For more information
Call 1-800-351-0222
Call 1-800-351-0222
GROUPING STRATEGIES IN TEACHING.
Term Paper ID:24189
Essay Subject:
Theories, techniques & effectiveness of groups (mixed grade/mixed age, ability, cooperative & cluster) in promoting academic & social progress.... More...
9 Pages / 2025 Words
9 sources, 14 Citations,
APA Format
$36.00
More Papers on This Topic
Paper Abstract:
Theories, techniques & effectiveness of groups (mixed grade/mixed age, ability, cooperative & cluster) in promoting academic & social progress.
Paper Introduction:
Introduction
Does grouping help or hinder a child's academic and/or social progress? As pointed out by Katz (1992), one of the difficulties involved in determining the effects of grouping on children's progress is that there are many different kinds of grouping strategies in use (e.g., mixed grade/mixed age grouping, ability grouping, cooperative grouping, and cluster grouping) and many of these strategies are used only for specific student populations (e.g., special needs or gifted students).
Therefore, in order to arrive at an answer to the question of the general effects of grouping, it is necessary to examine the research findings associated with specific types of grouping strategies. This report attempts such an analysis toward the objective of determining whether grouping strategies in fact help
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
Further, it is stated that the age spanoffers both older and younger students with a level of intellectualstimulation that fosters intellectual and academic achievement. Slavin, R.E. The older children also act as models of behavior which the youngerchildren can emulate when they become the older members of the group. Finally mixed age and mixed grade groupings can operate to fosteracademic achievement; however, they are probably best used when teachersare concerned with fostering prosocial behavior. Johnson, D.W. Conclusions Based on the reviewed literature, conclusions can be formulated as towhether grouping hinders or helps students' academic and/or socialprogress. However, it was pointed out that some groupings are more facilitativeof academic progress than social progress while other groups are morefacilitative of social progress rather than academic progress. (1987). While it is recommendedthat classes have only one cluster, in some cases, classes will contain twocluster groups. As to the effects of ability grouping, Hereford (1993) states thatwithin-class ability grouping is much better than between class grouping.In this regard, the academic effects of both groups are said to be roughlyequal; however, the social effects are said to be negative for the between-class ability grouping in that they do not promote a democratic oregalitarian perspective in students. In this regard, mixedgrade/mixed age groups teach students a variety of prosocial skillsincluding tolerance and nurturance. Given the foregoing findings, a second conclusion can be formulatedregarding grouping. In this regard,the authors reported that cooperative grouping has been found to beassociated with producing gains in students': (1) General level of academic achievement; (2) Ability to understand other students' perspective; (3) Social and cooperative skills; (4) Motivation to learn; (5) Emotional involvement in learning; (6) Attitudes toward school and teachers; (7) Psychological health and sense of interdependence with others;and (8) Attitudes toward peers. Inother words, if there are some children who all have a very low readinglevel, the teacher might work with them in a homogeneous grouping untilthey are better able to master the basic. (1991). Data collected at the end of the term indicated thatthe heterogeneous cooperative group produced higher course grades and end-of-term GPAs than homogeneous-ability cooperative groups. In other words,it is quite possible that in some studies the heterogeneous groups did nothave a very large ability range; or mixed findings could be due to factorssuch as differences in teachers' ability to implement the cooperativecurriculum, and so forth. (p. Ability grouping tends to be of two types. There are, however, some disadvantages associated with clustergrouping, the most important of which is that its academic effects can varyproportionately with the teachers' degree of training as to how todifferentiate the curriculum. ERICDocument Reproduction Service No. Sharan, Y. Similarly, if they areworking with gifted students, they might consider cluster grouping. (Paper presented at the Meeting of theAmerican Educational Research Association (Atlanta, GA, April 12-16). Regarding ability grouping, academic effects tend to be positiveregardless of whether children are grouped in heterogeneous ability groupsor homogeneous ability groups. ED 36 317. Urbana, IL: Office of EducationalResearch and Improvement. The lowest motivationalincrease was observed for social studies, while the highest increase wasfor language arts. In particular,the authors were interested in whether cooperative learning situationswould increase prosocial behavior in situations where learning disabledstudents had been mainstreamed into regular classrooms. Making sense. Also, Bode collected student and family characteristics data aswell as student attitude data. Cooperative learning and student achievement.Educational Leadership, (October), p.29-35. As to the effects of cluster grouping onthe mixed ability students, Weinebrenner and Devlin (1991) state that, ifclasses contain no more than one cluster, the challenges afforded by thepresence of gifted students can lead to general improvement in achievementfor the entire class. Cluster Grouping Effects According to Winebrenner and Devlin (1991), cluster grouping consistsof groups of four to six gifted students (top 5 percent of grade level)being placed in a class of children of mixed abilities with one teacher whohas special training in teaching gifted pupils. Slavin (1988), notes that there is one caution that should be notedwith respect to implementation of any cooperative learning grouping. In summary then, cooperative group appears to help rather than hinderboth academic and social achievement and progress of students. Thus, mixed-age groupingsoverall are more heterogeneous than mixed grade groupings. 