Groupwork
Group work is a form of cooperative learning that involves having learners work together to maximise their own and one another’s learning. Group work technique is mainly used to generate ideas, increase learners’ confidence in their answers, encourage broad participation in plenary session, promote higher level of reasoning and learn concepts in-depth, develop skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, interpersonal communication and peer teaching.
Typically, a group consists of around 5-10 learners, though in large classrooms, group work can be organised for as many as 15-20 learners. Whether you use a small or large group in a teaching/ learning situation depends on the nature of the assignment, Effective group work assigns responsibilities to all members and brings discipline in cooperative learning to both dominant personalities and to shy learners. The outcome of group work is usually better and richer than what an individual would have done.
Execution
Overview of key steps:- Design the task(s) for the group activity(s) (lesson planning)
- Determine the groups’ size and assign learners groups (lesson delivery)
- Clearly describe the objectives and assignments given to each group, and identify learner roles (secretory, timekeeper, spokesperson, etc.) (lesson delivery)
- Set and explain ground rules to learners including duration of activities and time of transitions (lesson delivery)
- Monitor the group activities, facilitate knowledge sharing and analysis of findings (lesson delivery)
Techniques for Active Teaching and Learning Techniques/ Demonstration