Math with Group
Benefits to group work
- Focus in on active engagement.
- Ideas expressed by students have the potential to contribute to everyone’s learning.
- Respect and response are warranted in order for group work to be effective.
- Students must respect that everyone has their own methods for solving problems. They must also recognize there are a variety of methods that will lead to a solution.
- Classroom culture exhibits an appreciation for mistakes as opportunities to learn. Student errors afford opportunities for everyone to examine faulty reasoning, which then raises each person’s level of analysis. Mistakes are not covered up; they are used constructively.
- Semiotic mediation describes how information moves from the social plane to the individual plane. Semiotic mediation involves interaction through language but also through diagrams, pictures, and actions. Social interaction is essential for mediation (Van de Walle, 18).
- Learning is dependent on the learner, the social interactions in the classroom, and the culture within and beyond the classroom.
- Fosters positive study habits.
- Procrastination is avoided, as students are accountable for their work in a group setting.
- The way in which information is internalized depends on whether it was within a learner’s zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development (ZPD) refers to a range of knowledge that may be out of reach for a person to learn on their own, but is accessible if the learner has the support of peers or more knowledgeable others (Van de Walle, 21).
- When students work together in small groups they tend to learn faster. This is because what may be difficult for one student might be easier for another. Instead of struggling with concepts alone, students can help each other to work out problems and learn together faster.
- Working with a group kills boredom in the classroom.
- Students will strengthen their ability to work as members of a team. The math groups cultivate camaraderie between group members and establish essential skills to promote teamwork and collaborative problem solving techniques.