Flexible Grouping as a Means for Classroom Management in a Heterogeneous Classroom

Abstract

This article concerns issues of classroom management in heterogeneous classrooms. Although research in the field of learning styles has yielded mixed results, there is a call for information about how they could be used to individualize instruction, especially in primary schools. This article is part of an ethnographic study aiming to examine teacher collaboration in a primary school and it draws strongly on field notes and on interviews with teachers. The intention was to discover how the two teachers in the classroom studied categorized pupils according to the learning styles model they had invented, and how the resulting groups were used for the purposes of classroom management. The study revealed that, first, learning styles seem to work as a grouping method and, second, that flexible grouping can diminish problematic situations traditionally related to heterogeneous classrooms.

Neuer Schlauch für alten Wein? Eine konzeptuelle Betrachtung von individueller Förderung im Unterricht

“…Die Anpassung des Unterrichtsangebots an die Lernvoraussetzungen der Schülerinnen und Schüler lässt sich durch den Einsatz von Methoden der Binnendifferenzierung in quantitativer, methodischer, medialer, qualitativer und inhaltlicher Hinsicht (Bräu und Schwerdt 2005;Brüning und Saum 2010) umsetzen. Dies kann sowohl für Schülergruppen, im Sinne eines "flexible grouping" (Rytivaara 2011), als auch für einzelne Schülerinnen und Schüler erfolgen. Da die konsequente Umsetzung einer solch umfassenden Differenzierung in einem klassisch lehrerzentrierten Unterrichtsarrangement an seine Grenzen stößt, wird eine Öffnung des Unterrichts notwendig (Brüning und Saum 2010;Kallweit 2015), das heißt eine Flexibilisierung von Raum, Zeit und Sozialform sowie eine Bereitstellung unterschiedlicher Lernund Unterrichtsmethoden.…”

Principals’ views on changes in the provision of support for learning and schooling in Finland after educational reform

“…Co-teaching, flexible grouping and differentiation can all be seen as instructional practices in classrooms, and they mostly relate to teachers' work. There is also a relationship among these three so that flexible grouping and differentiation may become easier when teachers are working together (e.g., Friend et al, 2010;Murawski & Hughes, 2009;Rytivaara, 2011). Co-teaching, along with flexible grouping and differentiation, was an essential part of the nationwide initiative funded by the National Board of Education that aimed to support municipalities in developing new practices (Ahtiainen et al, 2012).…”

‘We Don't Question Whether We Can Do This’: Teacher Identity in Two Co-Teachers' Narratives

“…This study is part of a larger ethnographic study on co-teaching (Rytivaara, 2011). I originally began studying classroom practices in the context of co-teaching in August 2003.…”