Synopses & Reviews
This book offers a challenge to traditional approaches to classroom teaching and pedagogy. The SPRinG (Social Pedagogic Research into Groupwork) project, part of a larger research programme on teaching and learning funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), was developed to enhance the learning potential of pupils working in classroom groups by actively involving teachers in a programme designed to raise levels of group work during typical classroom learning activities. Internationally, the SPRinG project is the largest evaluation of effective group working methods in comparison to traditional teaching, with findings that show raised levels of pupil achievement and a doubling of sustained, active engagement in learning. The opening chapters present arguments regarding the relationship of social interaction and children's cognitive development and examine theories that explain why social interactional processes should be integrated into primary school pedagogic practices.
Synopsis
Drawing upon developmental psychological, social psychological and classroom research, this book develops a new social pedagogic approach to classroom learning, with a stress on group work, which will be of interest to researchers, teachers and policy-makers.
Table of Contents
Foreword.- 1. Can the grouping of children in classrooms affect their learning: an introduction to social pedagogy.- 2. Groups and classrooms.- 3. The SPRinG Project: the intervention programme and the evaluation methods.- 4. SPRinG at Key Stage 1: Effective group work with young children.- 5. Improving the effectiveness of collaborative group work at KS2: effects on pupil attainment, classroom behaviour and attitudes.- 6. ScotSPRinG: The effects of group work in Scottish primary schools on attainment, interaction and classroom relationships: Relational familiarity and class composition on support for group work; Andrew Tolmie.- 7. Teachers' experiences of implementing the SPRinG Programme in schools; Ed Baines.- 8. Conclusions: The contribution of SPRinG to knowledge about collaborative group work.