Prevention of Dominance:
In order to prevent dominance within group work assignments/activities it is essential to create a classroom norm in which the students understand every member/s input is important. In order to facilitate the grasping of such a norm, Chapter 4 suggests a survival problem that is designed to allow all students within a group to offer their own ideas, listen to the ideas of others, ask questions and give rationales behind individual ideas in order to make an informed decision as a whole group (P. 53). In math this would be a very valuable norm. Actually, at my current school site my CT allows opportunities for partner quizzes. I had the opportunity to witness one the week before last and the conversations that were taking place were indicative of being able to listen, ask questions and present rationales and then move on from there. There was one group in particular who was working on one of the problems and each member had different ideas of how to solve it. It was interesting to watch the student who knew what he was talking about because he got really frustrated but quickly figured out that was not getting him anywhere. Once the student with the correct method of solving the problem listened to the student and identified the root of his partner’s misunderstanding, he was able to proceed in a productive manner on their partner quiz.
It’s interesting because I can see myself as a dominating presence within groups, but at the same time I am often relieved when I find myself in a group where someone else can play that role. I can see, though, how this can roll over into my teaching. The norms described in this particular section of the reading are especially valuable in a math class, and as the manager of my students’ learning I must model these norms.
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OK. I find myself sort of "analyzing" my own role when working in groups, every time I read this book. Did you find that survival problem (something about either rockets or spaceships) in the appendix?
I appreciate your connection to math. In particular, math should be always about explaining why things are--proof is really what makes math, math. That is always the mathematicians interesting work, to deduct something must be true after patterning some experience of the world. (I suppose modeling a new problem with mathematics is also a big part of mathematics.)
I am interested for you to tell me about your role as a dominant personality as it evolves during your early years teaching. You can use that sort of personality very well, to make children the stars of the classroom. You have become the ringmaster of the circus.