There were a few things I was wondering:
1) I feel like the module didn't focus a lot on the potential negative effects of group work...I'm thinking specifically of how more advanced students may sometimes treat the lower-level students poorly, using the "if I get a bad grade because of you" card...this possibility was mentioned when disabled students were mentioned, but I don't think that by "disabled" they meant "lower-level"
2) I would love to know how many multi-age classrooms still exist...when I think of multiage, I think of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie...I would LOVE to observe a modern-day multiage classroom! I really like the ideas behind them.
3) I found the following excerpt EXTREMELY hilarious: "When girls outnumber boys, they tend to defer to the boys for input; when boys outnumber girls, they tend to ignore the girls." That is just so true, funny, and something I hadn't really thought of before!
Vygotsky would be a big proponent of heterogeneous groups...as shown in his Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), Vygotsky believes that when children surround themselves with more capable peers or even adults, their experiences are enhanced and they learn more (the drawing on page 124 of the cloud, sun, arrow, and hot air balloon...essentially it is interaction that causes development). Vygotsky would really love teachers that use multiage classrooms...the lower-level children would learn from the higher-level children, and the higher-level children would (this is not an idea attributed specifically to Vygotsky, I just have an inkling that he would agree with this!) benefit from helping and teaching the lower-level children.
The first thing that you are wondering is one of the things I also wondered but didn't put in my blog post. Students know when they are put in "high" or "low" groups and from my experience when students are mixed in groups with high, medium, and lower levels, the higher students do all the work. I was a cadet teacher for a 7th grade teacher my senior year of high school and I seen this happen a a lot. My only idea as to how to eliminate the "If I get a bad grade because of you" card is to give students plenty in time in class to to projects/group work/etc and try to make sure students stay on task and then the chance of the group getting a lower grade because one student didn't do the work would be less. Also I love your #2! I also think of Laura Ingalls Wilder when they talked about multi-age classrooms. But are there actually multi-age classrooms that still exist today? I honestly thought that was a thing of the past. Also I agree with your #3, it is very funny and true. In my Communication in the Classroom class, there is one boy and probably 15-20 girls, and when we talk about gender differences or they come up we all (including my teacher) look at him for what he thinks.
ReplyDeleteEven if you can't still see a multi-age classrooms, some of them have been turned into museums. There is one in my area that has been turned into a sort of museum. You cna leave tips, but everyone signs in. When I went, I was with someone who was actually a part of that classroom/school house and she told us some stories. It was pretty cool. It might be worth your time to look online to find one near you. :)
ReplyDeleteI feel that working in groups really depends on the individuals consisted in each specific group. For example, I like to work on assignment individually and hate group work, because it tends to slow me down when working. On the other hand, many individuals love working in groups because it gives them a chance to bounce ideas off of one another and learn things that they hadn't thought of before. I think the positive/negative effects of grouping isn't a straight up answer of "Yes, it's negative" or "No, it's positive" It really depends on the individuals consisted and how each individual likes to learn and develop.
ReplyDelete