Helping Teams Function Smoothly
Harmin (1994) feels that letting teams self-select has many advantages. Teams form quickly and students learn how to respond when others reach out to them. Many teachers prefer this method of forming teams even though it can present some problems. On the other hand, you may prefer to assign students to teams, but even this approach may not prevent problems from developing. Below are some common problems, followed by suggestions from Harmin (1994) and others.

Problems When Teams Self-Select
Students keep choosing the same people for their groups, and cliques are beginning to form. Harmin (1994) advises you to urge the students to get to know and work with more than just a few students. You can strongly suggest that students risk asking someone they haven't worked with before to be their partner or ask if they would prefer to have you do it. Occasionally, if all else fails, you can direct some students to not sit with each other again for the next two weeks.

Nobody wants to sit with one of the students in the class, and you have had to intervene several times to get the outsider into a team. Harmin (1994) suggests speaking privately to a few of the students with whom you have a good relationship. You should ask them if they've noticed that all students aren't readily accepted by others when teams are formed. Suggest that they go out of their way to look for students who are being left out. In this way they would be modeling for the rest of the class the supportive team spirit that is so vital to teamwork. It is not necessary to mention the left-out student by name (Harmin, 1994).

Slower students always sit together and cannot do some of the academic work. Harmin (1994) advises that you suggest that these students pick different partners in the future and remind them to ask other teams for help whenever they reach an impass.

Problems That Can Develop in Any Team
A few students persist in gossiping and doing little work in their teams. Harmin (1994, p. 98) says, "Don't 'complain or scold;' those tactics will likely be counterproductive." He suggests you resist intervening the first time you notice the behavior. If the behavior continues, simply walk over to the students and calmly point out that they are responsible for their learning and that they need to get down to work. If this does not work, again skip any warning such as "I'll change your teams if you do not settle down to work," and simply announce that because you want everyone to learn in class, you want them to choose other students to work with during the next two weeks.

One person takes over while others sit back and say little. Maintaining individual accountability will help prevent this from occurring. An individual report, demonstration, or final product will hold each team member accountable for his or her participation. In addition, you may want to randomly call on individuals to give an update or summarize the main points of a reading or discussion.

Group expectations become be self-fulfilling. That is, if the group expects a low-status student to perform below the level of the group, he or she will. The best way to ensure that all students participate competently is to design individual tasks that require each student to use his or her particular strengths. You must state explicitly that no one is good at all tasks but that each member can be good at at least one. When students are prepared with mixed expectations for competence, low expectations of one group member tend to disappear (Cohen, 1990).

References
Cohen, E. G. (1990, October). Continuing to cooperate: Prerequisites for persistence. Phi Delta Kappan; 72 (93) p. 135.
Harmin, M. (1994). Inspiring active learning: a handbook for teachers. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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