#18 The optimum group size is three
#18 The optimum group size is three
It stops subgroups forming but ensures a diversity of ideas
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💡 A quick tip to try in class this week 💡
Confession time: I am a massive group-work skeptic. Sure, I was whipping out groups left, right and centre in my early career (especially when being observed), but I never found students learned as much as when they worked individually or in pairs.
However, listening to people like Sammy Kempner and reading books like Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, I am starting to change my mind.
One of the most interesting findings from Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics concerns group size. My groups tended to consist of 4 students, or 5 if there was an odd number. Why? To be honest, I have no idea.
In Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Peter Liljedahl instead suggests that a group size of 3 is optimum. His reasoning is that a group size of 2 does not have sufficient variety in perspectives to challenge students' ways of thinking and thus allow new ideas to form, whereas group sizes of 4 and above are likely to lead to sub-groups forming and thus group cohesion falling.Â
This is just scratching the surface of Liljedahl's recommendations for effective group work, but it might be an interesting one to experiment with.Â
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📺 A video to discuss with a colleague 📺
Curriculum expert, Mary Myatt, shares a key question we need to ask ourselves: who is this for?
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👂 A podcast episode to listen to on your way home 👂
Teacher and author, Jade Pearce, shares her five tips:
Use explicit instruction for novice learners
How to ensure questioning involves all pupils
Understand the active ingredients of retrieval practice
How to improve feedback
The power of teachers reading researchÂ
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