The project based learning approach at IFS provides numerous opportunities for students to work collectively. It is often assumed that all students grasp this concept, well, they play as a team in football each day, don’t they? Students in years 7 and 8 are currently working in teams of three to develop articles on global geographical issues. They then join together in groups of 12 to present their articles as a magazine. It’s interesting to observe that students often struggle with the concept of working as a cohesive unit to achieve a desired outcome, even when they choose the group they want to work within.
Today in the OLS we discussed what team work means and what skills are required of a successful team. Cooperation, communication, delegation, support and leadership were all identified as essential team skills, and students agreed that group members need to work closely together in order to implement these skills.
After these discussions I asked the students to return to their groups and choose where they could work effectively and how they wanted to lay out the tables to achieve this. What I then saw was a class of students with focus and a sense of purpose. They discussed the global issues and how they were going to manage the workload. There was communication and support and many displayed leadership skills. This was not happening before.
The lesson I learnt today? What appears to be a simple instruction, to work in a group, is actually quite complex when it involves a large number of students and is, in fact, a skill that must be learnt. I will continue to support the students in learning to work within groups, a skill that can be transferred from classroom to football pitch to workplace when they leave college.
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