Personal development at school is within the framework of educational and extracurricular activities. A graduate of the initial stage of education must have certain skills: learning activities, self-control, introspection, self-esteem. What does it take?
To successfully solve this problem, many primary school teachers and middle school teachers include individual elements of group activities in the lesson (extracurricular activity). Consider the distinctive features of collective learning, give specific examples.
Theoretical moments
New federal educational standards aim students at acquiring general educational skills and abilities. To acquire new knowledge, the student must develop the skills of independent activity. A group form of organization of training helps to achieve this. The child gets a chance for independent development, tries himself as a researcher, becomes equala participant in the educational process.
A teacher who uses the principle of developmental education in his professional activities tries to educate active individuals. His students strive to gain new knowledge, are able to lead a discussion, take the initiative.
Psychologists are convinced that it is the group form of organization of learning that contributes to the development of a child's cognitive activity. Working in a small group, the guys improve their communication skills.
Purpose
Group forms of education are necessary for the active inclusion of each child in the learning process.
Main Tasks:
- activation of cognitive interest;
- improving the skills of independent activity (building an individual developmental trajectory);
- development of communication skills (building a dialogue, the ability to hear the interlocutor)
Distinguishing Features
What characterizes the group form of education? The pros and cons of this method of education deserve separate consideration. Let's dwell on them in more detail.
Group learning is a traditional way to increase learning and cognitive motivation. Thanks to joint activities, anxiety decreases among schoolchildren, the fear of being the worst student in the class disappears.
Group learning in the classroom contributes to the improvementpsychological climate in the team. That is why psychologists recommend teachers to include this form of work at all levels of education.
Main flaws
Despite the fact that group forms of education assume the independence of schoolchildren, their effectiveness depends on the skill and interest of the teacher. Among the minuses are:
- the need for preliminary training of schoolchildren in such activities;
- expenses by the teacher of serious efforts to organize work;
- difficulty dividing a class into separate groups.
Not all children are ready to work in a team. Therefore, the teacher has to spend efforts to think over the forms of acquiring UUN (universal learning skills).
Principles
The collective-group form of education is based on the following principles:
1. Accounting for the level of educational opportunities of each child.
2. Compilation of tasks of a problematic nature.
3. Distribution of roles between team members.
4. Organization of communication within the group.
5. Reflection.
Options for creating groups
Group forms of education involve the preliminary division of the class into small cells. This can be done in various ways:
1. Split at will.
2. Random.
In the first case, the association of schoolchildren is carried out by mutual agreement. Atrandom division, the team may include children who do not normally communicate with each other.
This option allows the teacher to develop the participants' skills to adapt to different conditions of activity, to minimize interpersonal conflicts.
Activities
Let's consider the main types of group education that are suitable for elementary school:
- brainstorming;
- work in pairs;
- snowball;
- game "Continue the thought";
- treasure hunt;
- mosaic;
- Zigzag method
How to brainstorm? This tactic is used by the teacher to generate new ideas. This frontal-group form of education requires compliance with strict regulations.
Within the group, the guys distribute the roles: timekeeper, secretary, presenter. After the completion of the collective activity, students exchange messages, discuss them, ask clarifying questions.
Continue Thought Game
It involves the performance of various tasks by the guys "along the chain". Such group forms of education are suitable for different academic disciplines. For example, you can use this technique to compose a story on literary reading.
A distinctive feature of this form is the formation of communication skills in children. In order to continue the answer, the student is forced to closely follow the version of his classmate. The teacher who uses this method in his work,solves the problem of involving students in learning activities.
Treasure hunt
Such collective-group forms of organizing learning are appropriate in the lesson of consolidating and correcting knowledge. The teacher makes questions concerning the studied material. In order to answer them, the group can use any resources: notes in a notebook, Internet resources, textbook material.
If the guys successfully cope with the task assigned to them, they find "treasures". In addition to excellent marks, the teacher invites children to watch an educational film regarding the material being repeated.
Snowball
Such group forms of teaching in elementary school are used by many teachers. Work begins with the solution of a specific task. Each child does it on their own. Next comes the work in pairs. Children exchange their answers, choose the best solution.
