Roles Aren’t working?

I have had mixed experiences with roles despite the overwhelming evidence that roles are a way to promote productive groupwork. The thing about roles is that many times they can seem contrived or we put them in place but don’t really use them. In Jo Boaler’s book Mathematical Mindsets, in Smarter Together! Put out by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and in Designing Groupwork by Elizabeth Cohen and Rachel Lotan, they discuss that children will naturally decide who is “smart” and who is “less smart” and they will use this information to assign status if left to their own devices.  This is how we end up with the common problem of one person doing all the work in a group.  These status issues will naturally occur (with adults as well as children) and we can’t change that. They all offer several ways to combat this issue; things we DO have control over, including offering tasks that are multidimensional, assigning competence and using roles.  Offering tasks that are multidimensional, while difficult for teachers, has been less problematic in its implementation than roles, but there are effective ways of using roles that inherently assign competence as well.

Natural Roles

If there is a long term project or course built around the need for certain roles, for example, a school newspaper or website, then each person’s role is inherently necessary in order for the product to get done.  Also, there is usually some intrinsic motivation because the role is chosen based on interest or skill. The other way that roles can be used is as a way for a teacher to organize various duties for group members and assign competence.  

Organization 

Boaler’s book outlines 4 roles, each role having certain responsibilities.  My personal feeling, that was confirmed during a recent class I took with some very experienced math teachers, is that the teacher can decide as the teacher which roles do what and it doesn’t even matter how they are labeled or if the duties change from day to day.  They could be colors, letters, animals or whatever.  So, for example, you could say, “ I would like all the facilitators to make sure that the group gets off to a quick start” and “when groups are ready for materials, send the resource manager to the back table” or “Once the group has finished number 1, send the reporter to check in with me about some missing information” these directions could just as easily be “send the alligators to the back table to retrieve materials” or “all the blue group members are responsible for making sure the group gets off to a quick start…”.  Also, position can be used to identify people responsible for various things.  If there are four people in a group, maybe the person closest to the door gets a responsibility. I used the 1st person in the group list as an online class to identify a needed role.  This is one thing that I don’t think Boaler’s book addresses.  

Competence

The second piece of using this method is that it can be a way of assigning competence.  When a teacher gives responsibilities to students, it can increase their status within the group.  Some responsibilities will do this less and some may be more apparent, but any time you assign a responsibility to a student it makes the other group members rely on that member in some way.  One responsibility that increases status a lot is when you give a student information or materials that the other group members will need in order to solve the problem.  For example, maybe after students have grappled with a problem for a short time, all facilitators are instructed to come meet with the teacher where they receive a formula sheet to take back to their group.  Or perhaps the teacher requests a meeting with all red group members to clear up a misconception that she has noticed. The red group members then bring that information back to the group and share it to clarify the misconception. These two examples can really increase status which also increases the overall equity in the group.