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

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Pupil grouping and organisation of classes

Why did teachers use whole class groups at lesson starts and ends?

Whole class grouping was used to present and review knowledge. Teachers in all subjects used whole class sessions at the beginning of lessons in order to:

set learning targets;
recap previously introduced and relevant knowledge;
draw out students’ existing knowledge;
introduce new material or move on students’ understanding; and
demonstrate or give examples.

One teacher summarised the start of a typical lesson:

“I’ll start by finding out what they already know and trying to tease out information from them, basically leading to whatever the concept is for that lesson… I have to know them well to take them on from where they are.” Mathematics teacher

At the end of the lesson, teachers would use whole class grouping to:

review the learning targets;
summarise the material covered;
pool ideas from earlier in the lesson;
assess students’ progress or level of understanding;
give feedback or evaluation of the work; and
address problems that the students may have encountered.

“Making them realise what they’ve learned, what they’ve achieved [is] not always obvious, even to themselves.” Mathematics teacher

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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 Why did teachers use whole class groups at lesson starts and ends? Whole class grouping was used to present and review knowledge. Teachers in all subjects used whole class sessions at the beginning of lessons in order to: set learning targets; recap previously introduced and relevant knowledge; draw out students’ existing knowledge; introduce new material or move on students’ understanding; and demonstrate or give examples. One teacher summarised the start of a typical lesson: “I’ll start by finding out what they already know and trying to tease out information from them, basically leading to whatever the concept is for that lesson… I have to know them well to take them on from where they are.” Mathematics teacher At the end of the lesson, teachers would use whole class grouping to: review the learning targets; summarise the material covered; pool ideas from earlier in the lesson; assess students’ progress or level of understanding; give feedback or evaluation of the work; and address problems that the students may have encountered. “Making them realise what they’ve learned, what they’ve achieved [is] not always obvious, even to themselves.” Mathematics teacher