How do secondary school teachers choose within-class student grouping strategies?

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Pupil grouping and organisation of classes

Implications

In completing this digest, the authors began to ask the following questions about implications for teachers:

To what extent have you discussed the pedagogic reasons for grouping students with other members of your department? Could it be useful to share strategies for this?
If you have found that practical factors, such as provision of enough sets of equipment, or layout of furniture in the classroom, sometimes deter you from using a helpful form of grouping, have you made this clear to your head of department?
What size of group have you and colleagues found to be optimal in encouraging all members of the class to be actively listening and involved in a lesson?
The study noted that it was useful for students to receive training in taking part more effectively in group discussions. Given the proven worth of carefully structured discussion, would your students benefit from training in discussion skills?

In addition, school leaders may wish to consider the following points:

What recent opportunities have members of staff had to explicitly discuss their grouping strategies? Might this be useful CPD for particular departments or for those involved in mentoring NQTs?
The use of structured group discussion as a learning strategy is backed up by research evidence. Pupils seemed to benefit from training in group participation. Do teachers in your school get CPD in identifying and inculcating such skills? Would staff benefit from CPD to help them guide students’ group discussion activities more effectively?
Teachers in the study sometimes avoided using group work because they felt it would adversely affect behaviour. Is it possible that any staff at your school share similar fears? How could a whole school strategy for positive behaviour management help these staff to use small groups more often and effectively?
The study indicated that timetabling longer lessons might enable teachers to increase their use of groups or vary the grouping they use. To what extent is this possible or desirable in different curriculum areas?

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction How did grouping strategies vary during lessons? Why did teachers use whole class groups at lesson starts and ends? How did teachers choose between individual or small group work? What was the effect of whole class grouping on lesson content? How did behaviour management affect teachers’ grouping practices? How did practical factors influence teachers’ choice of grouping strategy? How did the researchers collect their data? Implications Send us your feedback Collated digests To find out more about collated digests click here Get Word Reader How do secondary school teachers choose within-class student grouping strategies? This digest found in Pupil grouping and organisation of classes Send to a friend Word doc 80KB Printer friendly Collate for later Implications In completing this digest, the authors began to ask the following questions about implications for teachers: To what extent have you discussed the pedagogic reasons for grouping students with other members of your department? Could it be useful to share strategies for this? If you have found that practical factors, such as provision of enough sets of equipment, or layout of furniture in the classroom, sometimes deter you from using a helpful form of grouping, have you made this clear to your head of department? What size of group have you and colleagues found to be optimal in encouraging all members of the class to be actively listening and involved in a lesson? The study noted that it was useful for students to receive training in taking part more effectively in group discussions. Given the proven worth of carefully structured discussion, would your students benefit from training in discussion skills? In addition, school leaders may wish to consider the following points: What recent opportunities have members of staff had to explicitly discuss their grouping strategies? Might this be useful CPD for particular departments or for those involved in mentoring NQTs? The use of structured group discussion as a learning strategy is backed up by research evidence. Pupils seemed to benefit from training in group participation. Do teachers in your school get CPD in identifying and inculcating such skills? Would staff benefit from CPD to help them guide students’ group discussion activities more effectively? Teachers in the study sometimes avoided using group work because they felt it would adversely affect behaviour. Is it possible that any staff at your school share similar fears? How could a whole school strategy for positive behaviour management help these staff to use small groups more often and effectively? The study indicated that timetabling longer lessons might enable teachers to increase their use of groups or vary the grouping they use. To what extent is this possible or desirable in different curriculum areas?