Students learn in different ways. Chapter 8 explored different means of delivering instruction and now we need to look at different ways of student learning. There are times when students need to work alone, but learning how to work in groups and with partners is a life-long skill that employers are looking for in the real world. Chapter 9 looks at different ways for guiding student learning.
Summarize each of the following types of learning.
1. Learning Alone
2. Learning in Pairs
3. Learning in Small Groups
4. Cooperative Learning
5. Learning in Large Groups
1. Learning Alone
ReplyDeleteResearch says that more than 10 percent of k-12 students learn best alone. Learning-alone students are often gifted, nonconforming, able to work at their own pace successfully, comfortable using media, or seemingly underachieving but potentially able students. For an alone learning student, instructional packages utilizing a multisensory approach are most apt to encourage and ensure academic success.
2. Learning in Pairs
There are four types of ways to pair’s students. Peer tutoring or mentoring is a strategy whereby one classmate tutors another. Cross-age coaching is a strategy whereby one student coaches another from a different, and sometimes lower, grade level. Paired team learning is a strategy whereby students study and learn in teams of two. Students who are gifted work very well in this pair. The fourth kind is think-pair-share.
Another great way for students to learn in pairs is by using the learning center or learning station. The learning center is a special area located in the classroom where one student can quietly work and learn at the students own pace more about a special topic or to improve specific skills.
3. Learning in Small Groups
Small groups consist of three to five students in either a teacher or student directed setting. Small groups might be useful for specific learning activities, or reciprocal reading groups, where students take turns asking questions, summarizing, making predictions, and clarifying a story. Also small groups might be formed to perform an activity that might have a small supply of materials such as in a science experiment. One specific type of small group instruction is the cooperative learning group.
4. Cooperative Learning
The cooperative learning group is a heterogeneous group of three to five students who work together in a teacher or student-directed setting. They support one another and are usually having the different abilities, skill levels, ethnicity, learning styles, gender, etc. The theory of cooperative learning is that when small groups of students of mixed backgrounds and capabilities work together toward a common goal, members of the group increase their friendship and respect for one another. This helps students grow academically, socially, and emotionally. The roles in the group are group facilitator, recorder, reporter, and thinking monitor.
5. Learning in Large Groups
Large groups are those that include more than five, usually the entire class. Most often large groups are teacher directed. Student presentations and whole-class discussions are two techniques that involve the use of large groups. Students should be encouraged to be presenters for discussion of opinions, ideas, and knowledge obtained from their own independent and small-group study. A few examples of student presentations are: Debate, Jury trial, Panel, Research group, Roundtable, and Symposium (more formal than a round table). Students may need to be coached by the teacher to use these techniques effectively. Whole-Class discussion is a teaching technique used frequently by most of all teachers.