What it is: getting the students to work in pairs (with the occasional three if there is an odd number or someone comes in late after pairs have been assigned) for a strictly timed five minute discussion of some point, at the end of which they feed back.
Flash pairs has a few things going for it. The first is the wide range of views that will come out, something that doesn't always happen with larger groups since often one or two people end up feeding back on behalf of five or six. The second is that it gives some of the less vocal students a chance to speak, since only a very few dominating types will be able to keep up a completely one-way 'conversation'. (Having said that, it's a good idea not to always pair the same quiet person with the resident chatterbox, just in case.) The third is that it gives students a break from having to put their views forward to a larger group - if you're shy then even a group of four to six can seem scary. (Obviously some individuals can be intimidating - the earlier proviso applies with knobs on in this case.) The fourth point is a bit of a flip side to the previous two - if the worst does happen and you have a resident bully who gets paired with one of the shy types (and I maintain that a peril of using small group exercises is that this sort of behaviour can go on, and needs to be monitored), then at least it's only for five minutes. The fifth point is more practical - it gets students used to the idea that sometimes timekeeping will be an issue. It's great to see/hear enthusiastic discussion of the finer points of a topic, but when you've only got fifty minutes and need to hear back from everyone before you have to vacate a bit of focus is a useful thing.
