Group Work in the Classroom
One of the key requirements that I often find in job openings posts is "ability to work well individually and as a team." I believe that by promoting group activities in the classroom, not only will this give students the opportunity to work together as a team, but it will also give them the opportunity to learn more about their classmates and interact with them. I prefer assigning groups instead of allowing people to choose their groups because they will automatically group up with people they are familiar with, thereby limiting their chance of getting to learn more about their peers. Also, a student would be more likely to ask support from a classmate who he or she is familiar with (whether it's help on homework, a ride to class, or further explanation of the classwork). Whatever the case, I believe that group interaction in the classroom promotes the sense of feeling like a family, and fosters student retention.
There are numerous benefits to working with a group, so I am for it.
Exactly right. I also assign group work in my classes, because sometimes peer to peer learning is the best type of learning for some topics. When I have a segment dealing with theory or statutory regulations I generally give an overview and then let the students work together to present a group discussion. I generally give each group a different topic to research and they teach the class their assigned topic and so forth. I have found that this reduces student frustration, because they are able to pull learning points from the other presentations without having to invest as much study time to each. The end result is that the individual students have learned some important facts from each presentation and are more prepared for tests and quizzes.
I have had success with group work in the classroom especially within the MBC program (Coding). Classmates timed each other with lookup of codes since their national certification is timed based. This prepares students not only to work in groups as teams, but gives them practice for their national exam and real world job functions.
Good idea. I feel a sense of competition among some of the students in my classes, but these students need to learn see beyond that aspect and learn to work with people they might not even like. You are right about that being a crucial work place skill.
Students often work together and support each other in groups. I like to assign groups sometimes and allow them to pick their partners at times. They usually can help each other especially if someone in the group is not understanding. Students usually can help get something across to a peer when the teacher was not able to reach that person.
students learn from each other.