Then comes pairing. The group must now choose one of the four solutions. At the end of the lesson, the class should highlight the general, most complete solution to the question posed by the teacher at the beginning of the lesson.
Mosaic
What is this collective form of learning activity? The topic of the lesson is divided by the teacher into several separate parts, they are distributed among the groups. The guys receive a list of sources, educational materials that they will need to study the proposed topic.
As soon as the group copes with the task, it is re-formed. In new teams, the guys exchangefound information, answer questions, draw conclusions.
Zigzag technique
This form of teamwork is used not only by elementary school teachers, but also by middle school teachers. The class is divided into groups of 3-5 people to work on the material, divided into separate fragments.
Children working on the same issue, but belonging to different groups, exchange the information they find among themselves. Then they return to their teams, teach the rest of the group those new skills that they themselves have acquired. The rest of the team does the same. At the end of the lesson, a general summary is summed up, those questions that caused the maximum difficulties for the children are clarified.
Teacher activity
What should a teacher do during group activities? A teacher using this form of work in educational activities can perform various functions:
- control group work;
- organize the learning process;
- evaluate results;
- take part in the work of groups;
- offer a variety of solutions;
- act as a mentor or information carrier.
How to organize high-quality and effective work in groups? To solve this difficult task, the teacher must:
- perceive group work as a creative process;
- demonstrate to children the importance of their activities;
- pay equal attention to all students, not single out one group;
- let students acquire new knowledge on their own.
Among the mistakes educators make, the biggest one is wanting to answer a question if the child doesn't. Such tactics of the teacher leads to a decrease in the cognitive activity of schoolchildren.
How to choose tasks for group activities
Questions should be such that each member of the group can make a personal achievement (creating a situation of success). Appropriate would be to use:
- jobs that require a significant amount of work;
- questions involving the use of different skills and abilities of each member of the group;
- creative tasks, accompanied by the generation of a large number of unusual ideas.
The work offered by the teacher should be interesting for students. Tasks are selected taking into account the individual characteristics of students.
Psychologists recommend paying special attention to problematic issues that allow to involve the younger generation to the maximum extent in the process of acquiring new knowledge, skills and abilities.
Helpful tips
We offer some recommendations for teachers who want to use group work in their professional activities.
1. No need to force children to work in the same cell if there is no between themunderstanding.
2. The duration of the group activity should take into account the age of the students (15 minutes for students in grades 1-2, 25 minutes for grades 3-4)
3. The collective form of work involves the exchange of views, so there will be absolute silence in the class.
4. It is impossible to choose a ban on the participation of a child in the work of the team as a punishment.
Group education does not give quick results. Before moving on to complex material, the teacher should work out with his pupils the algorithm of activity using simple examples. It is important to be patient so that students do not have problems in the next stages.
With this training option, the class is supposed to be divided into small groups (3-6 people), which will carry out joint activities. Working in small teams, students acquire the skills of introspection. This form helps the teacher to develop in children a cognitive interest in the discipline being taught. Collective activity contributes to the development of universal learning skills.
Summarize
Group learning develops relationships between children and the teacher, as well as between members of the same group. A teacher who uses this form of education in his work adds variety to the traditional system. Children get the opportunity to independently acquire knowledge, correct it, and set their own goals.
Only at first glance, it seems that the teacher does not need to prepare for a lesson in which he plans group activities. On practicethe situation is quite different.
First, the teacher must study the educational material, armed with different sources, choose those tasks that children can handle (take into account individual characteristics). Also, when organizing group training, the teacher must know the initial level of abilities and knowledge of students, the relationship between classmates.
It is advisable to select tasks of a problematic nature so that children have the opportunity to express their point of view, exchange opinions with other groups, and choose the right answer.
Why does group work have so many supporters among school teachers? This training option has a significant number of advantages. In addition to acquiring universal learning skills, children are taught cooperation skills. Discussing a certain problem, students learn to respect the opinions of other people, listen to their point of view, defend their position, and give arguments.
With proper organization of group work, you can count on the development of creative thinking, increasing self-esteem, self-esteem of each child.
At present, group forms of educational and cognitive activity are relevant. Teachers use them to create an optimistic mood in the team, to maintain the independence of schoolchildren.
