The Benefits Of Brainstorming For Group Work

Brainstorming is a work and study tool for groups that helps to create new and original ideas related to a specific topic. To do this in a good way, you need to create a relaxed atmosphere that facilitates cooperation between all team members. In this article, we explain the many benefits of brainstorming.

This can be very enriching for students, both academically and for personal development.

The benefits of working in a group

Cooperative learning is defined by Johnson, Johnson and Holubec as:

Therefore, we can say that group work helps students to collaborate with each other to achieve a common goal or purpose.

The use of this teaching methodology in the classroom gives students several benefits, for example:

• Favors the feeling of belonging and group cohesion
• Promotes a positive coexistence
• Promotes autonomy and independence
• Allows students to learn and apply certain ethical values
• Has a positive effect on communication and makes it more open and fluid
• Promotes inclusion, mutual respect and acceptance of others
• Favors a deeper learning and a richer academic result
• Increases productivity
• Improves social skills
• Allows the development of a better self-esteem and personal self-perception
• Promotes balanced development as well as psychological and social well-being
• Is good for the evaluation and regulation of students’ learning
• Allows students to acquire and practice decision-making skills

For all these reasons, it is a good idea to teach children to work in a group from an early age. To facilitate this process, they can learn different methods of working in groups, such as brainstorming.

The benefits of brainstorming for group work

Before using brainstorming, there are three basic rules to keep in mind:

1. All ideas are valid. You should not reject or judge any of the ideas suggested by the participants in the group, no matter how absurd they may seem. In addition, all criticism and all types of mockery are strictly forbidden.
2. It is an absolute must to listen actively and write down all suggestions that come up, in order to improve them, but without judging them for that matter.
3. You have to act fast. To this end, one must avoid initiating debates, discussions or lengthy explanations. It is about collecting as many ideas as possible on the subject in a short time.

Steps to use brainstorming

In group work, you should take the following steps to see the benefits of brainstorming:

1. Enter the project topic
2. The group members participate by saying as many ideas as they can come up with in a certain period of time and come up with suggestions on how the project can be implemented.
3. One of the group members should write down all the suggestions that people make
4. When there are no more ideas, or when the time is up, you read out all the suggestions
5. The group discusses these proposals and selects the best ones, along with all the information that will be useful for carrying out the project
6. At the end, the students will have a variety of ideas at their disposal to carry out the project that lies ahead of them. If necessary, they can try to improve the ideas they have chosen.
7. Finally, before you start the project itself, it is advisable to make a plan with the points to be included.