5 ) Cooperative Grouping According to Sharan and Sharan (1987), cooperative grouping is ameans of grouping students so as to foster increased learning through peercooperation and communication. Also, the clustergroup has been found to assist gifted students in staying humble becausethe presence of other gifted students provides them with continuousacademic competition. While thereis some evidence that the likelihood of strong effects increases if thecooperative groups contain students of mixed ability rather than studentsof the same degree of ability, more research needs to be done before thisfinding can be said to be confirmed. Johnson, R.T., Buckman, L.A., Richards, P.S. Baltimore, MD: Center for Research on Effective Schoolingfor Disadvantaged Students. In order to test the validity of this notion, Bode (1993) conductedan analysis of the math achievement data of 1,319 eighth graders attending61 different schools. In other words, the abilitylevels of students are homogeneous. Cluster grouping fact sheet: Howto provide full-time services for gifted students on existing budgets.Lombard, IL: Phantom Press.----------------------- 1 ED 37826 . Interms of social behavior, it is felt that mixed grade and mixed agegroupings are especially helpful to those students who are at-risk for thedevelopment of social skills. Cluster grouping, for example, can increase the academic and socialachievement of both gifted and regular students. This is that educators should attempt to decideprecisely what they wish to accomplish when they group students as well asprecisely what kind of a student population they are dealing with. These included: mixed grade/mixed age grouping, abilitygrouping, cooperative grouping, and cluster grouping. Ability Grouping Hereford (1993) defines ability grouping as the assignment of same-ability level students to a group or a class. On the other hand, if they are working with a special student groupsuch as a group of students with poor social skills, they might wish to usemixed age or mixed grade grouping strategies. In this regard, it appears that grouping can indeed facilitateacademic and social achievement; however, the extent to which thisfacilitation effect is present can differ depending upon the type ofgrouping utilized. In the last two decades, cooperativelearning has been the focus of much educational research. If theyare more concerned with academic increase than social increase, they mightdecide to try within class ability grouping. The authors observed that the longer the implementation ofcooperative learning, the greater the social support students gave to eachother. Findings were saidto show that, overall, grouping strategies tended to help rather thanhinder academic progress and social progress. It was further found that previous achievement levels predictedsubsequent math achievement. Nongraded and mixed-aged grouping in earlychildhood. Summary This study reviewed the literature in an effort to determine whethergrouping strategies hindered or helped students make academic and or socialprogress. (1993). As Hereford puts it: ...studies show...the separation and labelling of learners impacts students' self-esteem (negatively) and may even segregate students by race or social class. Hereford, N. (1988). It was concluded that subject area variation was due todifferences in teachers' implementation of the cooperative strategies. Madden, N.A., & Slavin, R.E. The second typeof ability grouping (sometimes referred to as "tracking") is a between-class grouping in which students spend all or most of the day learning withpeers of equal ability. As pointed out by Katz (1992), one of the difficulties involvedin determining the effects of grouping on children's progress is that thereare many different kinds of grouping strategies in use (e.g., mixedgrade/mixed age grouping, ability grouping, cooperative grouping, andcluster grouping) and many of these strategies are used only for specificstudent populations (e.g., special needs or gifted students). However, social effects are much morepositive if students spend most of the day in a heterogeneous class and aregroup homogeneously only for one or two subject areas. Winebrenner, S. In this regard, Madden and Slavin(1983) examined for the effects of cooperative learning in terms ofprosocial behavior toward special populations of students. EDO-PS-92-9). (p. (1994). Mixed Grade/Mixed Age Groupings According to Katz (1992), mixed grade/mixed age groupings commonlyrefer to group strategies where the age of the students in class span morethan one year. Therefore, in order to arrive at an answer to the question of thegeneral effects of grouping, it is necessary to examine the researchfindings associated with specific types of grouping strategies. Introduction Does grouping help or hinder a child's academic and/or socialprogress? Effects of cooperative learningon the social acceptance of mainstreamed academically handicapped students,The Journal of Special Education, 17(2), 171-182. Journal of Psychology, 119(5), 4 5-411. