This article presents the results of a research conducted with higher education teachers who work in the Pedagogy degree course of a private college in the city of São Paulo. The objective was investigating the criteria used in the organization of the students for the development of work in group activities in the classroom. The qualitative research included questionnaires and interviews with higher education professors. The research allowed to point out who the professors are - profile, academic background, time in teaching - if they make use of group work and how they use this methodology as a learning strategy. The result confirmed the hypothesis that group work can offer a concrete opportunity to build knowledge in a cooperative way and with the potential for the student to relate with knowledge in various ways. However, in order to achieve the proposed learning objectives, the student needs an active participation and willingness to cooperate and the teacher must have a systematic monitoring of the groups.