Engaging Students with Course Concepts Total Class Discussion Impact on

Small group-based instructional methods can produce a wide variety of positive educational outcomes. These outcomes, however, only occur when instructors create conditions which motivate students to prepare for and engage in give-and-take discussions. Fortunately, by applying three fundamental principles, instructors can create these conditions in the vast majority of learning groups. These principles, referred to as “KEYS ” in this essay, are: 1) promoting individual and group accountability, 2) using assignments that link and mutually reinforce individual work, group work and total class discussions, and 3) adopting practices that stimulate give-and-take interaction within and between groups. Further, to obtain the best results from using small groups, instructors must observe these keys in managing each of three opportunities (shown as “3 Boxes ” in Figure 1) to engage students with course concepts: individual work, small group work, and total class discussion