25 Years of Teaching Fads and Bad Educational Science | Mediawijsheid in het VO | Scoop.it

What do teachers waste their time doing the most? Fads, hearsay and gimmicks lead teachers to waste their time proving to external observers what they do.....

11. Group work:

Every subject requires collaboration. To say a teacher should always have students working/sitting in groups to explore and discover has a place in the classroom, but it certainly should not be the default method for teachers. Direct instruction and teacher clarity have the greatest impact on student progress. To allow students to discover learning for themselves in project-based learning serves its purpose, only if students have the prerequisite knowledge and skills in order to do so. If you first achieve this objective with students working in rows or groups, that is the teacher’s prerogative.  

The result? I hate to say it having taught in this way for 20 years, but where is the evidence? A myth (for now)…