Student Grouping and its Effects on Class Performance
Mentor Information
Ilene Berson (College of Education)
Description
Collaboration in a classroom is one of the most important methods of learning for students. In order for collaboration to take place, students need to be grouped or partnered. The most common form of grouping students is to group them by academic abilities: students who are more independent and students who need extra support. This allows the teacher to work directly with students and make it easier to differentiate/accommodate. However, it has been found that this method has a negative effect on students and their image as learners. For this research, we decided to focus on two particular students and how they perform best during math partner work. We have paired our focus students with students that have similar and different personalities as well as students with similar and different strengths or abilities. As our focus student works with their partner, we will observe and take notes of how they work together. Work samples will be taken, and an interview will be conducted at the end of each week in order to get input from our focus student. We hope to find which type of pairing, personality or ability, is more beneficial for students as they complete their assigned tasks. There are a multitude of ways to group students, with our research we wish to seek which work best in order to implement them in our own classroom settings.
Student Grouping and its Effects on Class Performance
Collaboration in a classroom is one of the most important methods of learning for students. In order for collaboration to take place, students need to be grouped or partnered. The most common form of grouping students is to group them by academic abilities: students who are more independent and students who need extra support. This allows the teacher to work directly with students and make it easier to differentiate/accommodate. However, it has been found that this method has a negative effect on students and their image as learners. For this research, we decided to focus on two particular students and how they perform best during math partner work. We have paired our focus students with students that have similar and different personalities as well as students with similar and different strengths or abilities. As our focus student works with their partner, we will observe and take notes of how they work together. Work samples will be taken, and an interview will be conducted at the end of each week in order to get input from our focus student. We hope to find which type of pairing, personality or ability, is more beneficial for students as they complete their assigned tasks. There are a multitude of ways to group students, with our research we wish to seek which work best in order to implement them in our own classroom settings.
