.) Once each person knows her/his role, the group functions better and is more productive.

Small groups provide many other benefits in training:

Small groups encourage members to participate actively in learning. The smaller the group, the more opportunity each individual has to participate actively and contribute her/his ideas and opinions. Less outspoken or shy members find it easier and more comfortable to contribute to discussions. Small groups give all members a chance to offer their input, not just the vocal or outspoken members. This helps to increase the diversity of opinions and the views discussed.

Small groups foster teamwork among members. Working in small groups during training (to address on an issue affecting member assignments or a case study relevant to the program) members establish a sense of trust that makes them more comfortable working together in the future.

Small group work encourages members from different assignments or sites to see each other as resources and contact each other more often. Since members are expected to work collaboratively in their service assignments, using small groups in training also models and provides a safe place to practice behaviors they should be using every day.

Small groups can cover different material simultaneously.  Each small group can focus on different aspects of a topic; for example, in training on how to involve the community in a Martin Luther King Day service project, group one could focus on recruiting teens, group two on college students, group three on adults, and group four on elderly. The small groups then share their approaches so that all members have some familiarity with each recruitment category. Many ideas may be similar, but the differences will help point out the differences within these targeted sections of the community. The small groups could then become work teams responsible for recruiting each population.

Assigning roles within small groups makes members responsible for learning. Using cooperative learning roles focuses training activities on the members, who take responsibility for their own learning and for that of their peers. As a group, they are responsible for problem solving, answering questions, helping others, creating a positive atmosphere, and working with the trainer, who serves the role of a facilitator, consultant, or coach.

Small groups tap into the collective knowledge and experience members bring to training. With more opportunities to participate and give input, working in small groups facilitates meaningful exchanges of knowledge, opinions, and ideas among peers and increases the relevance of training activities to member needs.

Activity: Experts as Resources

Purpose:
To use outside experts as resource people and learn by teaching others.

Procedure:
Invite resource people (experts on topics related to your members' service assignments, such as tutoring elementary school children in reading) to your training session, and prepare each to act as an informational resource to the members of a small group.

Divide your members into small groups, and assign cooperative learning roles to each. Assign each group a topic (e.g., Using Magazines for Reading Improvement, How Children Learn to Read, Getting Parents to Help, Increasing Self-Confidence among Students) and give each group 3 minutes to brainstorm related questions. Then introduce each group to its assigned resource person and give it 15-20 minutes to ask questions and discuss its topic with the resource person.

Then have each group take 10 minutes to prepare a presentation about its topic. Its presentation should focus on the 3-5 most important facts the group learned during its discussion, and how members will apply their new knowledge to their AmeriCorps assignments.

Give each group 5 minutes to present a lesson on its topic. The resource persons should remain for the presentation to answer any further questions that may arise from the presentations.