Does STUDENT Collaboration REALLY Boost Grades?

Have you ever wondered if letting students work together helps them learn better? I tried it out for about four weeks to see what would happen. 

Here’s what I learned about using groups:

• Students practiced and talked with each other about the lessons. They helped each other study.
• The score for our unit test was higher than expected when students worked in groups. This shows that working together can help with grades.
• However, making sure all groups stay focused can be tricky. Some groups might spend more time off-task. It's important to have a plan for keeping students working.
• Even when the class did better on the test, not everyone showed they had learned a specific skill well, even though they had practiced it in groups. This means group work might help with some things but not everything.
• I thought about how students felt about working in groups. Some students still preferred to work alone.
• My biggest disappointment was they way my students treated my Guest Teacher. Sometimes, group settings can lead to more trouble if there isn't a teacher watching closely.

Overall, working in groups can help students' test scores. But it's also important to watch how the groups are working and if everyone is really learning what they need to know. 

But after doing it for 4 weeks I would not do it again since I did not see the huge gains I was hoping for and the behavior was harder to imagine. 

To see a more detailed breakdown of my finding click on the image above to watch the video.