| What types of task are best for group-work? |
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There needs to be a reason or need for pupils to work together otherwise they will just work separately in a group
 . Group work is most effective when tasks are open-ended and questions don’t lead to ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers.
Evidence and reflection
Which types of questions do you use when setting tasks? You could use this classification to analyse a video or a sound recording of a lesson. 1. Closed questions (low level cognitive demand) to recall information - for testing, consideration or feedback (e.g. "Where is Ethiopia?") to encourage analysis - by describing, comparing or classifying (e.g. "What's the difference between...?") 2. Open questions (high level cognitive demand) to explore information and ideas with no set 'answer' (reasoning/interpreting, hypothesising/speculating, imagining/inventing) (e.g. "How do you think the hero would feel if...?") to encourage synthesis of information and ideas (e.g. "What do you think really happened.....?") to encourage evaluations, decision making, and judgements (e.g. "Would it be fair if...?") to encourage the transfer of ideas and application of knowledge, (e.g. "How is what we've found out useful...?" Adapted from Reflective Activity Checklist 13-1d (from Reflective Teaching section 13.2) http://www.rtweb.info/ch13/ra13-1d.html Putting the evidence to work Could you develop more appropriate tasks for group-work by using a greater proportion of open questions? Would it be possible for you to have a colleague observe a group-work lesson and give you feedback on how far the reasons you have created for working together are working in practice? Find out more about the SPRinG project at: http://www.tlrp.org/proj/phase11/phase2a.html Find out more about planning and implementing group-work: The Research Informed Practice website digests: Gillies, R.M., The effects of cooperative learning on junior high school students during small group learning http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/research/themes/pupil_grouping/ThuAug261107362004/ Wegerif, R., Littleton, K., Dawes, L., Mercer, N. and Rowe, D. Widening access to educational opportunities through teaching children how to reason together http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/research/themes/speakandlisten/wegerif_access/ |
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