Journal #3: Professional Literature Review

In reviewing select chapters from H. Jerome Freiberg and Amy Driscoll’s book, Universal Teaching Strategies (2005) and Eva Chiriac and Karin Frykedal’s research study, “Management of Group Work as a Classroom Activity” (2011), it is clear that the topic of group work in the classroom has the potential of great use as a pedagogical tool.  However, grouping has met resistance because of the challenges and implications it brings to classroom management.  Chapter 10 of Universal Teaching Strategies discusses some concerns and benefits of using group work in the classroom.  Teachers should consider the physical and socioemotional environments, the content they intend for the students to learn (such as interpersonal skills and subject material), and the individual learner and whether each student will benefit from group work.  Chapter 12 of Universal Teaching Strategies discusses several typically group-based strategies that can make learning more interactive and real:  role-play, simulation, drama, problem-based learning, and service learning.  With these strategies, challenges like time, space, the emotional climate of the classroom and the roles of the teacher are addressed. “Management of Group Work as a Classroom Activity” approaches group work from several teachers’ perspectives and asks why teachers are hesitant to use group work.  The researchers observed teachers participating in focus groups and found that these teachers did not think group work helped in subject matter learning, and that its management issues did not justify the benefits of this mode of teaching.