Children should be allowed to talk more in class, education experts have argued, despite the traditional view that chatter can be disruptive.
The Cambridge University study also said that a competitive atmosphere in class could be counter-productive.
It questioned the theory that encouraging pupils to compete increases their motivation to learn.
Instead, it argued, tasks should aim to encourage co-operation and group cohesion instead of competitiveness.
This seems significant to me because of the findings from Blueprint, which suggested that a number of the PSHE teachers in the Blueprint secondary schools weren’t confident in applying active learning techniques in their classrooms.
Admittedly this research, which is part of the Primary Review, is drawn from evidence in primary schools so there may be different factors at work for pupils in secondary school, though I’m a bit doubtful about that.
I’m afraid that I won’t be able to read all 4 of the reports they launched at the end of last week, but I have taken a look at the briefing that lies behind the BBC’s story. Here are the highlights:
- Social interaction and collaborative activity among children in class can provide valuable, complementary and distinctive opportunities for learning and conceptual development. This challenges the traditional view that talk and social interaction among children are irrelevant, if not disruptive to learning.
- Talk and social interaction among children play a key role in children’s social development and learning. Social development influences patterns of interaction, which in turn affect learning, the development of ways of thinking and social development itself.
- The educational value of collaborative learning has been clearly demonstrated, by research from more than one line of enquiry. In particular, encouraging children to pursue joint goals, explain their understanding, express different points of view and attempt to reach consensus through discussion have all been found to help learning and understanding.
- Research on collaborative learning across the arts, science and mathematics supports the view that joint activity among pupils should be an intrinsic and integrated aspect of classroom life.
Here are the details of the where to find the other reports should you have more time than me:
- Research Survey 2/1a: Children’s Cognitive Development and Learning
- Research Survey 2/1b: Children’s Social Development, Peer Interaction and Classroom Learning
- Research Survey 5/1: Children in Primary Education: demography, culture, diversity and inclusion
- Research Survey 5/2: Learning Needs and Difficulties Among Children of Primary School Age: definition, identification, provision and issues
Filed under: educational theory , Children's Social Development, Peer Interaction and Classroom Learning, Primary Review
