Instructional Grouping Theory: Optimizing Classrooms and the Placement of Ranked Students

Abstract

Two common approaches to grouping students include an approach where students are grouped based on their aptitude and a cross-sectional approach where equal groups are formed and comprised of students of varied aptitudes. Instructional Grouping Theory is the study of how selection strategies impact the learning of group members. Using a non-biased, mathematically centric analysis, we found that a liked-skilled tiered grouping strategy is preferable to a cross-sectional grouping strategy when the goal is to facilitate the learning of all students. In addition, we found that a higher teacher-to-student ratio provides further benefit when analyzing the potential for facilitated learning.