It will be an enormous challenge for me to let students take the lead and not dominate the airspace. If I want my students to make it to that “performance” or “resolution” stage I see this stepping back as being essential. I want them to “Perform” in the sense that they build their learning into webpages. If I dominate their peer critiques, for example, they might as well become my webpages. The intent is for them to run wild with their creativity, and to step away from me as the direct instructor. He also discusses the steps groups take to make decisions, “forming, norming, storming, and performing.” Garrison emphasizes that groups not only need time, but also clearly stated goals to function productively. I am very familiar with his claim that, “groups do not naturally coalesce and move to integration and resolution phases.” I loathe group work for this very reason! I have avoided it much of my teaching career, afraid of losing control of the classroom and the content, and often seeing little progression in student learning when I do venture to use it. He goes on to argue that, “direction and facilitation is required to establish cohesion and ensure messages are developed.” I guess I assumed this, that you need to give clear directions, state your goals for the activity, and facilitate its progression. I’m concerned with how this will go online.
Lisa Martin on 20 Jun 12It seems to be particularly important for the teacher to explicitly exhibit support for students in their academic pursuit because of their relatively greater influence on the adolescents, as demonstrated in the present analyses. After all, among all others in a school setting, the feedback of teachers is probably the most salient reinforcer regarding student proficiency in academic work. The finding in support of the teacher as a powerful source of reinforcement is not surprising.
