Classroom Management at Tertiary Level: Handling Pair and Group Works

by Dr Sujata Rana, Associate Professor, Department of English, CRM Jat College,Hisar (India) Email: sujju69rana@yahoo.co.in

Introduction

Classroom management implies an ability to deliver all the items that the teacher has planned effectively and systematically, without any deviation from the goal, but at the same time, leaving some scope for flexibility. The conventional ‘lecturing’ mode of managing the class has lost its importance in the changed scenario of ELT as it leaves little scope for students’ interactive sessions. The new pedagogy calls for students’ involvement in interactive learning activities by pair work and group work, which makes learning enjoyable and rewarding. Working in pairs or small groups means that more students have more opportunity to talk more as they need space and opportunity to be who they are.  In pair work, two students sitting next to each other ‘do’ something together which could range from discussing the answer to a comprehension question to working on a complex and well-structured task. Similarly, when the activity at some stage in the lesson calls for discussion or active collaboration among a group of students, a number of such groups are formed and each given a relevant task to work on.  The college students or those getting education at tertiary level are at the age of discovering their relationships with others and the world around them. Therefore, pair and group work help them to interact with different classmates in a less, stressful, collaborative atmosphere.  Thus, it is aimed at promoting interaction among learners, and hence enhancing their communicative efficiency.

This paper aims at exploring the wonderful role of the teacher as the classroom manager in an EFL class.  It will elaborate the objectives of classroom management and throw light on how to manage the English language class at tertiary level with pair and group work, how to form pairs and groups and how to organize and monitor them.  The paper is also intended to investigate the advantages of pair/group work and various problems/challenges faced by the teacher in supervising it and attempts to find modest solutions to them for achieving reasonable, if not complete, success.

Objectives of Classroom Management

The classroom management at tertiary level is aimed at :

a)      organizing pair work and group work in the language class,

b)      tapping the advantages and removing the problems of both pair work and group work,

c)      exploring the value of groups with a mix of abilities and cultural backgrounds, and

d)      taking the challenges faced by the teacher with the activity-oriented and learner- centred curriculum. (more…)