Reading Reflection 3 - Groupwork ch. 1-3

Chapter 1: Chapter one presents a working definition of groupwork and establishes the role that the teacher plays as groupwork is taking place. It also discusses the validity of the research and the principles discussed. The thing I enjoyed about the chapter was that it gave us a working definition of groupwork, much more cooperative than collaborative, and acknowledges that groupwork is "not a panacea for all instructional problems" (Cohen, 1).

Chapter 2: This chapter discusses the various ways that groupwork is effective. Groupwork is beneficial academically and socially and though students are often talking, it actually increases time on task (or so it says). I like groupwork and think it can be very effective, but I'm not sure if it actually creates more time on task and I feel like that's ok. Teachers worry about students talking in groups, but it usually takes a minute or two of chatter before most of us get down to work so we have to be ok with that as teachers.

Chapter 3: This chapter outlines some of the issues that can be found in groupwork. Because students in the class group themselves based on academic, social, and peer status, the selection of the groups is very important. The expectations of the students play out in how they interact in the group and it is up to the teacher to create groups and groupwork that allow or encourage students to work cooperatively rather than collaboratively. This is something I found that I need to work on while doing CP I and hope that in CP II I can develop better strategies for designing and implementing effective groupwork.