Group Work vs. Whole Class Activity

Introduction

                                     

As a primary school teacher I tend to use different kinds of strategies to facilitate learning among students. I often switch between whole-class activities and group work, depending on the nature of task and the availability of resources. I use whole class strategy to introduce or summarize a lesson while group work for its development and extension. My students feel comfortable with both strategies as a whole-class feedback phase after a session of group work provides a smooth transition to the learning process.  Both strategies are effectual and successful at one time or the other. Teachers distribute their time between interacting with children individually, in groups and as a whole class (Maurice Galton, 1999). In this paper, I will first introduce the two strategies under discussion, and then examine their advantages and disadvantages. Afterwards, I would attempt to suggest different ways for the effective management of either strategy. The objective of this paper is to determine which teaching strategy of student organisation works best while performing different classroom tasks.