Instructional strategies & approaches 2 Essay

According to Barbara Gross Davis, author of Tools for Teaching (1993), students learn best when they participate actively in the process. A lap of research has been made on collaborative accomplishment, or eruditeness in stems, and it has been proven that no matter the subject matter, students learn more than this way. Working in strainifys help students learn and retain more about what is taught to them than when they are taught using other means. Davis enumerates three general types of multitude work. The first type is informal learning free radicals.These groups arent permanent and may be d oneness in a single session. An example of this is asking the students to turn to their seatmate and discuss a particular question. In any case, this kind of grouping may be done in a class of any size at any time to discover the level of understanding of the students, give them a way to apply what they have learned or to have a change in the learning pace. The guerilla type is form al learning groups, which stern be organized to do specific tasks like writing a report, doing a lab experiment or making a project.The tasks can be completed in one session or over a few weeks, until the students have finished the action and are given a grade. The last type of group is a depicted object team. Such groups are usually long-term, like a whole semester or course, and have permament members wherein each member is responsible for helping each other to complete course requirements and assignments and to provide support and encouragement. A student with a study team can ask his teammates to update him on classes or activities he might have missed.Study teams are valuable in courses that have a large class size and a complex topic. With that in mind, it is then appropriate to inquire as to how to group these students so that they would learn the most. Davis cites examples on how one could group the students the teacher can assign randomly so that a mix of different stude nts are in one group the teacher can let the students choose their groupmates the teacher, himself, forms the groups taking into account the students differences or the teacher asks the students first on their preferences and then makes assignments.Whichever the case, Davis argues that these types of grouping have their own advantages and disadvantages and can be utilize depending on circumstance. After all, the teacher cannot assume that just because the students have been grouped and asked to work cooperatively, that they would actually do so. It should always be remembered that a group is represent of different individuals with different personalities, skills, concerns, temperament, etc. Thus, the teacher should be flexile, yet firm, and always ready to give assistance.In addition to considering the combination of students in a group, its size should also be given equal attention. According to researches done by Cooper (1990), Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991) and Smith (1986 ) as cited by Davis, groups with a maximum of 5 members would work best since a larger number would decrease the opportunity for the group members to actively participate. They also add that the group size should be littler if the members are less skillful and time available for the group work is shorter. Furthermore, the level of the task should also be considered.Simple tasks like solving a math problem or planting a seedling would be enough for small groups. On the other hand, complex tasks, such as a chemistry experiment that would require students to research and report, are better done by a bigger group (Knowles, 2005). Of course, students are individuals that have different learning abilities. several(prenominal) teacher group the class according to these abilities. According to the Westchester Institute for Human Services Research (2002), ability grouping is the practice of dividing students according to their perceived learning capacities.The two most common ways of grou ping via ability is within-in class grouping and between-class grouping. The former refers to the division of students with the same abilities into small groups. This is usually seen in mathematics or Reading classes. Between-class grouping refers to division of students into varying courses or classes according to their achievement. In a nutshell, ability grouping caters to the difference between students. Each group formed with this system may be using different materials that are unique and will address their needs.In general, research shows that within-class grouping produces better results than flux ability grouping. Within-class grouping can promote faster learning since the students are learning with people of the same level and pace. Thus, fast learners can cover more topics without being dragged by the slow learners. On the other hand, as learning progresses it is only appropriate that the task difficulty also increase, and in line with that, the group subject and number . A more difficult task would require a larger group to execute successfully.Thus, if a class was previously divided into smaller groups, the teacher can merge these groups to form a larger group. In relation with this, the teacher should again consider the composition of the groups. Ideally, it is better that the group be as heterogenous as possible but should also contain a fair number of the assets, those with previous relevant coursework or language proficient, and liabilities, those with shun attitudes toward the course or language problems, in a class.Whole group instruction is usually utilize when introducing a impudently topic, new materials or new strategies to the whole class. In this way, the teacher can build a common experience between the students which can later be an avenue for further geographic expedition of the topic and improvement in their problem solving and other skills (Valentino, 2000). On the other hand, group or collaborative learning cannot always be used despite its good results. Since topics have to be discussed within a certain timeframe, it is very hard to use collaborative learning often since such strategy really takes a lot of time.Thus, for courses that covers a broad, complex topic, like general chemistry or physics, it is advisable to make the students form a study team. For example, in chemistry, experiments may be done by a whole group. They can perform one experiment and help each other analyze their information and understand what they just did. In such a setting, not only will it minimize the concerns of the teacher, it would also help those students who come to class unprepared. At least, with group mates, there would still be an avenue for them to cope with the lesson. Also,Also, collaborative learning would be beneficial if the class size is large. As mentioned earlier, a heterogenous group is ideal. A teacher would want to distribute those whove already understood the topic or are fast learners among those t hat are still coping or having whatever difficulty. What the teacher can do, then, is determine the students that could be classified among the two groups. Generally, the teacher can determine the assets and liabilities by observation, diagnostic tests or group dynamics application or by asking other teachers and his students.Such a technique would ensure that someone in the group knows whats happening in class and possibly give assistance to his groupmates. In conclusion, group or collaborative learning is very beneficial to students. However, the success of such activities would depend on the composition and size of the group, as well as the level of learning of the students. The teacher should know when to use this strategy and he should be well prepared, organized and flexible when doing so.References Davis, BG. (1993). Collaborative Learning Group Work and Study Team. Tools for Teaching.Retrieved August 16, 2007, from http//teaching. berkeley. edu/bgd/collaborative. html Know les, P. (2005). Thoughts on Student Grouping Teaching Decisions. Retrieved August 16, 2007, from http//www. netc. org/classroomswork/classrooms/peter/ workings/grouping. html Valentino, C. (2000).Flexible Grouping. Retrieved August 31, 2007, from http//www. eduplace. com/science/profdev/articles/valentino. html Westchester Institute for Human Services Research (2002). Ability Grouping. The Balanced View Research-based information on well-timed(a) topics. Vol. 6, No. 2.