age groups
I'm teaching a class where I have different age groups with enormous discrepancies. In fact some are really young, recently graduated from high school and are fast learners, but the majority are adult who haven't been to school for the last 10-20 year, then are really slow. How do I manage that?
Jeremy,
My experience has been that by mixing them they get to know each other and work well in solving assigned problems. I use a lot of case studies so each student quickly sees how he or she can contribute to the solution of the problem and they forget about their differences in relation to life.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In my class, I find that the older students are more disciplined, and are overall better students than the ones who are just out of high school.
Will these learning groups work in my case, or will it just serve to annoy my older students if they have to work with their less mature counterparts?
Jean,
One way is to form learning groups composed of the different age groups. Then assign them group projects such as case studies. This way they have a common goal of coming up with solutions rather than focusing on the age differences. This method really works well because they are forward focused rather than being individually working on projects.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
