Page 225 - DEDU505_TEACHER_EDUCATION_ENGLISH

Unit 24: Meaning, Nature and Strategies of Group Controlled Instructions

24.3 Strategies of Group Controlled Instruction Notes

As stated earlier, group controlled instruction is of two types, one involving interactive sessions
which you have just gone through and the other based on group activities involving team worlk.
In this section you will study those activities which involve team mode and the process of their
organisation. Activities involved team mode can be organised regularly for various subjects like
maths, science, social studies and languages. Considering the nature and the procedure of
organking these activities, there are three methods of learning involving team work, viz.,
cooperative learning, group project and group investigations. Let us discuss each of these methods
in detail.
You should always remember that an intellectual discussion takes place in the group interactive
session. In these discussion sessions the group members interact with each other by asking
questions, seeking clarifications, giving their own views, examining others' views, arguing the
decisions, etc. In other words, in group interactive sessions a theme or topic is presented or
initiated by some one, either by a member of the group or a teacher. You as a teacher can initiate
a discussion and then allow the members of the group to participate and manage the session. If
you have to conduct an interactive session in your class, you should know its basic elements and
the procedure of organising group interactive sessions. Let us discuss both these issues in detail.
24.3.1 Group Interective Sessions
(i) Elements of Interactive Sessions: To organise an interactive session in a secondary or senior
secondary school either all the students of the class can take part in an instructional task as a
group or the class can be divided into smaller groups and given separate activities to work on.
There are four main elements of interactive sessions:
• Chairperson • Speaker • Participants, and • Recorder
In a group activity one member from the group is chosen as the chairperson or coordinator of the
session. The person conducts the proceedings of the session. The coordinator need not necessarily
be the teacher or an expert. One of the students (group members) may act as the coordinator. The
coordinator is one of the important elements in an interactive session. Therefore, it is essential
that you should make the students aware of the instructional activity and present a brief note
according to the requirement. This member of the group is called the speaker and is the second
element of interactive session. Meaningful interaction can take place only when individual
members of the group participate in the discussion. All members of the group are participants in
the interactive session. These participants are the third element of the session. The proceedings of
the sessions may be systematically observed and recorded by a member. This person is called the
observer or the recorder and (s)he is fourth element of the interactive sessions.
(ii) Pre-interactive Session Activities: For organising interactive sessions at the secondary shcool
stage one should keep in mind that our students are not trained in organising group-controlled
instruction. The seating arrangements in our classrooms are also not suitable for interactive
sessions. The importance of interactive sessions has not been adequately realised: because of this
interactive sessions are seldom organised in our schools. Due to these reasons organising interactive
session can be a challenge for you as a school teacher. Accept the challenge; you will be successful
if you systematically follow the steps of organising interactive sessions. We present here the
steps you should follow while organising group interactive sessions in your class. These steps
are suggestive and you can modify them to suit the requirements of your students.
(i) Assign separate weightage to interactive sessions: In order to organise interactive sessions,
it is necessary that the activity should be considered important in the school time table. This
will give legitimacy and due weightage to interactive sessions. This will also make it a
compulsory activity for all he students in your course and will develop seriousness on the
part of teacher and students.
(ii) Allocation of topics: You should allocate the topic(s) to the students so that they can prepare
for presentation. It is betler to givc students only a small portion which they can prepare
and present in about 20 minutes. Lengthy topics should bc presented by different students.

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