Why do American's shy away from group time? On page 280 the author states, "While most Americans see the value of children explaining their work to classmates, many American educators are surprised that the report of just three children would occupy the majority of such a sharing time. They see the apparent domination of a meeting by a few children as unfair." So American educators shy away from group time, because it takes a long time to have a quality conversation and discussion with children?
I feel that having a quality discussion on a topic with children is more important than worrying about how long it will take. Large group time should allow time for children to sing songs, do finger plays, and read books. Small group time should allow for discussion, conversation, problem-solving, chart making, analyzing, generalizing, hypothesizing, and discovering. Doing these things with a small group of children from 6-10 children or less can have a better effect than doing it during large group discussion. The reason I say 6-10 children is because my classroom has 22 children with a teacher and an assistant. I am the aid in the classroom, so I help out wherever I am needed. During our afternoon discussion before lunch time, we split the children into two small groups (which consist of around 6-11 children). Each teacher discusses a topic with the children or has the children come up with a topic. They have more meaningful conversations with the children during this time and allow all the children to speak more than once. I feel that just making an effort to split the children up into two groups ensures that children have time to speak and give their opinions and ideas. When children grow older and go into higher grades, they will be working in small groups for projects and classwork, so it is important they get opportunities now as children to learn how to work in small groups.
On page 285-286, the author wrote, "In groups we encounter new perspectives, strategies, and ways of thinking that enable us to learn from others. We also learn with others, modifying, extending, clarifying, and enriching our own ideas and those of others." We understand that group learning is important for children and adults, but how do teachers make group learning time more meaningful and memorable for young children? First teachers must understand what group learning is and how it is important for young children and themselves. On page 286, the author states, "The members of learning groups include adults as well as children, documenting children's learning processes helps to make learning visible and shapes the learning that takes place, members of learning groups are engaged in the emotional and aesthetic as well as the intellectual dimensions of learning, and the focus of learning groups extends beyond the learning of individuals to create a collective body of knowledge." Everyone in their lifetime will have to work in groups, but it needs to be an effective learning time to understand what goes on in group learning. Teachers need to observe their children working in groups and with their friends. When teachers do this, then they will understand how their children are able to work in a group, what kinds of things help them work in a group, and how their personalities are during group learning. If a child is shy during group learning, than you can help them by encouraging them to speak about something that interests them. Getting the other members of the group to include them on the conversation might help as well. This can boost their self-confidence and help them to feel better about group learning in the future. There are probably many ways to make group learning meaningful for children, what do you guys think?
Hello Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I think group learning is extremely important to children's learning. Group learning does allow and teach student skills that are needed in life. We need to know how to communicate with others appropriately. It seems like a simple task because we interact with people daily, but you really understand how important this process is when you see how challenging it is for others. Children need to learn how to carry out conversations with others, meaning responding according to the conversation, appropriate tone, volume level, eye contact, personal space, turn taking, learn to respect others opinions and so on. Group learning is used as a therapeutic strategy, even in adulthood (e.g. AA and NA meetings).
I too believe that teachers have an important role in group learning. It is important that teachers stay engaged in the conversation, not necessarily talking the entire time but observing and guiding the discussion at times. It is important that children are able to speak and share their thoughts. Group learning is so effective because one child's thoughts and performance may trigger another child's thoughts and give them the encouragement and drive they need to share theirs. Thank you again Ashley for allowing me to comment on your blog.
Hello Ashley,
ReplyDeleteFrom a teacher's perspective, I agree that group learning should be memorable and meaningful for young children. Every year, I also have a shy child that holds back and doesn't want to say anything in a large group. But just last year, I had a child that didn't like everyone looking at him and refused to speak in group discussions. After group discussion, he would come to me and discuss one on one what happened in the previous group session. I would talk to him and he was fine with that, but eventually came to talking within the group as I told him that he had great ideas. It took almost the whole year to finally speak in front of a large group, but he did it on his own time. He went from one on one, to small group and finally to large group. Every child is different and are going at their own pace. Just like adults, everyone is going at their own pace. It takes the teacher, who will give someone a chance to grow in particular situations. But I think if I had continued to push him to only speak in the group setting, the outcome may have been different.
On the flip side, what would you do if the child had not come to speak in small group at all? I know that there are some children that suffer from anxiety personality disorders as I'm learning in my Psychology courses. They go through life not speaking to anyone. What kind of resources do we have available to us to help children with this type of disorder?
Ashly,
ReplyDeleteHello, I think you have a really interesting question but I feel like you already have a lot of ideas about this question too. Like you mentioned on this blog, how children learn about participating their group work is really important, such as listening to others’ opinions and thinking, speaking up about their own feelings, cooperating with others and more. I think though they may not remember vividly what they learn when they are in preschool but what they have been through and learned will stay in their mind as their own skill and will be useful for the rest of their life. Also, if there are any children who are not talking as well as others and is more like a listener, we can encourage the children to participate more actively as a teacher but we can let children encourage each other like when Reggio’s children drew a map (Remember? There were 3 boys drawing a map of their town episode). To let them realize how group work can work for them and how they want it to work for them is one of the ways that we can provide a learning situation.
When the learning becomes memorable and meaningful for children, but teachers do not shy away, what kind of differences you think we can see on the children in our classrooms, schools, or even in our nation?
Miwa ;)
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteAs early childhood educators, how can we create our environment and learning activities that have positive energy for children to be deeply engaged in learning? How can we guide children to have a deep sense of satisfaction of working well together? How do we define what engagement is and why it is important to our children’s success as learners? What are some strategies for facilitating children’s learning in various groups and how does one implement them? We can all agree that children are a community of learners. Why is it important that we support children’s group learning skills and concepts through classroom learning community? How do teachers nurture independent thinking through group learning? How do educators foster active investigation when young children are engaged in group interaction? What are positive benefits of group and cooperative learning?
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we should encourage the self-confidence and help children to feel better about the group learning experience. In my classroom there are a few children who use English as the second language. How can we help those children to feel confident in attending the group learning? Because from what I am observing those children while they are attending the group learning they seemed to be quiet and tend to be listeners more than speakers. What kinds of strategies that will help encourage those children to be more confident and more active in their own learning? And sometime when teacher try to encourage them to share their thoughts and ideas, other children seem to step up and help them a lot. I think it is very thoughtful for those children to help other peers but at the same time it seems like children who use English as the second language lack the opportunity to speak up due to their peer support and their language abilities. What kind of strategies that teacher should use to encourage ESL students to stand up on their own?
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteIt is quite funny because I was speaking to my colleague about circle time and, in particular, calendar related activities. We wondered together about the purpose of bringing children together to complete a prescribed activity. Then we began to talk about how can the power of group learning be overlooked in the name of an expected circle time activity. Are there other expected practices in early childhood which continue limit the possibilities of implementing group work as described in the text? How might the ideas you share from your own classroom of splitting the class into two and engaging in deep conversation become an inspiration for rethinking other practices that could support group learning?
Jeanne
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI like the example you gave about splitting your classroom into groups. I think some children are afraid to share in a large group and so smaller groups help them. It also gives the teacher time to focus on them more individually. Are there things you have learned about the children from the smaller groups? I enjoy doing family childcare because I am limited to six children. I always have a smaller group. I like that each of the children get a chance to talk and be acknowledged. They don't have to raise there hand and be called upon to share their thoughts. It is just like a conversation among our small group.