General Introduction

This blog is part of my Differentiation and Adaptive Teaching Knowledge Base.

I use the terms differentiation and adaptive teaching synonymously. To me, they are the same, as genuine differentiation has always involved adapting your planning and your teaching to meet the needs of the learners in front of you.

For me, differentiation is all the practical strategies, activities and techniques teachers use to personalise learning.

For ease, we can break that down into my five categories of differentiation: Activities, Questioning, Words and Writing, Things the Teacher Can Do and Things You Can Ask Learners to Do or Use.

This blog falls into the category of activities.

Planning Group Work Activities

In general, this involves learners working together in groups of three or more to complete a task of some sort.

It is advisable to keep groups smaller where possible (three or four learners) as this prevents the possibility of some group members becoming passengers or engaging in social loafing (a phenomenon in which one person realises they can freeride on the efforts of their teammates).

Here are some specific examples of group work:

• Learners work together to produce something that could also be done individually (for example, an essay).
• Learners work together to produce something that could not be done individually (for example, a multi-person drama piece).
• Learners work together to respond to some stimulus (for example, they investigate a problem presented by the teacher).
• Learners work together to share their thinking (for example, a discussion). This could be an end in itself, or a prelude to a further task (for example, the creation of a presentation).
• Learners work together as part of a whole-class effort (for example, an activity in which a member of each group acts as an envoy who goes off to teach their peers).

In each case, it is expected that learners will produce their work in conjunction with one another.

It may be that learners work on different aspects of the task, but they will be doing so in the knowledge that their particular element will help to form the whole.

The key point to remember about group work is that, for it to be effective for all learners, it needs structure.

This could be the provision of a key question that needs answering, a set of success criteria that must be met, or a series of mini-tasks that need to be completed.

Certain group work tasks, like jigsawing or envoys, are highly structured by their nature.

If using one of these kinds of activities, you can be confident that the structure will take care of itself.

When opting for a looser approach (and there’s nothing wrong with that), bear in mind that some structure is still important.

This is what helps learners to target their efforts effectively and removes ambiguity from the question of how the task needs to be tackled.

How does group work differentiate?

If learners work together in a group, they can allocate tasks based on the relative strengths of the group members.

This means that learners can focus on what they are good at, helping their group to succeed and ensuring that they personally engage with the task.        

Learners working in a group can build and create knowledge and understanding together.

This means that members of a group who are particularly able, or who know a lot about the matter in hand, can help others, who do not find themselves in such a position, to learn.

Group work involves discussion.

Learners are likely to have a lot of experience talking with their peers.

They can call on this in their work-based discussions, helping make the task accessible.

Structuring group work means all learners have clarity over what they need to do to be successful and how they should target their efforts.

This increases the adaptive nature of the task because it ensures every learner in the room knows what they personally need to do.

Finally, it is worth considering how working collaboratively lends itself to different kinds of outcomes compared to working on your own.

This is not to say one is better than the other. That is not the case.

Rather, that using effective, structured group work opens up possibilities that otherwise might be closed off to some or all your learners.

Planning Paired Activities

Pair work involves learners working on a task with a partner.

Here are some examples.

• The teacher introduces a piece of stimulus material and asks learners to do something with it (analysis or evaluation, for example) while working in pairs.
• The teacher asks learners to discuss a question or statement in pairs.
• The teacher gives learners a task that could be done individually (for example, analysing a source) and asks learners to do this in pairs.
• The teacher gives learners a task that could not be done individually (for example, interviewing) and asks learners to do this in pairs.
• The teacher gives learners a task that will subsequently see them engaging with other learners (for example, a snowballing task in which learners first work in pairs and then move into fours).

Pair work has many benefits.

Three of the most important are:

• It allows all learners in a class to engage actively with the work.
• It requires little preparation.
• It combines easily with a wide range of other activities.

In addition, pair work puts the teacher at an advantage.

Once learners are working in pairs, we can stand back and observe, surveying the room.

It is easy for us to identify any learners who are struggling, or who are not engaging with the task.

We can then intervene, further personalising the learning for them.

As with group work, structure is important.

This tends to come naturally within paired work as the teacher directs learners to do a specific thing with their partner:

• Answer a question
• Respond to a stimulus
• Discuss a statement

A lack of structure will be more obviously apparent in paired work than in group work though.

You can quickly see if multiple pairs are not on task or are struggling to make sense of what you have asked them to do.

This is a bit trickier to identify in group work as the nature of groups means you need to get in closer to accurately assess whether they are fully on task and cognisant of what they need to do.

As with group work, structure is what gives learners certainty over their role, what you want from them, and what they need to do to successfully complete the task.

How does paired work differentiate?

It gives all learners the opportunity to engage with the work.

This is because the whole class is divided into a series of mini-groups that are sufficiently small as to allow everyone the opportunity to take part.

Compare, for example, the experience of discussing in a pair compared to discussing in a three or a four.

You have more time, more opportunity, and more scope to be involved.

Through judicious seating arrangements, the teacher can create pairings that consist of learners who can help one another to learn (for example, a more-able learner with a less-able learner).

It provides a way for the teacher to visually identify who has not understood the work.

This is achieved by observing the class as a whole and seeing which pairs are confused or are not working.

The teacher can then focus on supporting these groups.

And, just as with group work and discussion in general, there are the attendant benefits to consider:

• Accessing other people’s ideas
• Verbal rehearsal
• Editing, ordering and refining your own thinking
• Learners tend to be better speakers than writers, with paired discussion in particular facilitating success
• Working together gives access to outcomes that might be harder (or impossible) to achieve individually