Impact Of Cooperative Grouping On Low Achieving Sixth Grade Math Students

“Alright,” the teacher says to the students, “I’m going to number all of you off into groups. Each group will read a section from the textbook and become experts on that section. Then, each group will teach the rest of the class what they learned from their reading.” This is an instruction common to the classrooms in the United States. More and more is the pedagogy of public education leaning in favor of team-based activities, projects, and learning. Group work is generally seen as an ultimately beneficial way to teach students, but this may be somewhat of a fallacy. The emphasis on group-based learning in public schools causes a multitude of problems.

When I become a teacher I plan to have my students work in cooperative groups because this allows them a chance to share their knowledge and ideas with their peers. Due to the fact that most students are on different developmental levels, those students who are of higher developmental levels can provide the other students with their ideas and perception of their knowledge. I feel that teachers should not be scared to let their students participate in group work because I think it is a great method of learning.

The teacher prepares the students to operate in a small group together. This practice can enhance the student’s cooperative learning skills.

Another idea to improve mathematics performance in elementary level is to encourage the student to link the existing knowledge and the new knowledge effectively while working math problems/examples. A worked example is “a step-by-step demonstration of how to perform a problem” (Clark, Nguyen, & Sweller, 2006, p. 190). This will prepare the students for similar problems in the future as they bridge the connection between the problems and the examples. In many cases, students are encouraged to link the informal ideas with the formal mathematics ideas that are presented by the teacher to be able to solve problems. When students examine their own ideas, they are encouraged to build functional understanding through interaction in the classroom. When students share among themselves on differences and similarities in arithmetic procedures, they construct the relationship between themselves hence making it the foundation for achieving better grades in mathematics. Teachers can also encourage students to learn concepts and skills by solving problems (Mitchell et al 2000). Students do perform successfully after they acquire good conceptual understanding because they develop skills and procedures, which are necessary for their better performance. However, slow learning students should engage in more practice

The Case of Randy Harris describes the lesson of a middle school mathematics teacher, and how he uses diagrams, questions, and other methods to guide his students to a better understanding. Throughout his case study, Harris’ methods could be easily compared to that of the Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices. There are eight mathematical teaching practices that support student learning, most of which are performed throughout Randy Harris’ lesson. Harris didn’t perform each teaching practice perfectly, despite doing the majority of them throughout his lessons. The following are examples of how Randy Harris implemented the eight mathematical teaching practices into his lesson, and how the ones that were neglected should have been

This is the time in an adolescent's life when everything starts to change, and there are many new and intimidating challenges for each learner. Most of the difficulties of this change can be attributed to the changes in how classes are taught and structured in middle school compared to elementary school. In middle school, the class structure is new and different, greatly affecting how a student learns and adapts to learning. For our learner, the shift to middle school was not a smooth transition. He has to deal with disorganization, poor time management, forgetfulness, not fully understanding his math class, and self-confidence issues related to his math studies.

This article described the how a group of educators came together to introduce problem solving to third-grade students throughout the year as a means to teach other concepts instead of just teaching this concept when it was reached in the textbook. The educators were in groups of three with a mathematical consultant. During the course of this project the educators met with the mathematical consultant every four weeks to discuss how students responses and their presentations. During these meeting the educators would often make adjustment to better fit the students. The article contained subsections about the special spark, the before, during, and after of the problem

Small groups require active teaching with much teacher guidance or involvement. Small groups can teach the context better than a larger group, allowing for no child to be struggling and left behind. Reading, math and science can benefit from small group interaction. Each student has a chance to be heard, voice his opinion or conclusion, get a response from the teacher and the other group participants, and close the gap for error. The key for successful learning is when the teacher involves himself and gets excited about what the children are to be taught. This is also true in group study as

“Helping students develop mathematical dispositions in which they share their ideas, discuss others’ ideas, and so on, is always a challenge,” (The National Council of Teachers Mathematics, 2003, P. 151). I found this quote and reading to be very relatable, in the sense that students can often struggle to come up with their own ideas. This was definitely true for me and my group when we were working on the locker problem in class. In the book and in class, discussions can really benefit students and keep them engaged. “To encourage all students to contribute to discussions, the teacher should ask other students to explain their classmates ideas,” (The National Council of Teachers Mathematics, 2003, P. 153) this statement made me think of dialogic teaching. Dialogic teaching is students having a rich discussion amongst each other while being guided by the teacher. The students find out the answer on their own and the teacher does not tell them. So social norms and classroom management plays a big role when students problem solve.

In Case Study 5.1, Mrs. James not only effectively started her class with sharing her own experiences and building relationship with her students but also emphasized the importance of group work, which is in helping and learning from each other. She illustrated the following strategies and routines that supported cooperative learning: room arrangement, talk and movement procedures and individual accountability by building students’ social, explanation and sharing skills.

Middle school is the time for exploration and identity development. This age is defined by two periods of cognitive development that Jean Piaget called the concrete operational age and the formal operations stage. For this very reason, lessons and activities in the middle school need to be varied and unique. Students develop at different rates, and for this reason some of my students maybe concrete thinkers while others could be abstract thinkers. It all boils down to that individual student. Therefore, it is important to understand that not every student learns at the same pace from the same activity. What may work for one will not work for all. This is why in my math classes I will incorporate problem-solving tasks and questions. I believe in groupwork when it comes to these types of problems because it gives students a chance to listen to multiple ways of thinking to come to a solution. I cannot think of a job today where someone will always work alone. Our society is built on cooperation between different types of peoples to achieve one goal, to improve our world. Teaching students these lessons early on, increases their abilities to work together to come to a solution for a problem, and to embrace the diversity of learning in those

The teacher may plan for pupils of similar abilities in a particular subject to work in a group as they may be working at the same pace, or alternatively pair pupils of higher and lower abilities so they can help each other.

For my middle level observation, I had the honor to observe at Huntington Middle School under Mrs.Rivera in sixth grade hub class and Math. I was very fortunate to have had this opportunity, as I have observed things that I have mixed emotions about. In this paper, I will discuss the different ways Mrs.Rivera taught, and the different components that made up her math classroom.

Since, I will be teaching Math 4-8, I will be using the Think-Pair-Share strategy to encourage classroom participation in order to solve mathematical problems. I will give students a problem, and students will have time to think about it individually. Then they can work in pairs to solve the problem, which will allow them to express their ideas, consider those of others, and discuss possible answers. Finally, the students can share their answers, and ideas with the class.

Domains such as, cognitive development and development of aspects of information processing. Cognitive development is displayed when students use their problem solving and decision making skills. Development of aspects of information processing is displayed when students process the information that is given. Collaborative/cooperative learning promotes development of intelligence, personal and emotional development, development of motivation and self-regulation, and moral development. Development of intelligence is displayed when students work together and trust one another to solve a problem. Personal and emotional development is shown when students have positive and effect interactions with one another. Development of motivation and self-regulation is demonstrated when students have the ability to complete assignments without being distraction to others. Moral development is shown when students in the group work collaboratively and treat one another with