Active working methods

On this page we have gathered some instructional videos about how you can engage your students in active working methods. 

Cross-group working

This is a method to make the students engage in bigger difficult issues or concepts. It can, for example be "How do you think the green-house effect works?". Most students have heard about the green-house effect and climate change but the understanding are sometimes not accurate or complete. By engaging the student in this type of cross-group work the teacher get a deeper understanding of the students pree-concept of the issue but also makes the students aware of what futher information they need to fully grasp the concept in question. 
In the documents below you will find a short written instruction about how the working-method should be carried out. 

Collaborative discussion

The collaborative discussion-method is suitable to discuss solutions or ideas. It could for examble be a question like: "What do you think our local politicians should do about the climate-change?" The question is pondered uppon by each student, in pairs and in groups so all students have a good chance to really think about the question. Then it´s discussed with the teacher and the whole class so all aspects that have come up during the group discussion can be discussed together.

The puzzle method

This method is used if you have a difficult problem or issue to discuss. The material is presented to the students as a film, a text or a picture. The students are devided into groups and the material is devided amongst the members in the original group. The students then meet other students that has been given the same part of the material from other groups and help each other understand the issue. Then they meet in the original groups to make sure that everyone understands the whole material. When that is done they get some complex issue or question to solve where they need all the information they have been studying. 

Three solves a problem

The students all get the same problem to solve. When a student have solved the problem he or she markes that they are ready by putting up a sign. When three students are ready they form a group to discuss their answers and se if they can agree. When they are ready they tell their answer to the teacher, to another group or the whole class. Individual answers are compared to the choosen one. 

Group writing 1

To make all students engaged in a group writing task you can divide them into pairs that work together to come up with ideas of what to include in the text. After a while you make new groups of four students that write the text together from the four drafts made in the pairs. 

Group writing 2

The students come up with a fictual character each. They then write a story together in groups and try to include the knowledge they have got during studying the area that the stories are about. It could be a geographical place, a historical epoc or something else.

Different perspective

The students are given different perspectives from which to study an issue. It can for example be an economic perspective, an environmental perspective and a social perspective if you are working with sustainable development. They help each other to find good arguments and then they meet in mixed groups to discuss the issue before it´s discussed in the whole class. 

Argueing your position

The students are given several statements and first they are marking them as true or false individually. Then they meet in pairs to se if they agree. They argue for their opinions and see if they can agree. Then the pairs meet in groups of four and continue their work. 

Formative assessment

In this short film you get some examples on how you can use formative assessment as a tool to improve the students learning and your teaching. 

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