Group learning spaces can be discussed in relation to the classroom physical layout, group work with students, and curriculum collaboration with teachers. It is a learning space that is highly used in education and it always altering so that everyone reaps its benefits.
The open plan classroom is a relatively new layout in schools that involves a shared space with more than one classroom groups. The teachers share this learning space while still teaching their own group of children. It can be hard at first because it is not a traditional classroom, but it can improve because the teachers can build relationships with their colleagues and assist each other. Also, the students can be organised into groups, develop their skills with others and stay on task easier.
Students placed with their peers for projects can be organised based on collaboration, cooperation or group work. Collaboration and cooperation are fairly similar because teachers can plan for the task to be equally distributed to all participants. Presently, teachers are more aware of the problem of group work where in groups some people do all the work while others slack off and get all the good results. This is the main difference and it can be avoided if there is a clear criteria of the task which states jobs for each participate where they have to work together collectively in order to complete.
Lastly, the curriculum is used by all teachers to plan their classroom teaching. At schools, teachers work together, either as a big group or small year-level groups, to organise how to plan learning based on the curriculum. This involves a lot of team work and involvement from all teachers and can help build a great unit of work mainly because they can bounce off each other’s ideas.
(Social learning blog, 2012. Social learning for members [Image]. Retrieved from http://interactyx.com/social-learning-blog/social-learning-for-membership-groups-and-associations/)
Suzy's Learning Space 