Who are the best people to ask about group work?
So I put out a tweet to a really high quality group: The Tweachers…
Here’s what came back:
David Didau (@learningspy) “Effective Group Work” which was endorsed with a re-tweet of this link by Eric Wareham (@developingTandL) plus a second link from David here: “The Ultimate Teaching Technique” and “Why group work works for me”
John Sayers (@JOHNSAYERS) A picture of this group work assessment grid
Andy Day (@Andyphilipday) Monitoring Group Work: Charting its Progress
Robin Trangmar (@yrathro) sent links to documents in Dropbox:
Alex Battison (@alex_battison) tweeted: “Hi Zoe, harkness tables, at Exeter Philipps university (and prolific at Wellington college), are good things to investigate…they have rules to create group work that is completely student led. I have also looked to develop this in my lessons…students have created a list of rules for effective group work.”
Paul Sturtivant (@paulsturtivant) tweeted: “Is your ScaRf NEAT? Successful group work Roles for learning Noise Equipment Attitude Time”
So, if you’re doing some thinking, maybe some action research or simply reflecting on learning design and considering what ‘quality group work is all about, here’s some resources to keep you going…not a bad effort for a Sunday afternoon. And all the while, this rich vein of expertise was flowing in, I was walking in the sunshine in a beautiful National Trust Property…who has time for educational Twitter?
Full On Learning 
Many schools I work with adopted my reworked PLTS approach which defines the skills more precisely – I call them TRICS (Team, Reflective, Independent & Creative Skills). Started it all in my school and had amazing success with it. For instance the ‘Team Learning’ skill involves 4 “competences” – Leadership, Responsibility, Respect and Communication. You should see how this works in over 50 schools who use this approach and how it transforms learning. Pearson/Edexcel asked us to create a BTEC using this approach (http://www.edexcel.com/quals/skills/learning-for-life/Pages/default.aspx) where you can accredit learners for working this way. Fantastic!
See my work: http://www.studentcoaching.co.uk
Get the pedagogy behind it via a case study of one school’s success: http://www.learningworkshop.co.uk/embed-skills-and-raise-achievement/
Phil Parker (@PhilPfromSC)