Thinking about Group Work

1
Thinking about Group Work

• Gordon Lewis
• Beijing, October 18-20, 2008

2
Materials
Methodology
Care
Community
Coherence
Context
STUDENT
Connections
Challenge
Curiosity
Creativity
Curriculum
Educational Cultural Context
Teacher
3
Why bother with group work?

• Break into pairs
• list three reasons
• share your answers with another pair

4
Why bother with group work?

• Most obvious reason is increased practice
• Increased motivation (maybe)
• Promotes responsibility and autonomy (if teacher
  allows)
• Promotes noticing
• Learning from peers by listening and watching
• Digital World is collaborative

5
(No Transcript)
6
Why bother with group work (2)

• What is your learning goal and how will group
  work contribute to it?
• Ask yourself
• Does collaboration flow naturally from the task?
• Is collaboration a prerequisite fof task
  accomplishment?
• Are there other alternatives to increase exposure
  to the target language?

7
How do we know if group work is useful? What
criteria?

• Group work is simply generally accepted- but what
  really happens?
• How do we know group work improves learning?
• Understand group work will take away time from
  your learning goals you could achieve in
  presentation-if you measure goals in this way. Is
  it worth it?

8
The Primacy of Product

• Even among YL, the reasons to learn English are
  instrumental.
• Group work as a process is not understood as a
  goal in itself.
• Need to link group work to a product- (with a
  grade?) to help students perceive its importance
  and help demonstrate improvement.

9
Primary EFL in China

• Learner-centeredness
• Positive attitudes
• Develop thinking skills
• Autonomous learning
• Group work has the potential to contribute to
  achieving these goals, but

10
Skeptical Teachers

• Fear lack of control
• Prefer teacher-guided instruction
• Teachers make decisions for students
• Feel comfortable in the PPP model
• Teachers are products of their own education-
  teaching ghosts.
• Teachers need to pay more than lip service to
  group-work. It must become a core course
  component, linked to overall objectives and
  assessed

11
Reflect

• Do you use group work in your class?
• Share some examples with a partner.
• Does your activity include a task?
• Does your group work require true collaboration?

12
Is collaborative learning the same as group work?

• Is the goal challenging or complex enough to
  warrant group work?
• Social aspect in group work. Is there real
  communication or simply drill?

13
Challenges of Group Work

• students in groups often do not do what the
  teacher expects.
• difficult to generalize about student behavior in
  group work
• To what extent students learn about how to behave
  in groups is based on their earlier experiences
  of group work
• If the task is too stimulating- students will be
  compelled to resort to their L1 to express
  themselves.

14
Setting Up Groups

• Explain the task clearly
• Relate big picture first
• Final product or goal
• Share your rationale for using group work
• Have students form groups before you give them
  instructions.
• Specific steps (with time estimates)
• Keep track of time and announce it. Students will
  work more effectively.
• Use visuals
• Written instructions (ppt,OHP, or handout)

15
Setting Up Groups (2)

• How to divide up students
• by proximity? birthday, height, hair colour
• Let students choose?
• By learning style?
• Group size- how large is your class?
• Give each learner a role- this role makes the
  learner an important contributor to the overall
  group success
• By sub-task (., recorder, spokesperson,
  summarizer, checker, skeptic, organizer,
  observer, timekeeper, conflict resolver, liaison
  to other groups)
• By information (information gap-jigsaw)

16
Managing Group Activities

• Start with an ice-breaker task
• Provide strong modeling of target language
• Modeling amongst peers in group as well
• Monitor the groups
• Provide assistance but resist impulse to get too
  involved.

17
Assessing Group Work

• Students should be made aware of assessment
  before starting the project
• assessment method
• criteria (product and/or process)
• Product vs. Process
• assessing the product - measuring the quantity
  and quality of individual work in a group
• assessing the process - evaluating individual
  teamwork skills and interaction

18
Assessing Group Work

• Ask students to reflect on the group work process
  
• Recognize that groups might not come up with the
  ideas you intended them to
• Encourage student reflection

19
How to evaluate group work

• Communicative goals
• Cognitive goals (thinking skills)
• Social/affective goals (learning community)