What Types Of Grouping And Peer Interactions Generate Authentic Essay

What Types Of Grouping And Peer Interactions Generate Authentic Student Engagement And Positive Learning Outcomes - Essay Example The study also observed that peer directed small groups can help in effective grouping techniques that eliminates the discrimination and improve positive learning outcomes. Most activities in science classes involve group work. When students work in groups, the experience is meant to be authentic and engaging, and should lead to meaningful learning. Teachers have often seen, however, group interactions that lead to student frustration. Often, poor group dynamics result in poor cooperation and communication. A lack of cooperation and communication will lead to passive compliance, rebellion or a refusal to participate. The purpose for choosing this topic is to research how to create positive group dynamics to improve student engagement. An overlying goal of this research is to develop a systematic approach to with-in class grouping, which promotes and fosters positive social interactions, increased student performance, and high levels of authentic student engagement. The Social Development Theory of learning suggested by Vygotsky will correspond to this review of research. Social Development Theory states that children learn through social interaction (Kearsley, 2008). These types of interactions are key to forming work groups that do, indeed, produce positive learning outcomes.... When some students are performing equally well with other students, a grouping of such students can help to revise the syllabus items for those students. However, there are different grouping styles observed in classes called, ability grouping, tracking etc., depending on the circumstance and need. Ability grouping also called instructional grouping, usually used for reading purposes in elementary schools. Whereas, tracking is usually observed in middle and higher classes to direct them to take particular courses basing on their performance levels in previous classes. Many teachers and scholars believe that grouping leads to 'discrimination and permanent labeling', hence do not observe grouping in teaching-learning process. One study conducted on Japanese teachers notified teacher's expressing that grouping hurts students emotionally, so they prefer having mixed-ability classrooms instead of grouping. Also some argue that grouping not only brings discrimination but also makes the children adopt the unwanted behaviors from other children in grouping, as grouping is a close social context. Though placing students into groups is an instructional technique to maximize the effectiveness of learning and classroom management, it should be done with careful planning and clear purpose. However, Cohen E.G., specifies some conditions that help the class room grouping to be productive and effective for the learning process. The paper observes the review of studies of interaction and while concentrating on the aspects like - interaction and achievement; task and interaction; the helpfulness of helping; interdependence and interaction; and reward interdependence. The author identified the aspects like- structuring the