Group learning as relational economic activity

Lesson study for learning community (LSLC): conceptualising teachers’ practices within a social justice perspective

“…As Sidorkin (2009) mentioned, fear of failure within competitive education systems leads to the unquestioned adoption of prevailing policies, standards and values set up dominant power. This means that, in a school setting, pupils may come to compete with each other for the sake of better scores in examinations, rather than supporting each other in meaningful ways (Saito & Atencio, 2014a, 2014b. Teachers may not cooperate and collaborate with each other in sustainable learning communities, because of conflicting interests and their desire to be appraised over others, in effect reflecting 'balkanisation' (Hargreaves, 1994).…”

Conceptualising Teacher Practice and Pupil Group Learning through Developmental Stages and Integration Factors

“…However, they also posit that teachers often have significant concerns and difficulties pertaining to facilitating group learning. In addition to this concern, our view is that teachers in Asian contexts, where more authoritarian and 'top-down' modes of instruction have frequently been employed (Saito & Atencio, 2013), are in particular need of further guidance regarding the development of group learning.…”

“…Here, an economy is considered as a key part of any human interactions, including education -that is, Polanyi's economic perspective arguably reflects the operation of social structures, including those involving students in their classroom relationships (Sidorkin, 2004;Saito & Atencio, 2013 These three forms of integration, which are considered here as being central to the concept of group learning, depict movement flows of wealth, commodities and people: reciprocity is the gratuitous movement of wealth or services between two groups in a mutually symmetrical arrangement, considered as 'give and take' with 'no strings attached'; redistribution involves the pooling of resources within one focal point and the subsequent dispersal of this built-up surplus commodity to those in need (for example, in a traditional sense, teachers with a higher level of knowledge are expected to 'redistribute' their knowledge to their pupils); and, finally, exchange can be considered as the mediated outcome whereby both parties exchange their labour in relation to a mutually agreeable condition (for example, pupils will invest in lessons offered by their teachers if they feel that the lessons are beneficial to them, otherwise they will refuse to participate or make the 'exchange'). Table II shows how reciprocity, redistribution and exchange are developed according to the development of maturity in group learning.…”

“…Group learning refers to an activity where the students in a classroom are divided into smaller working groups in order to engage with given learning tasks or to consult and discuss with each other during lessons to co-construct knowledge (Palinscar & Brown, 1984;Johnson et al, 1993;Dillenbourg et al, 1996;Webb & Mastergeorge, 2003;Sato, 2006;Saito & Atencio, 2013). However, despite increased recognition of group learning as a viable pedagogical approach, Blatchford et al (2003) raise the issue that 'research and theory relevant to group work in classrooms is limited ' (p. 155), particularly in relation to describing everyday learning processes, which are typically 'unplanned' (p. 154).…”

Comparative institutional analysis of participation in collaborative learning

“…The first is cooperative learning, which aims to allow students to achieve academic and social goals based on role division (Gillies & Boyle, 2010;Law, 2014), rewards (Buchs et al, 2011Slavin, 2015), and sometimes competition between groups (Slavin, 2015;Williams & Sheridan, 2010). The second is collaborative learning (Saito & Atencio, 2014a, 2014bDillenbourg et al, 1996;Olivares, 2005;Roschelle & Teasley, 1995), which underlines mutual consultation based on help-seeking and dialogue between members (Knight & Mercer, 2014, 2016Webb, 2013;Webb & Mastergeorge, 2003) without role divisions, rewards, or competition (Saito & Atencio, 2014a, 2014b. Help-seeking is vital because it encourages those who do not understand the content to take the initiative to seek help for their learning (Sato, 2012).…”