From my
experience, group work in Design and Technology is a rare
occurrence however it can provide great opportunities in teaching
and learning.
When grouping pupils, there are some factors you should consider:
Inform pupils of the benefits and your
expectations of working in a group. One of those should
definitely be that all members should take an active role
in the task.
Make sure the task is worthwhile and suited to group
work. I will offer some of my personal examples later on in the
article.
Ensure you are clear on your grouping choice system.
For example are you going for friendship groups, ability,
interests, self or pupil selected etc.
Allow opportunities for reflection and evaluation to
discuss how effective the group work was and suggestions on
improvement. We all know evaluation is a key component in the
design cycle, so it should be integrated in our lessons too.
After some extensive research there is a real
limited amount of information and ideas out there. But there is no
good having knowledge if you do not know how to use it. What good
are these tips if we don't know how to implement them?
Fortunately this is where I can help.
