Mixed-ability Groups Research Articles

Co‐operative learning and adaptive instruction in a mathematics curriculum

The AGO 12 to 16 Project (the acronym AGO stands for the Dutch equivalent of 'Adaptive Instruction and Co-operative Learning') seeks to develop and evaluate a mathematics curriculum which is suitable for mixed-ability groups in secondary education. The research questions we will address here are, first, whether this curriculum is feasible and effective, and, second, what effects, if any, the context variables time and mean cognitive level of the class have on learning. Many mathematics programmes make insufficient allowance for the differences in intellectual ability that exist in mixed-ability classes. In order to change this situation we developed a mathematics curriculum with adaptive qualities. The evaluation of the experimental curriculum was carried out in two stages. During the first stage the curriculum was used at two schools with the aim of investigating the feasibility of the programme. Experience with the implementation of the programme led to some improvements in the experimental materials. By and large the AGO model appeared to be feasible in secondary classrooms. In the second stage, which was on a large scale, the focus was on the effectiveness of the programme. Six hundred students, 13 teachers and six schools were involved in the research. Teachers in the experimental group were trained in AGO methods and in implementing the new AGO curriculum. Teachers in the control groups worked with the existing programme following their usual methods of teaching. The main conclusion of the study is positive. The AGO model as a whole proved to be practical and effective in learning mathematics. The AGO model has a positive effect on the intercept, which means that the mean scores of AGO classes are higher than the mean scores of non-AGO classes. It may be concluded that, on the average, students benefit from learning in AGO classes as compared with non-AGO classes. AGO does not increase or decrease the differences between students in the same class. As expected, positive effects of two context variables were found: (1) the total amount of time spent in class covering the mathematical content and (2) class composition as indicated by the mean pretest score (aptitude) of the class.

Effect of four instructional strategies on integrated science process skill achievement of preservice elementary teachers having different cognitive development levels

Two instructors with 7 classes and 165 students were in this study. The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of cooperative learning techniques and instruction with microcomputer-based laboratories on the achievement of preservice elementary teachers (with different operational levels of cognitive development) in acquiring integrated science process skills and enhancing formal thinking abilities. Cooperative learning is an environment in which students work in small, mixed-ability groups toward the same objectives. All students were pre and post-tested with two instruments: The Test of Integrated Process Skills (TIPS & TIPS II) and the Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT). Results showed that greater differences in the achievement on the TIPS test occurred in the setting where cooperative learning and MBLs were used. Test score gains on the TOLT test were similar across the four groups. Students with formal operational levels scored similar gains on the TIPS and TOLT tests as students of non-formal operational levels of development.

Literature, Geography, and the Untracked English Class

Last summer just after my husband and I returned from a five-week vacation, I ran into John, one of my former students. Your son told me you went to India, he said. Is that in Africa? Later, as I was telling my husband about my student's question and lamenting the gaps I see in the education of many students, it occurred to me that John's question had offered a solution to a problem I had been puzzling over all summer: how to approach my next year's ninth-grade English class. A month before school ended in June, the principal and vice-principal had agreed to change the way students are programmed into ninthand tenth-grade English classes. Instead of four ability tracks (low for stanines 2 and 3, average for 4 and 5, high for 6 and 7, and honors for 8 and 9), we would have two tracks-honors for certified gifted and high-achieving students (mostly stanines 8 and 9) and a large, mixed-ability group for students in stanines 2 through 7. The decision to change from four tracks to two came from our administrator's own pedagogical aversion to ability grouping as well as from a four-year campaign waged by a group of El Cerrito High School English teachers. Those teachers, collaborators on a research project with Rhona Weinstein of the University of California at Berkeley, had read a great deal of research on school change and at-risk students, had examined that research in their own classrooms, and had formed an ongoing collaborative teaching project-PACT for Promoting Achievement through Cooperative Teachingthat advocated an end to ability grouping at El Cerrito High. As one of the original members of PACT, I was overjoyed at our administrator's bold stand and support of us. I was also a bit cowed: What if the techniques we had incorporated into our classes didn't work with a band that included six stanine levels and not the two to four levels we

Het Belang Van Domeinspecifieke Versus Algemene Persoonskenmerken Als Predictor Van Leerresultaten

