Classroom Instruction part of the Education Reform Network

Best Practices in Small Group Learning

• A Best Practices Bibliography
  A Bibliography of resources for locating best practices in classroom instruction.
• A Checklist for Managing Small Group Work
  A tool teachers can use to plan, organize, and reflect on small group learning in their classrooms. Items are organized into three categories: Decisions about grouping and structure, monitoring and intervening in group work, and evaluating process or providing feedback to the group.
• A professional development school partnership: Conflict and collaboration
  The Professional Develpment School (PDS) is one of the most prominent, compelling, and recent models of teacher education reform. For decades efforts have been made to reform the U.S.
• Classroom Compass--Cooperative Learning
  This issue of Classroom Compass from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory focuses on cooperative learning with an emphasis on science and mathematics. Resources and a reading list are suggested.
• Cooperative and Collaborative Learning
  "CONCEPT TO CLASSROOM" is a collaboration between WNET (Channel Thirteen/New York) and the Disney Learning Partnership that addresses a variety of topics relevant to teachers and provides them with the opportunity to receive professional development credit for participating in an on-line workshop. This particular workshop focuses on cooperative and collaborative learning.
• Discussing Big Ideas
  Substantive writing or discussion demands something important to write or talk about. This document explores the use of big ideas or essential questions to ground classroom discussions in ideas that matter.
• Elevation Educational Consulting
  Works with individual teachers, schools, districts to evaluate and improve literacy programs and instruction.
• Managing Learning in Small Groups
  Advice on thinking through the purpose, structure, and performance of sttudent-led or teacher-guided small group learning.
• The Essential Elements of Cooperative Learning in the Classroom
  ERIC Digest ED370881 (1994) Robert J. Stahl Numerous research studies in K-12 classrooms, in very diverse school settings and across a wide range of content areas, have revealed that students completing cooperative learning group tasks tend to have higher academic test scores, higher self-esteem, greater numbers of positive social skills, fewer stereotypes of individuals of other races or ethnic groups, and greater comprehension of the content and skills they are studying.
• Using Small Groups to Promote Learning
  Using Small Groups to Promote Learning Marilla D. Svinicki Center for Teaching Effectiveness University of Texas at Austin This web site analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of small group learning with tips for building team effectiveness, attitudes, performance, and member roles.