Contextual Influences on the Formation and Behaviour of Out-of-class Study Groups

This article presents four case studies which show that the out-of-class learning approaches of student groups are influenced by the students’ perception of the context and the content of their learning. Group learning approaches are characterised on a spectrum between engager behaviour, in which the group members collaborate to enhance each others understanding of content, to avoider behaviour, where the joint activity aims to minimise the...