In primary schools, grouping is ubiquitous. In building learning and fostering social and collaborative skills, primary school teachers thoughtfully place members of the class into working groups.
Within primary schools, research suggests demonstrable benefits of group work. These include some positive effects on students’ attainment, improved attitudes in multicultural settings, and better social atmosphere in classrooms (for a useful overview, see Kutnick & Blatchford, 2014).
As we know, students making progress when working in groups is far from guaranteed. Galton et al (1999 – as cited in Kutnick & Blatchford, 2014) found that, although in many primary classrooms children sit in groups, they rarely interact and work as groups. Galton et al also found that task-focused interactions between students often involved information exchange as opposed to discussing ideas.
What about at secondary level? Well, while much of the research on group work is centred on primary education and does not account for age variation (Lou et al, 1996, as cited in Kutnick & Blatchford, 2014), a meta-analysis of 212 studies from the Education Endowment Foundation concluded that group work has a positive impact – adding an additional five months of progress across the year (EEF, 2021).
However, in the EEF summary there is no recommendation on how to adjust group work strategy for different age ranges.
Despite this lack of research, by the time learners reach sixth form, we would hope that they would have developed some of the social and collaborative skills required to work as co-learners in groups.
So, how do we accommodate, stretch, challenge and support learning in groups of students nearing adult age? Is grouping still important in the sixth form classroom? Can we expect the same benefits as those suggested in primary classrooms?
A different strategy post-16?
So, why is strategy for group work different for post-16? Prima facie, the answer is obvious. But let’s elaborate…
Central to much pedagogical philosophy is the teacher-student relationship. But, in schools, peer relationships will be the most impactful and influential relationships for students, so it makes sense to plan for interactions between students. Peer relationships are fundamentally different to teacher-student relationships in terms of hierarchy, power, mutuality etc.
In the post-16 classroom, the classroom dynamic changes greatly. The relationship with the teacher becomes “more equal” (e.g. first name terms) and the students may be meeting each other for the first time.
The atmosphere is different, and teachers have to find different ways to help these students work together in a way that reflects cooperative working environments.
Guiding principles for post-16 group work
Here follows the five key questions that I flick through before I decide whether to use group work in my sixth form classroom.
Question 1: Is group work necessary for this task?
Establish the why. Before jumping into grouping, ask yourself: why does this task merit group work?
At sixth form, students can flood in from many different schools and towns. You need to establish some social cohesion in the early days. If this is your “why” then I suggest two things:
- First, find a reason to have one group working together, once a week, for a full term, in order to build deeper, more familiar relationships among students. I conduct a weekly quiz on current affairs with consistent groupings.
- Second, for all other tasks try to mix up the groupings as much as possible so that students can get to know everyone in the class. My aim is to ensure everyone has worked with everyone else at least once before the October break, for example.
Of course, these are social goals. So what about facilitating learning in groups? To return to the question – which learning goals legitimise group interaction?
Damon (1984) found that group work is “probably best suited to learning processes which involve giving up or transcending current levels of understanding to reach a new perspective, rather than learning processes which involve the acquisition of new skills or strategies” (see Webb & Palincsar, 1996).
I recognise this in my own experience. Therefore, I only use group work in the latter stages of learning, to embed content or to reach new perspectives on prior learning.
Learning activities centred on retrieval practice are useful for embedding learning, e.g. students complete an A-Z of literary devices as a team.
And for reaching new perspectives, it is useful to split the group into affirmative and negative factions. Give them a statement to debate and their roles must be to agree or disagree and explain why – it doesn’t matter if they agree with what they are saying, they must force the position to realise new perspectives.
I never use group work for new learning – I am the subject expert, after all. Additionally, I will never use group work for assessment.
Question 2: What is the shared outcome or goal?
The EEF guidance (2021) notes that the “most promising collaborative learning approaches … have a shared outcome or goal”.
So as we have stated, I use group work at sixth form level for embedding content or for reaching new perspectives. The students need to realise that this is their shared goal. Students must be aware of (and able to verbalise) the shared goal of the group work:
- If a group of students is using quizzing in order to revise the topic of GBH, they should say: “The goal is to remember all case law for GBH.”
- If a group of students is completing a silent debate on the character of Iago, they should say: “The goal is to generate new ideas about Iago.”
Question 3: What is the composition and size of the group?
The EEF guidance (2021) found that groups of three to five students work best. Personally, I very rarely use groups of more than four. Composition is dependent upon the difficulty of the task and/or the stage of learning. Smaller groups increase accountability.
I use mixed ability grouping when we are still in the early stages of learning a new concept. This is because, in the early stages, the group will need a strong foundation of knowledge from a more able member. Ensuring this is present prevents the group from beginning to embed incorrect knowledge.
I group by ability when we are in the latter stages of embedding the learning because this offers an opportunity, once the basic concepts have been mastered, to differentiate material and stretch these students appropriately (while other groups can be supported with more basic understanding).
Question 4: What is the duration of the task?
In year 12, to optimise the productivity of the group’s work (and minimise potential for distraction), I keep timing very tight. Tight does not necessarily mean short. If the task requires it, then plan in milestones that need to be met (and possibly evidenced) within certain time thresholds. As your students come to understand your expectations, you can loosen the grip on this. We must respect the age and maturity of post-16 students by allowing them to take responsibility.
Question 5: Should I Introduce a competitive element?
The EEF guidance (2021) warns that “overemphasis on competition can cause learners to focus on winning rather than succeeding in their learning”. But – confession – when it works, I love it!
Be warned – the competitive element may reveal significantly different levels of maturity in the sixth form classroom, so if you want to make it competitive, this may require careful grouping for social cohesion – which could be at the cost of the most effective grouping for co-learning.
This is why, despite it having the potential to be fun, I use competition sparingly.
Final tip
In transitioning out of the group work, I think it is always best to separate the group members after the task has been completed when you are moving back to teacher-led instruction.
It will refresh the dynamic of the classroom and will create a more seamless transition back into the centre of the learning.
- Erin Miller is a teacher of English and law who writes about teaching and issues in education. Find her on Linkedin. Read her previous articles for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/erin-miller
Further information & resources
- Damon: Peer education: The untapped potential, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (5,4), 1984: https://doi.org/10.1016/0193-3973(84)90006-6
- EEF: Collaborative learning approaches, Teaching and Learning Toolkit (research summary), 2021: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/collaborative-learning-approaches
- Galton et al: Inside the Primary Classroom: 20 years on, Routledge, 1999.
- Kutnick & Blatchford: Effective group work in primary school classrooms, Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education 8, Springer, 2014.
- Lou et al: Within-class grouping: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, (66,4), 1996.
- Webb & Palincsar: Group processes in the classroom. In Handbook of Educational Psychology, Berliner & Calfee (eds), Macmillan Library Reference, Prentice Hall International, 1996.