Pros and Cons of Group Work in Math Class

Practicing a newly learned skill in math class is the most important part of learning. It assists with refining and deepening the newly acquired knowledge into students long term memories while building fluency. Yet, getting students to actually practice is not as easy as it sounds.

In a class of 25 to 30 students, there are so many distractions. As a teacher, you want students to practice the skill they just learned while minimizing distractions that could take away from this precious time (hence, why teaching is 50% behavior management and 50% teaching). Therefore, the environment you create while students are practicing is important.

As a teacher, you have two main options of how you want students to practice. You could have students work in pairs or groups, allowing them to work with each other and solve questions together. You could have students work individually and allow them to focus only on their own potential to solve problems. Yet, both have a variety of pros and cons that we have to balance.

Over the course of two articles, I want to discuss the pros and cons of group work and independent work. Both are great tools that teachers can use to deepen student learning and promote engagement in the classroom. But as we will see, it is not always easy to implement in classrooms. They are both classroom dependent and teacher dependent.

For our article today, let us focus on the more commonly utilized one: group work.

Pros and Cons of Group Work

Group work is when students are allowed to work with each other to complete a task. This may be in partner pairs, or table groups. In these settings, the noise level is usually much louder and the energy of the classroom is much higher.

Pros of Group Work

Group work is excellent for struggling students. If you have caring, patient, and empathetic students in your classroom, then it provides the opportunity for students to learn from each other. For instance, if you pair a student who does well with learning the content with students who are mid to low in the classroom then it presents an opportunity for that student to help them.

It also frees more time for you to help a larger amount of students at once. If you help a student one on one, then you may not get through all the students. Rather, in groups you can assist multiple students at once allowing more assistance to be done around the classroom.

You can also easily differentiate the work by groups when needed. For instance, in my Algebra class I will design the groups where each group has a different problem set determined by their previous quiz and test scores. This allows each group to access content that is not too hard or too easy for them. I also use this time to work with my students who need extra supports in mastering a skill.

Lastly, and this is a general preference, it makes the classroom more lively. In independent practice the classroom is much more mellow and lowkey. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however learning can be much more enjoyable when students are working in a social setting and learning from each other.

Cons of Group Work

Unfortunately, there are a lot of cons of group work settings that can derail a lesson. In group work, it can be hard to keep students on the task at hand. Allowing the students to converse to each other opens opportunity to talk about unrelated topics or do other things. Furthermore, it is harder to catch and redirect students towards the task at hand due to the volume level of the classroom.

Secondly, students argue with each other all of the time. Dealing with conflicts in the classroom can be time consuming and stressful, especially when they escalate. Therefore, it may not always be in your best interest to allow students to pair up.

Some students also lack integrity and motivation, and the issue of copying or not contributing to group work often happens. For instance, one student who is more motivated and has better understanding of the content may finish the work faster and other students in the group will copy off their work. Thus, this gives the other students in the group a free pass to just copy and not actually complete any thinking.

Lastly, it takes more planning time to have good group work occur in the classroom. For group work to be successful, you want defined norms and expectations for students to follow as they work together. Furthermore, you will want to pick the groups yourself to maximize working time and students staying on task in class (and avoiding the petty student arguments).

To Group or Not to Group?

In my experience, having students work in groups depends on the classroom culture and teacher/school comfortability with group work. Some of my classes work excellent in groups. They understand that the end goal of the class period is to both learn and complete the assignment. In comparison, some of my classes are extremely terrible at group work and nothing gets completed. When I pair some students up, they will only talk about unrelated topics until I repeatedly give them consequences.

Of course, if we work at it we can eventually get students to understand and follow classroom set expectations around group work. But we also run into the opportunity cost of this scenario. Why would we spend an entire month on achieving excellent group work execution when we could just work independently?

Another layer on this is a schools expectations around observations and group work. For instance, I have had coaches who think group work is imperative and that classrooms need group work in order to learn. I have also had instructional coaches give me negative feedback around group work since students, to them, are constantly off task. Therefore, I would switch around my classrooms due to my mangers preferences rather than my own.

Maximizing your Group Work Time

Now that I have a ton more autonomy in my choice of instruction, I use group work a ton in my classroom; usually more than independent practice. I find that students work well together in my classes, so I allow them the space to do so. Here are some tips on how I manage my class with group work time.

1. Set expectations around what group work should look like

Before we start group work, I remind students about what group work is and what it should look like. It is an opportunity for them to work together and learn from each other, at the same pace. This means that no one should be working ahead and no one should be behind. Furthermore, I let them know that they need to stay on task or they will receive consequences for it. I utilize red cards and green cards to give to students (I learned this from my TFA peers). Green cards mean that they are doing well and to continue on with what they are doing. Red cards mean that they are off task or not contributing to their group. This usually allows me to keep them on task and avoid distractions.

2. Plan out the groups before hand

Never ever allow students to choose their own groups. This will set up a disaster for your classroom before students even get their name on their paper. Choose the groups strategically based on academic ability and social ability of students. Do not pair students who are off task with each other and definitely do not pair students who have conflicts with each other together.

3. Take away group work if needed

As much as I love group work, I will shut it down as quickly as we begin it. For instance, if I notice that 60% of the class is not on task, I will make everyone turn their desks back to normal positions and work independently. If it is only one student, I will move them to a separate location to work by themselves. Group work is an opportunity to work together that can be taken away from students. It is not necessary for students to learn, rather it is an experience enhancing opportunity for them.

4. Make sure students know you are listening

Students think that teachers have super senses of sight and listening for a reason. Make sure you visit each table at least every 5 minutes to check in and make sure that they are off task. Proximity to a table will lead to students getting back on task very quickly.

5. Know that you do not need to do group work in all of your classes

If your third period is extremely good at group work but your first period is not, then only utilize group work in your third period. There is no need to have every class do the same exact thing if it does not work for them. Obviously you want to give students opportunities to meet the expectations, but if they cannot do it due to behavior then shut it down. Let them know why as well and that we can try again next time. Remember, the ultimate goal is that students are learning.

These five are the best tips for getting group work done regularly in your classes. There are other little caveats surrounding behavior and differentiating, but following these will set your class up for successful collaboration.

Next time, we will discuss the Pros and Cons of Independent Practice. Then we will wrap it all up and ask: which is better?