INTRODUCTION
You might have experienced in your day to day teaching that even when you have planned
your lesson very well, some students do not respond to what you teach and do not activity
involve in the teaching-learning process. You might have also experienced that students
learn better when they are actively involved in the learning process rather than passive
listeners at the receiving end. Some students may need interaction with peer group more
often than others to stimulate them to learn and many of them learn more effectively if
they are permitted to work in groups. In this unit you will understand the importance of
teaching and learning in small groups and the guidelines for forming small groups and
organising groupwork. You will also learn about peer tutoring, its advantages and
limitations.
Learning by children is more effective if the teaching process is joyful and activity based
and allows for active participation and thinking at their level. This is possible through
group work as it involves “students working together in a group small enough so that
everyone can participate in a task that has been clearly assigned” (Cohan, 1986). Therefore,
group work is a first step towards independence within the instructional setting and making
learning a joyful experience to children.
There are two purposes for small grouping in the Classroom: individualization of instruction
and socialization. To individualize instruction, teachers often group students homogeneously
for the purpose of teaching of a specific concept or skill. For socialization purpose,
heterogeneous groups are formed to promote interaction among students.
1 Individualization
It is generally observed that while teaching in a whole class, the teacher addresses the
needs of average students only. The high and low achieving students are often neglected.
Grouping of students, therefore, facilitates instruction and meets individual needs. Let us
take an example of class V students who had been told a story the previous day. The
teacher formed a group of seven students, sitting in front of him in a semicircle way. Each
child was given play cards with some sketches of the story they had read and were asked
to arrange the cards in a sequential order. Five children completed the task but Anita and
Anubhav could not arrange the pictures in order. The’ teacher used a flannel board with
flannel cutouts to retell the story to those two children. The teacher in the meantime
instructed other five children to identify the cause and effect statement from their books.
For this purpose he divided these five children in two groups. After completing his flannel
board lesson with Anita and Anubhav they were also assigned similar task as the others.
Therefore they received more time and attention than other five children did on this particular
day. The teacher’s management skills included working with groups simultaneously and
manipulating time and content. His personnel skill included treating each student as an
individual.
A teacher may keep in mind the following guidelines for effective individualized instruction:
i) Analyze the present ability level of student.
ii) Plan a program to personalize instruction: set goals, group students according to
their needs, choose appropriate instructional materials and equipment.
iii) Plan reinforcement activities to meet individual needs.
iv) Evaluate a student’s performance.
2 Socialization
The second purpose for grouping students is to promote behaviour associated with diversity,
individuality, cooperation, rationality, responsibility and respectfulness. Grouping students
changes the interaction pattern in the classroom from ‘teacher to student instruction’ to
‘student to student instruction’. The responsibility for success also shifts from teacher to
students. Small groupwork ensures student involvement in planning, participation and
evaluation.
Small groupworks may be arranged in any subject or activity: language, mathematics,
environmental studies etc. It may be organised in the form of small study groups, pairing
of students, role-playing, simulations, project activities, tutorials etc. The working in
small groups enhances group cohesiveness and group interaction.
Group formation helps to develop:
i) cooperation among children: Small group interaction develops the ability among
children to solve their problems in cooperation with other children.
ii) interest among children: Children enjoy learning more when they actively participate
in the learning process along with peers.
iii) confidence among children: Group activities help children to solve their
problems without fear of failure. Even if they fail in their attempt in group work,
they do not suffer from high level of anxiety, as in the case of individual learning,
because the whole responsibility is jointly shared by the group and not by the single
individual.
iv) problem solving skill among children: Small-group techniques help the students to
arrive at a consensus solution of a problem and also learn how other persons solve
their problem It develops insight and reflective thinking by way of framing various
hypotheses, testing these hypotheses and reaching the solutions in a more scientific
and objective manner.
v) students potential through joyful experience of learning: It gives an opportunity to
each and every child to actively participate in the learning process. Even the shy and
weak students are also motivated to actively participate in the learning process.
Needless to say that small groupwork makes learning a joyful experience for each
and every child.