Evolution of the small group activity: Moving from the superficial to the critical

Over the past decade we have designed and used Small Group Activities (SGA) in hundreds of health and safety courses based on OSHA Regulations. Reflecting on our use of the Small Group Activity Method (SGAM) we recognize that several initial somewhat uncomplicated activities have evolved over time into activities that challenge and support students to think more critically about their workplace and for them to offer more complicated and nuanced critiques of and solutions to problems related to their workplace health and safety. Many changes to our SGA have been based on students' responses during the class activity and also to course evaluations.

At times students' responses to the health and safety issues presented in SGA have seemed simplistic and have shown a lack of understanding of systems of safety and their role in creating a safe workplace.

Our SGA have evolved in an effort to support participants to look for a root cause of an incident whether it be a near miss or a fatality and to then identify an appropriate prevention strategy to implement.