Increasing group participation is probably the most common task of a teacher in running groups. Perhaps the most important aspect of equalizing members of a group is to change what Elizabeth Cohen referred to in her research as “expectations”. This refers to the expectations of generally higher achieving students of lower achieving students and also (maybe even more importantly) the expectations that generally low achieving students have of themselves. Remember that I mentioned in an earlier post that in any group, it is natural for a hierarchy of status to evolve. Finding ways to combat this is a necessary part of designing group work because of this natural tendency. Here are three strategies that can be used to try and deal with this persistent issue.
1. Provide multiple pathways for success
This means that even if a student does not have a strength at remembering the steps in a procedure, for example, that they can demonstrate competence in another way like providing a model of the procedure. By providing a variety of types of group tasks that offer opportunities to demonstrate a variety of skills, all students will be able to demonstrate expertise at some time or another. These opportunities should be balanced so that it is not just once in a while that students are able to show competence.
2. Be transparent about expectations
When group work is designed in a way that the task requires multiple abilities and different types of intelligences, opportunities arise for students to demonstrate competence but also for students to show weaknesses. Because the group work is no longer only academic, students who have strengths in this area may show weaknesses. This is important to acknowledge because especially if these students have not had a lot of struggle in school, they may begin to feel less confident and this is not the point. When group work is designed in this way, be transparent about the fact that these tasks are going to require skills that not everyone will be initially good at. For this reason, group work and collaboration will be necessary. Also be clear that it is expected that everyone will have difficulty with some part of the task and that is okay. Teach them to expect to struggle. A culture of learning and growth rather than grades and success will help all students feel competent.
3. Make students feel “smart”
As you walk around to monitor groups, listen for comments made by students who do not normally consider themselves skilled at the subject. Make authorities out of these students by giving positive feedback about their contributions. If there is an opportunity to send someone to get help from these students instead of you helping them, this is an amazing opportunity. You may already have ideas about who these low status students are but as you implement more group work opportunities, this will hopefully change. As it does, you will need to keep an eye out for students who may have exhibited higher status in the past but are now demonstrating lower status. A good clue about this is the level of participation. Look for quiet or disengaged students and work to get them back involved by asking questions of them or giving them ways to participate.
While the focus here may seem to be on increasing the status of generally low achieving students, the most common complaint about group work is around the inequity of participation among group members. This is especially true of generally high achieving students. Also, remember that the idea is to equalize so there are no assumptions about who will and will not do well. This equity is what makes group work collaborative, fun, engaging and useful. Why do something in a group when it can be done just as well and faster individually?