How university mathematics instructors form groups and how students experience them.

‘Group work’ is a vague description of an instructional activity, because many factors shape its character and effect on students. One important factor is group formation, that is, how groups are formed by the instructor. In this paper, we sought to better understand the variation of group work with respect to group formation by addressing: How do university mathematics instructors form groups over the course of a semester? To this end, we examined eight instructors' methods of forming groups in one multi-section introduction to proof course. Our findings include a classification of group formation methods and descriptions of how instructors varied their formation methods across the semester. Further, we sought to understand: How do students experience different group formation methods? We analysed interviews with 29 students from the eight instructors' classes and identified central themes among students' experiences of different group formation methods. Finally, we discuss the sometimes conflicting research on (when) which group formation method is most appropriate and offer our thoughts on how the differences between typical undergraduate and K-12 mathematics classrooms may contribute to different recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]