This module focused mainly on different ways of grouping students. The two main ways that grouping can occur is heterogeneity or homogeneity. Groups based on heterogeneity would include students that range in all levels of ability. Groups that are based on homogeneity would be made up of only students that are the same level of achievement and ability. Another way of grouping students is within-class and between-class. Within-class grouping the a way of dividing students up within a confined classroom setting. These groups are usually homogeneous. Between-class grouping is a common practice in middle schools and high schools and refers to when a class is full of students that are all the same level of achievement. All of these types of grouping tend to be effective in their own ways.
According to Vygotsky, no learning happens individually. He claims that learning is always influenced socially and by the cultural aspects of the environment. Module 21 fits well with the ideas proposed by Vygotsky because of the fact that grouping is a way for students to learn socially and interact with others. I believe that Vygotsky would recommend using the heterogeneous grouping because when higher ability students are mixed with lower ability students, both levels of students are able to scaffold from one another. Higher level students can help lower level students accelerate and understand the material. This is also beneficial to the higher level students because when a student is forced to explain a certain concept, it forces them to thoroughly analyze it and understand it to a fuller extent.
One question that I had while reading this chapter was why a teacher would choose to have a homogeneous group of lower level students. In my opinion, it seems that this would deter lower level students from reaching a higher potential. They would not be able to scaffold and model the higher level students.
While I am writing this post, I have many social influences that are affecting my learning. The text book that I am referring to was written by another person. The computer was also made by other people which is allowing me to write this blog.
Interesting question. Honestly, why would a teacher want a group of lower-achieving students? Do you think she has to change all of her expectations of the class to fit the lower-achieving group? And by knowing they were the lower-achieving group, I feel like they would do less and less to achieve more. Hopefully we don't encounter a lot of teachers like this!
ReplyDeleteI have seen in my field experience that the teacher spends more time trying to help each individual student in lower-achieving groups learn at their own pace while the rest of the class is doing a class wide thing like listening to a story or working on a workbook page. I think it is beneficial to identify students as being in a lower achieving group and put more effort into them because of it.
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