Unlayering group activities

Tying together some threads on neurodiversity and group work

I have recently realized that a significant theme of this blog space over the past two years has been how we can think about the design and facilitation of group activities and assignments with neurodiversity in mind.

Here is a summary of some of the recommendations that have emerged from my own writing, with the links to the posts where I lay out the context, argument, and caveats:

1. Think strategically and intentionally about which activities will be group activities, which can be in groups if students choose, and which are best competed individually. I think it is really useful to remember that there are some students for whom the work of adapting to group dynamics, communicating their needs, and interacting spontaneously may take up quite a bit of mental bandwidth, so it is best to ensure that required group activities are associated with clear collaborative learning outcomes and appropriate structure. (See post on group work, participation, and neurodiversity)

2. Consider using “sustained groups” in some form (arrangements in which students work with the same group of students repeatedly). Additionally, consider whether groups of just 2 or 3 students can achieve the collaborative objectives. (See post on sustained groups and post on social oil)

3. Offer students low- or no-stakes opportunities to build mutual understanding among group members before expecting deliverables. (See post on social oil)

4. Coach students to share their communication needs and working style/preferences before and during the process. Prompt students to share their strengths with each other early in the activity, and to build those strengths into the plan for roles and process. (See post on group work, participation, and neurodiversity and post on social oil)

5. Coach students to avoid placing the blame for communication difficulties on a single person. Coach students to prioritize the process of learning about one another as an outcome of the activity, not just a precondition for producing products. (See post on social oil and post on group work, participation, and neurodiversity and post on teaching in the neurodiversity paradigm )

   

Over the time period I wrote these posts, I’ve also met with quite a few groups and individuals, and heard a lot of stories about challenges that arise for neurodivergent students and instructors in group settings. I have noticed something about this area of teaching and learning life: It does not just involve neurodivergent people, their own self-knowledge and self-advocacy skills, and perhaps a supportive instructor, but also involves their peers and the complexity introduced by the layering of sociality with time-pressure and stakes.

These points all relate to the concept of kairotic space introduced by Margaret Price and to which I refer frequently in my writing. Kairotic spaces are the “the less formal, often unnoticed, areas of academe where knowledge is produced and power is exchanged.”¹ The term “kairotic” itself derives from the classical rhetoric concept of kairos, meaning “occurring at the right time.” Price defines kairotic spaces as having the following qualities (my paraphrasing): (1) Fast-unfolding and time-dependent, (2) Highly-social and or collaborative, (3) High-stakes. Group activities in our classrooms often have all of these qualities at once. Now, these elements of group activities are not “bad” - some of them are inherent (like being collaborative) and others are useful skills to practice (e.g. time dependence/working to a deadline). The question I am beginning to ask is whether they always need to be layered one on top of another. What if we designed some of these activities to focus on just one kairotic element at a time? Because neurodivergent students may differ in their communication, processing speed, and executive function, reducing even one of the kairotic elements could provide some much needed breathing room in group activities.²

Here is an example of a fully-loaded kairotic group activity…

• Students are randomly grouped with 4-5 other students at the beginning of class for an activity.

• No prior warning was given about the group activity, so students didn’t come into class knowing that it was on the agenda

• They are asked to collaboratively address a case study, and return a completed worksheet by the end of the class period, which will be graded by the instructor and counted as one of the “in-class assignments” that make up 25% of students’ grades.

This activity is highly-social and collaborative (the expectation is to work together on the assignment, with a fairly large group), it is fast unfolding and time dependent (there is little preparation for it and it must be completed by the end of the class time) and reasonably high-stakes (it counts for a grade).

Here is an example of a lower “load” of kairotic elements

• Students are informed on Tuesday that there will be a collaborative activity on Thursday, and that they will be able to choose to work in a pair or a group of three

• They are asked to begin a case study activity during the class time, continue work asynchronously, and return the completed assignment the next class period (a few days later).

• Perhaps this assignment is graded, just like in the previous example, however…

In this activity the collaborative complexity is lowered (just two or three students in a group), the timeline is slightly extended to allow a little more processing time and less demand to complete the whole assignment without any independent thinking time. So in terms of kairotic elements, the stakes are still there, but the highly-social and collaborative elements are moderated, as are the time-dependent ones.

I am certainly not here to say that you should or must design group activities more like the second example that I offer. But, if you are experiencing turbulence with group activities in you class, and you think that the turbulence might relate to neurodivergence and neurodiversity, communication, speededness, or the layering of these factors, you could consider emphasizing just one kairotic element at a time and seeing how it goes.

News and Events

I always try to update the events page on my website with my upcoming events, so feel free to check that out.

My immediate next event will be offering the keynote presentation at the Fort Wayne Teaching and Learning Conference on February 20th, 2026.

Photo by Iva Rajović on Unsplash

1. Price, M. (2011). Mad at school: Rhetorics of mental disability and academic life. University of Michigan Press.

2. Plug for my forthcoming book: I theorize the relationship between “neurodivergence” and “kairotic space” extensively in my book, so you if you are interested in that concept you can look forward to that!