Promoting Effective Group Work in the Primary Classroom

A handbook for teachers and practitioners

Ed Baines, Peter Blatchford, Peter Kutnick

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781317548751
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Classroom Management

Promoting Effective Group Work in the Primary Classroom, 2nd ed. is designed to enhance teachers' and teaching assistants' confidence in engaging their children in effective group work, allowing for more active participation, more on-task focus and higher levels of achievement.

This accessible second edition is packed full of valuable strategies for teachers and fun activities for children, offering guidance on how to create an inclusive and supportive classroom by developing the social, communicative and group working skills of all pupils. It has been thoroughly updated and includes new material on whole school approaches to group work, the risks and challenges involved, and how to involve Teaching Assistants and other support staff in undertaking inclusive and effective group work in classrooms. A tried-and-tested, step-by-step approach encourages both children and their teachers to develop supportive relationships that have been found to facilitate academic performance, positive social behaviour and motivation. Since the first edition the authors have found that this handbook can be used successfully in many different countries around the world.

With ideas to help resolve problems that might arise and suggested training activities to support pupils, this text is a one-stop resource to ensure effective group work in the classroom. It is an essential guide for both trainee and practising teachers, as well as TAs and support staff, and a valuable basis for school action.

Chapter 1
Background and introduction to the handbook

This handbook is the result of a four-year study that brought together teachers and researchers in the exploration of how pupil group work can be made more effective in support of children’s learning. The research study, known as the ‘SPRinG’ project, developed and evaluated a new approach to group work in primary schools. It was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme. SPRinG is an acronym for Social Pedagogic Research into Group work, and is based upon the view that effective group work can be facilitated through:

1 careful attention to the physical and social organisation of the classroom and groups;

2 the development of pupils’ group-working skills (based upon an inclusive relational approach, working with all children in a class);

3 the creation and structuring of challenging tasks that legitimise group work; and

4 the supportive involvement of teachers and other adults.

The project had two aims: first, to work with teachers to develop strategies which would enhance the quality of group and paired work; and, second, to evaluate whether these strategies would result in an improvement in pupils’ attainment and learning, behaviour and attitudes to school. The original project evaluation involved 162 classes in primary and secondary schools, and 4,259 pupils aged 5 to 14. Based on the success of SPRinG, our approach has been taken-up in a number of different contexts, internationally and in urban and rural areas. This handbook focuses on children in primary schools but many features have also been found to work well in secondary schools or with even older students.

Findings from the research showed that engaging in the SPRinG group-work programme had a positive effect on all pupils. Group work led to gains in attainment and learning, greater levels of active classroom engagement and sustained discussions, and the clear sense among pupils and teachers that working in groups was a positive classroom experience.

What makes SPRinG distinctive?

The SPRinG approach applies group work across the curriculum and over the school year. We worked with teachers to develop a programme that could be successfully integrated into school life and the curriculum, and that recognised the concerns and difficulties teachers can have with group work. We were particularly concerned that the approach should not just dwell on a theory or dictate actions to the teacher – rather the SPRinG approach is a co-development between teachers and researchers. This collaboration enabled an approach informed by theory and hard evidence, which was field tested in many schools, and which is appropriate for use by children of different ages and in different cultures. The original collaboration between researchers and teachers extended for two years or more. Each class was expected to undertake at least two one-hour SPRinG group-work sessions per week.

One strength of the SPRinG programme is that it is based on a long-term systematic evaluation of pupil progress over a full school year and comparison with a control group in terms of objective measures of attainment and classroom behaviour.

What did we find?

Key finding 1

Far from impeding learning, group work raised levels of achievement. In the early years of primary school, group work helped to improve attainment in reading and mathematics. SPRinG activities for older primary school pupils were targeted at science and led to significantly higher attainment and deeper conceptual understanding and inferential thinking.

Key finding 2

Despite some teachers’ worries that group work might be disruptive, pupil behaviour improved in the SPRinG classes. Children were able to take more responsibility for their own behaviour and learning, freeing up teacher time to observe and reflect upon classroom activities.

Key finding 3

Group work doubled pupils’ levels of sustained, active engagement in learning and more than doubled the amount of high-level, thoughtful discussion between children.

Other findings

• Teachers’ professional skills and confidence were enhanced and their teaching repertoire was extended. There were also unexpected benefits – for example, as pupils developed group-working skills, teachers found they were ‘freed’ from classroom control and were able to spend more time teaching.

• Group work seemed to be most effective when adopted by the whole school, rather than individual teachers.

• Teachers working in areas of deprivation or in difficult circumstances found that group work can be used successfully and aid classroom relationships and social inclusion.

The SPRinG programme

The practices and recommended activities in the handbook are based upon the collective wisdom of collaborating teachers and researchers, previous research, and the results of the SPRinG studies. The SPRinG programme is based on four key principles for successful group work:

• The classroom and pupil groups need to be strategically organised and managed. Attention to classroom-seating arrangements and the characteristics of groups – such as their size, composition and stability – over time can make group work more effective.

• Group-work skills have to be developed. We cannot just put children into groups and expect them to work well together. Based on a ‘relational approach’ that encourages children to want to work together, activities in the handbook are designed to help pupils trust and respect each other; communicate effectively through listening, explaining and sharing ideas; and plan, organise and evaluate their group work.

• Group-work activities should encourage group work. Careful attention to the nature and structure of activities can ensure that group work is productive and supports the further development of group-working skills.

• Adults should adopt a range of roles that are supportive of group work and that encourage pupil independence rather than teaching pupils directly or dominating group interactions.

Each of these four principles is the subject of a chapter in this book (see Chapters 4 to 7 respectively).

