The Pedagogy of the World Studies 8‐13 Project: the influence of the presence/absence of the teacher upon primary children's collaborative group work

Abstract

The World Studies 8-13 Project was set up in 1980, to help young people to develop the knowledge and skills they need to live in an interdependent world. Collaborative group work is a major element of its pedagogy. In this research, children's interactions in these settings have been analysed in order to compare the effect of the presence/absence of the teacher upon their participation. In groups without the teacher, it was found that children used relevant concepts to initiate their ideas and were overwhelmingly 'on task'. However, children often failed to apply listening and questioning skills and were unable to sustain continuity in discussion. They did not always justify their ideas with reasons and evidence. They found it difficult to cope with problems of group relations. In contrast, the presence of the teacher usually correlated with improved quality and continuity. The teacher's interventions stimulated the pupils to elaborate on their ideas with explanations and evidence and helped to control group relations. It follows that in the early stages with young children, the teacher's presence and support in modelling group work skills can be crucial.

Adapting Teacher Interventions to Student Needs During Cooperative Learning: How to Improve Student Problem Solving and Time On-Task

“…Results have shown that teachers who provide low-help-content TIs using questions and those who provide high-help-content TIs without using questions can both succeed (E. G. Cohen, 1994b;Harwood, 1995;Meloth & Deering, 1999).…”

“…By using questions, teachers can help students focus on the task while minimizing their intrusiveness. Harwood (1995) showed that when teachers asked students challenging questions with little problem content information, students often explained and justified their answers during the TI. Consider the following example in which a teacher intervened when a student erred.…”

“…All of these elements might affect students' post-TI TOT and problem solving. TOT captures Harwood's (1995) "staying on topic" and Meloth and Deering's (1999) task-relevant behaviors, while problem solving captures both correct ideas (Harwood, 1995) and explanations (Harwood, 1995;Meloth & Deering, 1999). Past studies have shown that students are more likely to Chiu solve a problem if they are on-task more often (e.g., Forman & Cazden, 1985) or generate more correct ideas (e.g., Chiu & Khoo, 2003).…”

“…For example, Harwood (1995) examined groups of primary school children discussing current world issues. Harwood examined groups' interactions (a) when the teacher facilitated their conversations and (b) when the teacher was elsewhere.…”

Toward a social pedagogy of classroom group work

“…Further problems reported by teachers, while attempting to implement group work, concern the selection and design of effective tasks and task structures that legitimise group interaction (Bennett & Dunne, 1992;Harwood, 1995) and the potential for increases in levels of conflict when pupils engage in group discussions (Cowie et al 1994). This suggests a need for improved pupil training in group work skills under normal classroom conditions.…”