Successful Classroom Management by Richard Eyster

Author:Richard Eyster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

SMALL GROUP WORK

The cooperative learning model that has enriched our classrooms for the past several decades has a powerful, student-centered dynamic at its heart. It is guided by a belief that students gain empowerment and greater personal investment in their learning when they are more actively engaged in classroom activities. Many teachers who have shifted a portion, sometimes a significant portion, of their lesson plans from direct instruction to cooperative learning activities find that the students often take greater ownership of their learning.

However, as with any model, there are optimum structures and conditions. We have frankly seen classrooms in which inadequately designed decentralized methodologies have led to instances when the activity is vague or unstimulating, students are at sea, airtime is poorly shared, the reticent keep quiet, the indolent sit back and wait while the responsible do all of the work.

Successful cooperative learning doesn’t just mean turning kids loose on their own. Just as with outstanding centralizing models, effective leadership of this strategy is a matter of practice, reflection, and constant improvement. It is important to note that there are a number of excellent books out there entirely devoted to the topic of cooperative learning.

What follows is a series of guidelines that suggest the best practices for enhancing the classroom dynamic:

Make the objective of the cooperative learning time clear and explicit.

This certainly doesn’t mean that you have to tell students what they will discover, but we have perhaps all seen classes in which the students assemble into small groups and, after some disagreement and discussion, someone raises her hand and says, “Wait, now what are we supposed to be doing?”

Be as explicit as possible about both the procedure and the ending point.

Choose a cooperative learning model not just for variety but for the best model that will achieve what you want students to learn.

There are clearly times in which direct instruction or individual work might be more advantageous. If you are going to use small group interactions to advance learning objectives, make sure that this is the best design to reach your goals. In general, cooperative learning is terrific for many things—shared discovery, group review, group preparation for some upcoming activity, and so on. Before you embark on an exercise in cooperative learning (or any other format, including teacher-led instruction and discussion), you should be sure that you have chosen it because this model is superior to other forms of learning for this particular goal.

Establish clear group work norms.

Students need to know the following:

•Where to find materials and how they should be distributed

•What amount of noise is acceptable

•How to get our attention to answer questions

•Any restrictions on getting out of seats and moving around the room

•How to settle disputes within the group

•How to collect materials and where to store ongoing projects

•What to do if they finish early

Deliver all instructions orally and in writing.

Nothing bogs down group work more completely than incomplete directions. Anticipate whatever questions or concerns might come up. Imagine students working and finding forks in the road. Clarify before you turn them loose how they are to respond to such choices.

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