I believe that social learning can be beneficial for some students within a classroom. Other students may not be able to handle it, so as a teacher, you should have some other strategies to use in your bag. I like using social learning in my classroom, but I have to monitor this group of students a little more than I had to with previous groups. I would think that middle school aged children would be able to handle social learning more, but from my personal experience thus far, it seems that they can’t.
On the other hand, I do enjoy watching my students work cooperatively and collaboratively. I do believe that they learn a lot from their peers, and that it boosts their confidence when they feel like the experts in a situation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Shonda,
ReplyDeleteI think social learning with middle school students would be very tough. I do it effectively with high school students, especially sophomores, juniors and seniors. There are numerous benefits of the social learning theory but you must have the right group of students or it can become a real headache.
Shonda,
ReplyDeleteI teach fifth grade and I love to use cooperative learning! I agree that some groups have been a little more difficult than others when using this strategy, but it seems to work if you make them interdependent, as suggested in this week's learning resources. I always provide rubrics in advance and try to have one that is specific to group work and one that is specific to the project. The group work rubric remains the same all year. I also use modeling at the beginning of the year so they know what is expected. These techniques really help me manage my groups.
Coleen