This article reports research carried out on experimental teaching material for listening comprehension and for oral production in French, based on a communicative-thematic approach. These materials were developed for Dutch pupils of mixed ability groups in the first stage of secondary education (Jacobs-Hessing 1989). An attempt has been made to take individual differences between pupils into account by means of offering a great variety in course-content and in learning activities. Notwithstanding the variety of these materials, the question remains, whether certain learner characteristics continue to affect the learning process and the learning results. After a review of the literature on the role of learner characteristics in FL-acquisition and after an analysis of the course materials, the following independent variables were selected: motivation, negative fear of failure, field dependence-independence, attitude towards the learning of foreign languages, and prior FL-knowledge. As dependent variables, listening comprehension and oral production tests were devised, used for the interim as well as for the final assignments. Both the classroom and the individual learners' research showed that the domain-specific variable 'prior knowledge' explained substantially more variance in pupils' performance on French tests than the general learner characteristics. Results of individual protocol analyses identified, for each of the assignments in the final test, different types of task approaches. Differences in learning results appear to be due to a combination of specific prior knowledge and the type of task approach. The importance of prior knowledge (especially general skills, knowledge of the world, and FL vocabulary knowledge) is discussed, and recommendations are made regarding the development of thematic communicative material and curriculum research.

Selection, setting and streaming in language teaching

The progress of fourth-year pupils in two neighbouring schools was assessed over a full academic year. Within each school the gains made by an upper set were compared with those made by a lower set. In the grammar school, where sets were formed on entry to the school, the lower set's performance was inferior to that of the pupils of the comprehensive school—where mixed ability groups were kept through the first two years of French. In both schools the lower groups made gains which were just as impressive as those made by the upper groups; although of course these gains were from a lower starting base. Lower group pupils in both schools were found to be as proficient as the upper group pupils in certain skills; but these skills, largely receptive, are undervalued by present examinations. In consequence, subsequent examination results will appear to support the schools' criteria for forming sets. A relationship between attitudes, motivation and proficiency was clearly evident. Although the conclusions are based on a specific schools system, their implications have much wider applicability.

Accommodating Student Diversity in Reading and Writing Instruction

Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) combines mixed-ability cooperative learning teams and same-ability reading groups to teach reading, writing, and language arts in heterogeneous intermediate classes containing mainstreamed special education and remedial reading students. Students engage in a wide range of cooperative activities in four- to five-member teams. In reading, students read aloud with their partners, identify components of the story grammar; practice vocabulary, decoding, and spelling; and write a composition in response to stories. They receive direct instruction in reading comprehension skills and practice them in their teams. In writing/langauge arts, a structured writing process is used in which students work with teammates to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish compositions. Two studies of the full CIRC model and one of the reading comprehension component found that the program increased the reading, language arts, and writing achievemnt of all students, including mainstreamed special education and remedial reading students.

Roos and Jos�, two children in a mixed ability group

One of the purposes of the Dutch research project ‘Mixed ability groups in mathematics education 12–16’ (S.V.O. 0647) is to support the mathematics department of the S.L.O., foundation for curriculum development, in the development of a ‘mathematics for all’ curriculum. Two booklets on graphs are partially evaluated by pre- and posttests, interviews and classroom observations in a comprehensive school. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of observations and tests show considerable progress in most of the children. This progress is most pronounced in children with a low score on their pretest1.

Training skilful teachers

The Teacher Education Project was a research and development project, funded by the Department of Education and Science, which analyzed over 1000 lessons given by novice and experienced teachers in secondary schools. There were 23 research studies which focused principally on class management and control, questioning and explaining, and the teaching of mixed-ability groups. In the case studies of student teachers, effective class managers were seen to have good personal relationships with their students, be well prepared and organized and be able to ask questions skilfully and explain clearly. Most disorder in students' lessons consisted of excessive noise and there were few serious disruptions. Teachers were asked to keep a log of questions they asked and a number of strategies were elicited from their self-reports. Experimental work on explaining showed that the most successful explainers made more varied cognitive demands on pupils, used more framing and focusing statements, and more visual aids. The project produced sets of workbooks which were rated “helpful” or “very helpful” by 90% of users, as well as sets of slides on class management and group work.

Mixed Ability Grouping: some philosophical considerations

Mixed Ability Grouping: some philosophical considerations

Streaming, Setting and Mixed Ability Grouping in Primary and Secondary Schools: some research findings

(1984). Streaming, Setting and Mixed Ability Grouping in Primary and Secondary Schools: some research findings. Educational Studies: Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 209-226.

