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The Impact of Group Size on the Behaviour and Involvement of Male Mature Students in Tutorless Seminars
Author(s) -
Kniveton Bromley H.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192920180306
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , psychology , group (periodic table) , observational study , social psychology , mathematics education , medicine , communication , chemistry , organic chemistry , pathology
Current demands to increase the number of student places without a commensurate increase in resources have forced academics to seek ways of becoming more ‘efficient’. Increasingly, tutorless seminar groups are seen as a way of doing this. Group size has been shown, in other contexts, to affect individual participation. One hundred and nine male mature students in small seminar group sizes of 3 were compared to those in larger groups of approximately 6. Observational measures of behaviour were made and all students completed a questionnaire. It was found that large groups were more negative, felt less satisfied and were less involved and that they had less influence on the discussion than the small groups. It is suggested that the results imply being a member of a larger seminar group is a less satisfactory experience for a student than being a member of a small group.