Managing Groupwork in the Heterogeneous Classroom

Teachers’ leadership and students’ experience of group work

“…The conclusions presented above are in line with Lotan's (2006Lotan's ( , 2008 overview of managing group work in the heterogeneous classroom. "Skillful management of group work requires that (…) [teachers] understand the connections among the fundamental components of teaching and learning" (p. 528).…”

“…Inclusion and cooperation are crucial preconditions for the learning outcome. Lotan (2006) concludes that students who participate less have lower learning gains as well as have difficulties with their wellbeing. Cohen (1994) stresses the need for teachers to convince the students that no single group member has all the abilities to complete the given task in order to create expectations about cooperation.…”

“…Different kinds of group tasks require different kinds of cooperation behaviours (Lotan, 2006). Different types of cooperation behaviours do not emerge automatically.…”

Group Work Management in the Classroom

“…A second possible explanation may be that teachers lack knowledge of how to manage group work and how to organise it in a productive manner (Gillies & Boyle, 2010;Lotan, 2006;. Several authors stress the importance of teachers taking the opportunity to practice group work as a classroom activity (Gillies & Boyle, 2010;Johnson & Johnson, 2003).…”

“…The teachers' role in the classroom is significant and may be schematised in various ways in connection with classroom management and when implementing group work (Gillies, 2008;Gillies, Ashman & Terwel, 2008;Hammar Chiriac & Granström, 2009;2012;Lotan, 2006;Webb, 2008). Irrespective of the pedagogical mode to be implemented, the teacher always retains ultimate responsibility for all actions and processes occurring in the classroom.…”