Summaries and curiosities:
Chap 1 - Cohen descibes what groupwork is and why it can more effective than teaching through direct supervision. She describes how group work benefits the student by letting them struggle and make mistakes on their own; delegate auhority or have tasks delegated to them; and all in all, take on more of the teaching roles. I see why this can make sense when you have a diverse, large classroom and want learning to be more hands-on then just "filling a cup."
Chap 2 - Cohen describes how effectively-designed group work can helps students use conceptual thinking, cooperation, and problem-solving skills....rather than just filling in or memorizing basic informaation. Students also benefit from having many resources, from the ELL student who can also gather information from watching, having directions read to him, and peer assistance to students who can help other students understand a concept or instruction better. It floors me that students used to this type of group work score higher on achievement tests. I'd never though of it like this, but it makes sense that students who feel connected to a project or goal together not only learn to work together, they take pride in what they'v accomplished as a team. It also makes sense why this would make students who normally don't participate, be it for fear of failure, lower skills, or limited English, take part and learn more. Group work seems to take some of the strain off of the teacher and also keep the kids awake and engaged.
Chap 3 - Cohen addresses the concern that group formations can recreate social divisions, including submission and dominance, racism, inequality, sexism, privilege, etc. Group work must be effectively designed and monitored by the teacher to prevent these things from happening. But I gather that it is a risk worth taking if it means, more often than not, that it can eradicate borders and make students feel more connected and attracted to each other. So how do teachers effectively design work? Who is teaching us how to do that? Is it really true that most Americans don't know how to work and communicate as a team? I thought our business world was all about that.
Future topics: so if we haven't come from backgrounds that immersed us in group work, how do we get a crash course in it AND learn how to direct it effectively? How do we recognize and avoid the major pitfalls, especially if you can sometimes be on the "shy" side? How often do we need to get in students' faces if there are power struggles, situations of disrespect, or just a classroom with a bad dynamic and poison kids? Or we work with poison teachers?
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Does it seem so counterintuitive that learning in an engaged, interactive, higher-level of think manner would show up in greater test scores? Maybe it is the "cover less because this takes time" side of the equation that leads to the test score concern? I've been so deep in my teaching practices that rely on group activity, that I see "fill-in-the-cup" instruction as impossible to improve test scores...
ReplyDeleteAhh, but not all are successes in our "business world", even though that image seems to be a defining quality of American life.
Good questions on the how's... I think I can achieve setting a framework within to work, with some practical activites and structures to implement. You will need to round out the framework in ways that personalize it to your style, goals, and content during your teaching career.
And are their poison kids? I probably can't say no, but can ask really, how many are there? Your first few years teaching, you may feel like there are 1, 2, maybe 3 in each classroom. But really poison, maybe 1 in 100,000? 1,000,000?