Leerlingkenmerken En Moderne-Vreemde-Talen-Onderwijs In Onderzoek En Opleiding

One of the objectives of teacher-training is that the student should be able to assess the results of educational research in terms of its relevance to classroom practice. In addition, he or she should be able to participate in research and material- or curriculum-development. In this paper we want to emphasize these two objectives, using as an example our research project An Explorative Investigation of Learner Characteristics Relevant to Material Development (for French). Our presentation includes A. Research questions: - Is it possible to get more insight into learner-characteristics which may be relevant to modern language teaching? - Does this insight result in criteria for developing communicative teaching materials (for French) which cater more for individual differences (cognitive as well as affective) between learners? Research methods: Some pupils of a first year mixed-ability group, selected by the Group Embedded Figures Test for Field- (in)dependency, carried out a set of language tasks. They were invited to "think aloud" while performing these tasks. The protocols obtained were analysed and a tentative identification, in terms of learner characteristics, was made of the typical behaviour of f.d. and f.i. pupils. Conclusions: Field(in)dependency seems to be a relevant learner characteristic for foreign language learning in schools. Some recommendations are made, particularly in the domain of orientation-activities. B. A discussion of the students' participation in this project. C. A description of the way in which this (and other) research project(s) have been integrated into our teacher-training courses.

Middle Schools: the heart of schools in crisis

Abstract This paper is about middle schools and the effects of recent policies on the curricula organisation of six of them. We begin by establishing some general links between middle school origins, brief history and development, and wider economic and political forces for change. Drawing on four years of research with a group of schools in one local authority, we describe some of the directions of change which followed the Great Debate. We highlight recent changes as these schools came under increasing bureaucratic control, with the emphasis on the organisation of pupil selection and changes from mixed ability grouping, to setting, and back to mixed ability groups. We conclude with some theoretical discussion related to the work of Habermas.

Group Interaction and Achievement in Small Groups: Stability Over Time

This study investigated (a) the relationships among student and group characteristics, group interaction, and achievement in small groups in junior high school mathematics classrooms, and (b) the stability of these relationships over time. One hundred and five students in four classrooms participated in two studies. All students first learned a unit on consumer mathematics. Three months later, half the students learned a unit on area and perimeter, and the other half learned a 1-week unit on probability. Interaction in the group was a potent predictor of achievement in all studies; asking a question and receiving no answer, the best predictor, was detrimental to achievement. The best predictor of interaction in the group was group composition: The frequency of asking questions and receiving no answer was higher in uniform-ability groups than in mixed-ability groups. Group interaction tended to be stable over time, both in average frequency and in individual students’ relative levels of participation.

Management Development: The Challenge of Mixed Ability Groups

A common experience of tutors of post graduate management courses is the wide range of backgrounds, attributes, qualifications, experience and competence of course members. In this article the authors explore the nature of this mixed ability, seek to identify the challenges it presents in course design and thereafter explore possible approaches that might be adopted to minimise the harmful effects and optimise the learning to be gained from the mixed ability, post graduate programme. For the purpose of this paper, mixed ability is not used in the narrow sense of cleverness or mental faculty, but rather to encompass the individual's capacity to learn from and contribute to the learning programme.

The Relationship of Student Ability and Small-Group Interaction to Student Achievement

This study examined student ability and student behaviors during small-group interaction as hypothesized mediators of the effectiveness of small-group learning. Fifth-grade students (N = 43) completed ability and attitude pretests. Students were stratified on ability and randomly assigned to small groups within class. The small groups were assigned randomly to either a treatment or control condition. The treatment group was trained in small-group interaction. Students received regular classroom instruction in mathematics for 4 weeks. Each day after the teacher presented new material using direct instruction, students worked on assignments in mixed ability groups of four students. Achievement, retention, and attitude toward mathematics were assessed. A Mann-Whitney comparison showed that trained students participated in more task-related interaction than did control students. Results suggested that task-related interaction in the small group enhanced the achievement and retention of high and low ability students but did not facilitate the achievement of medium ability students.

The Relationship of Student Ability and Small-Group Interaction to Student Achievement

This study examined student ability and student behaviors during small-group interaction as hypothesized mediators of the effectiveness of small-group learning. Fifth-grade students (N = 43) completed ability and attitude pretests. Students were stratified on ability and randomly assigned to small groups within class. The small groups were assigned randomly to either a treatment or control condition. The treatment group was trained in small-group interaction. Students received regular classroom instruction in mathematics for 4 weeks. Each day after the teacher presented new material using direct instruction, students worked on assignments in mixed ability groups of four students. Achievement, retention, and attitude toward mathematics were assessed. A Mann-Whitney comparison showed that trained students participated in more task-related interaction than did control students. Results suggested that task-related interaction in the small group enhanced the achievement and retention of high and low ability students but did not facilitate the achievement of medium ability students.

