General Principles of Group Work in the Classroom

Abstract

Education occupies a very important role in the life of each person. It is the means that we can rely on to become successful members of our society and occupy suitable place. It helps people to develop such skills as critical thinking, analysis, general transferrable skills and many others. Group work is one of the important skills the development of which in students requires effective planning and implementation from teacher’s side. Group work prepares students for real life situations. Group work is considered as an efficient methodology type which increases motivation in learners, involves them in active learning and develops critical thinking, decision-making and co-operation skills. Student-centered education gave a strong influence to the development of cooperative pedagogy. Collaborative pedagogy offers a different way of learning, when the student has his friends by his side, whom he needs to help or ask to find out what he does not understand. Group work is one of the important skills, the development of which requires effective planning and management by the teacher. The importance of group work is indisputable, if we consider that the goal of modern education is not only the accumulation of knowledge level, factual information, but also the development of the ability to analyze and critically evaluate the received information. A student's critical thinking is formed only in such a learning environment, where there is frequent intense, structured interaction between students. The work deals with the size of group, methods of groupings, the role of a teacher, major problems in groups, etc. We offer a very interesting research which we have conducted in public school students (4-5 grades). The research gives information about the position of students towards the group work and main problems they have found out during this method of working. The findings help us to improve the