Chapter 1
Groupwork is a tool that should be designed to allow students to be actively engaged in participation on a task without direct supervision. The author plans on drawing from years of experience and research to describe the tenets of highly effective groupwork.
Chapter 2.
The author declares groupwork to be a "superior technique for conceptual learning." Aside from the learning task requiring conceptual thinking the group must have the resources to complete the task. Cooperative learning has been shown to help students retain information. Cooperative learning also provides the chance for students to form friendly bonds with each other.
Chapter 3
The author describes the attributes and attendant power given to students in groups based on their academic, societal and peer status. The disruption of power and subsequent outcomes of the group are often unduly influenced by those with perceived greater status.
Note: During my CP1 I had some students in my chemistry class who enjoyed high academic status which was merited. They enjoyed working together. Every time I separated them to mix the groups up, they always complained how teachers always make them go work with the "dumb kids" and they end up having to do everything.
I would like to know how you keep groupwork from being less than 50% social time. Even in this rather eclectic group known as Day Cohort, we are placed in groups, spend a few minutes on task and then complain for several minutes on the Chargers playoff ineptness or the topic du jour...................
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A very fair complaint by those students, given what they thought of their own capacity and the capacity of their friends. My assumption is that everyone of those students in your classroom were amazingly intelligent and capable. What is it about schools, or our culture, that creates some sort of "smart hierarchy"? Stay tuned for the ideas of Multiple Abilities, and how the teacher must treat this in the classroom. As you note, groupwork must be carefully attended to, whether it be for children or adults.
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