Secondary Schools: Some Changes of a Decade

Summary In 1968‐9 a survey was made of the organization of pupil learning and behaviour in a sample of secondary schools, and in 1978‐9 45 of the original schools were re‐surveyed. Compared with the earlier period there is now significantly less streaming but more mixed ability grouping, setting and team teaching, and a generally tighter control of school work. General behaviour is also more subject to rules. The prefectorial system has become less important, with a reduction in the duties, punishments and ritualization of prefects. There are more school councils, which have become more democratic in their organization. School assemblies are more diverse in their content and less ritualized. There has been a reduction in sex‐differences in the curriculum and in the control of behaviour.

A group approach to the introductory statistics course in psychology

The statistics course given as part of Psychology I in 1976 is described. The course was a modified group Keller course in which the 230 students were assigned to mixed ability groups of 4–6 which ...

Using a Readability Formula to Produce Multi‐Level Reading Texts

48 The purpose of this paper is to outline the attitude of one publishing house, Drake Educational Associated Ltd., to the problem of generating reading texts of theoretically pre-determined difficulty by the use of a readability formula and to briefly describe the process by which such texts are originated with particular reference to the multi-level language development programme Language Centre 1. Language Centre 1 is one of a series of three boxed kits which cover the chronological ages 5-7, 7-9 and 9-11 respectively. Each kit contains a set of graded comprehension reading cards, a set of graded vocabulary skills development cards and a set of audio cassettes for developing listening skills. For the purpose of this paper, only the reading comprehension component will be considered. In setting out to publish a multi-level reading programme three basic premises are accepted as true. The first of these is that any learning group is going to be a mixed-ability group. This is particularly so in the primary school where streaming or setting has virtually disappeared. It is also the case in the lower years of many comprehensive schools where unstreaming is being introduced. Even where streaming or setting is attempted however, there is little practical possibility of achieving a completely matched set in which case the group remains of mixed ability even if the extremes of attainment are reduced to more manageable proportions.

The Role of Teacher Groups in Secondary Education Research

Traditionally, the teacher's role in educational research has been passive, his contribution consisting largely of completing questionnaires, responding to interview schedules, assisting in the administration of testing programmes and, more recently, being observed in his classroom. Researchers talk of using schools for their projects and, commonly, teachers observed in his classroom, teachers have played little part in either identifying areas of enquiry or in selecting methods appropriate to their exploration. There are signs however of a move towards teachers' more active involvement. Curriculum projects from the mid-60's have provided examples of how teachers can play a key role in the development of innovation in the classroom. The proliferation of new materials, techniques and forms of organisation have sharpened teachers' perceptions of the need for evaluation do the new ways work any better? and the possible contribution of research to classroom practice has become more apparent. Researchers, in their turn, are increasingly concerned about the impact and take-up of their product, kinds of question being posed and different aspects of the teaching and learning situation being explored. In particular, the classroom has emerged as a focus of study and perceptions of what happens there by teacher, pupil and observer form the crux of a growing number of studies. These trends were reflected when the NFER decided to sponsor a major research into mixed ability teaching in secondary schools. The project's brief was explicit that the approach adopted should be with the research team working with groups of teachers in various parts of the country with a view first to defining areas of particular concern, and second, to generating, implementing and evaluating strategies designed to meet them. The project started in October 1975 and in its first nine months some thirty teacher groups have met in those areas of the country where the project is focussing its activity. These were selected to provide a variety, both in terms of geographical and social factors and in the nature and duration of mixed ability grouping being employed. There has therefore been the opportunity to study the functioning of teacher groups in a variety of settings, and whilst the project is still in its early stages, it is possible to make some interim statement of the kind of contribution which teacher groups can make, and to identify factors which may be related to the success or failure of the collaborative mode of operation in a national research project. Certainly of major importance appears to be the expectations of those teachers taking part; in what ways do they perceive research as helping them; what kind of role do they anticipate carrying out in such collaborative exercises; what are their perceptions of how research operates and what is their knowledge of possible methods of investigation; what spin-offs other than those which might occur in their classrooms do they anticipate from such a large investment of their personal time? Taking the first of these, there is little doubt from our experience that teachers voluntarily take part in the project because it will provide practical help with the problems they face each day in the classroom. The way in which such problems are perceived predictably varies according to experiences; hence in those areas where mixed ability teaching is a recent innovation, teachers tend to be concerned with the very immediate problems of finding resources and techniques for teaching a particular subject to a particular year group. Where unstreaming has operated for a substantial period, the questioning becomes more abstract. Such schools have generally amassed sufficient resources to be 27 able to cope; the problems which confront them are at a different and more fundamental level, and tend to cut across the barriers of subject disciplines.