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. Reuman, D.A. However, if more than onecluster is included in a given class, academic effects will decrease. & Mac Iver, D.J. Regarding motivation, Reuman and Mac Iver (1994) found thatheterogeneous-ability cooperative groups produced greater levels ofacademic motivation than homogeneous-ability cooperative groups; however,these effects also varied by subject area. Instructor, May/June, 5 -52. According to Hereford, ability groupshave been implemented and evaluated at all levels of schooling (primary,middle, and secondary). & Sharan, S. According to the authors, the existing researchindicates that cluster grouping helps gifted students to better identifywith their peers, thereby reducing their sense of being different andsomehow estranged from their mixed-ability classmates. (1983). Thus, whether cluster groups will help orhinder the academic progress of gifted students depends strongly upon thisone factor of teacher training. He delineates these essentials as follows: First, the cooperating groups must have a group goal that is important to them...Second, the success of the group must depend on the individual learning of all group members. References Bode, R.K. However, the likelihood of strong effectsincreases if the cooperative groups contain students of mixed abilityrather than students of the same degree of ability. Subjects in the study were seventh grade students assigned to eithera heterogeneous- or homogeneous-ability cooperative group at the beginningof the school year. Effects of instructionalgrouping on seventh graders' academic motivation and achievement. Also, Johnson, Johnson, Buckman and Richards (1985) examined for theeffects of prolonged implementation of cooperative learning on the socialsupport students gave to each other for cooperative learning. In addition, it was observed that the self-esteem levels and the academic achievement levels of both groups ofstudents improved. Contrary to the findings of Reuman and Mac Iver (1994), Bode (1993)reported that several studies have found more achievement in cooperativehomogeneous-ability groups than in cooperative heterogeneous abilitygroups. Bode postulated that these mixed findings might be due to therange of the ability spread tested in various studies and/or to differencesin class compositional or instructional characteristics. Winebrenner and Devlin (1992) report that while cluster grouping issufficient to meet the academic needs of gifted students, its strongestbenefits are social. ED 351148. The older students' interactions withthe younger ones are also said to teach them tolerance of those who aredifferent from themselves. Hierarchial linear modeling of class ability rangeon student mathematics achievement. & Devlin, B. Thisreport attempts such an analysis toward the objective of determiningwhether grouping strategies in fact help or hinder children's progress. It was alsonoted that some groupings work best for specific student populations suchas gifted students or students with poor social skills. One question that has arisen regarding cooperative grouping iswhether cooperative groups should be heterogeneous or homogeneous withrespect to ability? Cooperative groups appear to foster strong levels of both academicand social achievement. Regarding the effects of mixed grade and mixed age groupings, Katz(1992) reports that mixed-age grouping works to provide older children withopportunities to be helpful, patient and tolerant of their young peers; inthis way, the older children learn how to be nurturant and the youngerchildren benefit by being nurtured. Training teachers for cooperativelearning. In this regard, several types of grouping strategies wereexamined. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. Educational Leadership, 45(3), 2 -25. Subjectswere 91 eighth-grade students attending a suburban school district in theMidwest. (Report No. 3) Sometimes, within the mixed grade grouping, teachers will set uptemporary subgroups of homogeneous ability students in order to enablechildren who need the same type of basic instruction to work together. That is, there must be individual accountability as well as group accountability (p.31). In addition to its positive effects on academic achievement, severalstudies have documented benefits of cooperative strategies on a variety ofinterpersonal and prosocial behaviors. (1993). (ReportNo. Math achievement data included pretest and posttestscores. CDS-R-5 ). Hierarchial Linear Modeling was used to analyze collected data.Findings showed that the math achievement of students was roughly the sameregardless of whether they were in heterogeneous or homogeneous groups.However, there was some evidence that range of ability may influenceoutcome. However, thestrength of the effect varied by subject area with the strongest effectsbeing found for language arts and science and the weakest effect beingobserved for mathematics and social studies. (1992). In one study, Reuman and Mac Iver (1994) compared theeffects of a homogeneous-ability cooperative group to a heterogeneous-ability cooperative group in terms of its effects on academic achievementand academic motivation. Students can be assignedto an ability group within classes; in such cases, the class itself iscomposed of mixed ability students but they are grouped on the basis ofability for one specific subject such as reading or math. Katz reports that in such classes: ...teachers encourage children with different experiences and stages of development to turn to each other for help with all aspects of classroom activity, including the mastery and application of basic literacy and numeracy skills. (1985).The effect of prolonged implementation of cooperation learning on socialsupport within the classroom. Katz, L.G. Thisis that cooperative learning strategies and groups are not synonymous.Slavin points out that for any cooperative learning group to evidence thegains associated with cooperative learning, two essential conditions mustbe met. Findings showed that while the cooperative learning situations didnot increase the number of friendships made between learning disabled andregular students, they did lead to greater social acceptance of thelearning disabled students. Such groups work especially well forstudents whose social development is at a below average level.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
Browse Essays by Subject