For me, the most pressing issue is to create an atmosphere in which students feel free and able to participate. I have been thinking about the many instructors I know who use groups successfully, and I have tried to pay attention to the ways their approaches vary. My purpose in presenting them here is twofold. Ask yourself how you approach groups in terms of the variables below. Other teachers avoid modeling, preferring instead to let students find their own way by building intellectual strategies from the ground up.
Some teachers use rules to structure group sessions.
Other teachers eschew rules, finding that students do best when they are free to ask, or say, more or less what they will. Some teachers use groups only infrequently, turning to them for a break in routine, a kick-start for a class with dwindling enthusiasm. I offer these categories not as a final analysis, but as a heuristic, a means for reflection and learning. Try varying your own practice along one of the dimensions. If you generally use lots of energy, try quieting down and see what happens.