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Robert Slavin

What’s the best (and easiest) way to teach?

2020-08-14T15:09:24+01:00September 25th, 2018|Featured|

I thought I'd said all I ever wanted to say about group work until, responding to a tweet from an education professor exhorting all teachers to add group work to their teaching repertoires, I unwisely suggested that maybe that wasn't such great advice. Unless you teach PE, drama, or some other subject where outcomes require cooperation this may not be good advice. Instead think very carefully about what the purpose of asking children to work in groups might be. All too often it adds little and costs much. https://t.co/psx985tnSS — David Didau (@DavidDidau) September 23, 2018 In all honesty, I really [...]

Should group work be imposed?

2015-02-16T20:35:22+00:00February 15th, 2015|Featured|

I recently posted some thoughts on what group work is and isn't good for. At no point did I say it was good for nothing (although predictably my opinion was caricatured as 'hating' group work) and I have never claimed that it cannot work. Some of the criticisms I received were as follows: - Group work is better than lecturing. I'm not sure I can even be bothered responding to this except to say that group work is also better than being punched in the face, but that's not saying much! As soon as decide lecturing is a preferable alternative I'll let [...]

Why (the hell) should students work in groups?

2018-09-23T15:17:12+01:00February 11th, 2015|Featured|

In a recent TES article James Mannion and Neil Mercer make the following claim: In not using group work, students are denied the chance to develop skills that can not only help them perform better in schools, but which are also vital for their future employment prospects – not to mention the realisation of a more fully participatory democracy. First, let me state that I see nothing inherently wrong with pupils working collaboratively. Like any method of working, it has its time and place. But I was led to believe that unless a lesson contained an element of groupwork it could not [...]

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