Getting children to work together is not easy and requires perseverance, reflection, problem-solving and a host of other skills on the part of both the teacher and pupils. The positive aspects of effective group work take time and planning. They certainly are not learned over night, and it may take some time before you notice a clear change in the capabilities of your pupils. However, the rewards reported by many teachers and our findings concerning pupil development are worthy of the effort that is invested. Group work offers learning possibilities for pupils not provided by either teacher-led or individual work, and can help to improve attitudes to work and classroom behaviour. We hope that this handbook will lead to more systematic use of group work in classrooms and across the curriculum and the school. It deserves to be given a more central role in educational policy and school practice.

Since the first SPRinG study, we have undertaken similar studies in other parts of the world. Even within a developed country such as the UK, there are distinct differences between urban and rural schools. In rural schools, especially primary schools, pupils tend to know each other better and engage in collective activity, and it may be assumed that there would be greater group work effects in urban schools. The extension of SPRinG in Scotland (ScotSPRinG) showed that children in both urban and rural schools benefitted academically and socially – even though the rural children had a social ‘head start’.

Extensions of SPRinG have also seen success in preschool/early years education across northern and southern Europe. Studies were undertaken in Finland, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Working with teacher/practitioners of 4-year-olds over time showed increased levels of interaction among children, a greater ability for children to work autonomously from the teacher and higher levels of cognitive understanding. SPRinG extension studies also took place in primary schools in Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHC) in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In Hong Kong classrooms there has traditionally been an approach that involves a lot of teacher direction and where pupils do not engage in discussion and are often placed in competition with one another. Yet, the introduction of a SPRinG approach to primary school mathematics classrooms in Hong Kong showed that pupils could easily adapt to group working, that their achievement levels improved considerably and improved achievement was associated with increased dialogue (e.g. questions, answers, explanations) between classroom peers. The CHC actually encouraged teacher commitment and legitimisation of the new approach and less obviously encouraged pupil informal commitment to help one another outside of the classroom.

SPRinG extensions have also taken place in Caribbean countries. Similar to CHC, the school systems here are noted for their traditional, teacher-dominated and competitive approaches to pupil learning. Yet with SPRinG, pupils showed increased academic and social development. Of particular interest was that all students improved academically – with the greatest improvement among those pupils initially identified as ‘low attainers’. Teachers, too, realised that low attaining pupils had much to contribute to their classes.

Each of these applications of SPRinG shows that the ideas and approaches developed in SPRinG can contribute to children’s educational and social development, and that this handbook can be used successfully in many different countries around the world.

Why should I want to use this book?

It is not easy to develop effective group-work skills among pupils. This handbook offers recommendations for practice to help you make group work effective for you and your class. There are also ideas to help you resolve particular problems associated with group work that can arise in a class or group and suggested training activities to support pupils in developing a positive group ethos and particular group skills.

Although the main audience for this book is likely to be staff who work with primary school–aged children, many of the ideas, principles and practices also apply to the use of group work in secondary and further education contexts. Readers wishing to undertake group work with adolescents and young adults may wish to use and adjust the practices in the suggested ways, for example, by increasing the group size slightly to make the group work more challenging or by getting the young people to plan their group roles and the activity themselves.

Similarly, group work may appear to ‘fit’ more readily with the educational traditions and practices of schools in Westernised cultural contexts. However, as we have seen, our research has shown that schools in other cultural contexts can make good use of peer co-learning. If teachers and their students are committed to the development of group-working skills, there is often a collective or collaborative basis within all societies to support effective group working. However, teachers in all cultures may need to work hard to legitimise pupil efforts in group work.

The ideas in this handbook aim to support the development of effective group working. They can be used in conjunction with ideas from other educational initiatives that focus on debate and discussion, problem-solving, critical-thinking and general-thinking skills initiatives. Good examples of these are: ‘Philosophy for Children’, ‘Thinking Together’, ‘Thinking Maps’, ‘Habits of Mind’, ‘Six Hat Thinking’ and ‘Building Learning Power’ – all useful programmes for developing thinking and dialogue; there are, of course, many others that are useful as well. Group-work practices should help enhance the overall effectiveness of these initiatives.

Why this second edition?

We were pleased to be asked to write a second edition of this handbook. While retaining what is felt are the key features of the programme and the suggested activities, we have expanded the text in several ways. Given what we see as the important role of the whole school and school leadership in the sustained success of group work, we have added a completely new chapter (Chapter 10) in which ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Series preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Contributors
• Chapter 1 Background and introduction to the handbook
• Part I Developing group work in your classroom
• Chapter 2 The case for group work
• Chapter 3 How is your classroom organised?
• Chapter 4 Preparing the classroom for successful group work
• Chapter 5 Developing pupils' group-work skills
• Chapter 6 Creating effective group-work activities and tasks
• Chapter 7 The role of the teacher and other adults in supporting group work
• Chapter 8 Evaluating group work
• Chapter 9 Using group work in the curriculum
• Chapter 10 Developing a whole school approach to group work
• Chapter 11 Troubleshooting Resolving common group-work problems
• Part II Group work and training activities for your class
• Introduction
• Unit 1 Group work and group-work rules
• Unit 2 Sensitivity and awareness
• Unit 3 Developing trust
• Unit 4 Sensitivity, respect and sharing views
• Unit 5 Becoming a good listener
• Unit 6 Listening, asking questions and giving instructions
• Unit 7 Helping skills
• Unit 8 Group discussion Giving reasons and weighing ideas
• Unit 9 Group discussion Making suggestions and speculating
• Unit 10 Group decisions Reaching a consensus
• Unit 11 More decision making Consensus and compromise
• Unit 12 Roles within group work
• Unit 13 Planning group work
• Index