The Importance Of Group Work

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Group formation and use of space
It is important that before commencing group work, it is imperative for teachers to consider how they will organise the groups in terms of size and amount of groups with class seating arrangements in mind. Planning for group work is essential because the practicalities play a major part on the effectiveness of the group activity, in fact, according to Whitton et al., (2016), the way the class is grouped is the most crucial factor as it can determine the success or failure of an activity. Particularly in a primary classroom, it is vital to think carefully about how many students there will be in each group and how many groups there will be altogether, while it can be dependent on the purpose of the task, the …show more content…

Similarly, it is vital to think about the layout of the classroom and seating arrangements when planning group formations because it is important that the time it takes to arrange and gather the groups is the minimal amount and does not take away unnecessary time from the actual lesson. In addition, the layout of the tables have to be constructed in a way that is conducive to productive and comfortable group interaction, which involves children being able to sit close enough to be heard and seen, and have sufficient space for all to access the materials and resources (Baines et al., 2008). As a teacher, carefully thinking about the use of space in the classroom and groups sizes is necessary in planning for group work activities because the goal is to conduct an effective lesson that focuses on accomplishing the task objectives and gaining skills, as opposed to spending time on physically organising …show more content…

Thus, it is imperative to know the individual students in the class and their needs to be able to take into consideration in planning for group work. While it is difficult to plan to completely avoid conflict, it can be minimised with attention to the different criteria as aforementioned, so in the hopes to maximise potential for learning and effective group work. According to Baines et al., (2008), often teachers place same-ability children in a group for the purpose of classroom management, however, group work also involves developing social skills and learning to work with others. Thus, it is important to organise mixed-ability groups but to not to put extreme ends of abilities together rather have groups of high to middle-ability students and low to middle-ability students. This allows students to learn from others and also “reduces pupil frustration due to large differences in ability while maintaining some inclusion across the ability range” (Baines et al., 2008, p. 18). Likewise, the groups should also consist of a balance of each gender and placing children in a group of different personalities and learning styles, so they are able to learn from each other and gives each child an opportunity to play a role in the group. For example, to avoid

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