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2. Social forms 

What is that?

"Social form" refers to the constellation of learners working (together).

The form has an effect on communication, activity and relationships in the learning group.

The form is often related to the course format (e.g. lecture, seminar, practical course).

A distinction is made: Individual, partner, group and plenary work.

When do you choose what?

The decision depends on the objectives and content of the event.

The decision should be based on the following questions:

  • “Is the method related to a content and a goal?
  • Does it take account of the learner's individual situation?
  • Can teachers and learners deal with this form?
  • Can the social form be legitimised pedagogically and didactically?
  • Is the social form realisable under the respective circumstances in physical or online space?" (Gudjons et al. 1982, p. 20, quoted from TU Darmstadt)

Why change the social form?

  • In a course, the teacher should change the required social form at regular intervals because...
  • the motivation of students varies. à Motivation can, but does not have to be sponsored by individual social forms
  • This increases opportunities for learning and participation, as individual needs and different types of learners are given greater consideration, e.g. social anxiety.
  • a change of social form can create breaks in interaction and thus increase the ability to concentrate, especially in the case of physical or mental impairments.
  • a change of social form often also implies a (digital) change of media, so that students have other opportunities to participate if they are denied this due to a technical barrier.

How often it makes sense to change the social form depends on the learning group, the content and the teacher. In a 90-minute session, there are often around 4-5 phases, each of which is introduced by a change of social form.

Overview of social forms

The following overview is very general and does not focus on digital teaching or accessible teaching in particular. However, potentials and risks for accessible teaching can be derived from the advantages and disadvantages.

Table 2: Tabular overview of social forms

 

Goal

Possible times during the event

Advantages

Disadvantages 

Particularly important

Individual work

·       Self-acquisition of key content

·       Deepening existing topics

·       Access

·       Elaboration

·       Security/ Degree

·       Gradation of difficulty possible

·       Individual learning pace and intensity 

·       Strengthening self-assessment 

·       Motivation through independent process + trial and error à Responsibility for own learning

·       Activated as a stopover during e.g. presentations

·       Different working speeds 

·       Overload or underload 

·       Teacher cannot necessarily assess individual learning levels of students

·       Clear work instructions 

·       Targets

·       Additional task as a reserve

Partner work

·       Encourage active dialogue

·       Development through application or transfer tasks

·       Communication

·       Practising the technical language

·       Uncovering knowledge/thinking errors

·       Motivation through cooperation

·       Chance to get back in (if thread previously lost)

·       Benefit from the knowledge of others

·       Communication

·       Clear expectations

·       Composition affects process and result

Group work

·       Development of new content

·       Consolidation of existing content

·       Elaboration

·       Security/ Degree

·       High content density, as different topics can be developed in parallel 

·       Promotion of cooperative and communicative skills

·       Five characteristics of cooperative learning help teaching staff, instructors, lectures to formulate real group tasks

·       Appreciation through presentation 

·       Danger of "free riders"

·       Danger of "conspiracy against the task"

·       Group process or product are the focus instead of knowledge construction 

·       Lack of success leads to demotivation 

·       The feeling of seeing weaker/worse leads to demotivation

·       Late correction of e.g. errors

·       Clear work assignments

·       Clear deadlines 

·       Create opportunities for support

Plenary work (presentation with a high proportion of speaking)

·       Presentation of new areas of knowledge, especially from the teacher´s perspective

·       Access

·       Security/ Degree

·       Enables orientation for all

·       Securing results for all

·       Passivity of the students à tiring 

·       Mainly linguistic, partly figurative

 

 

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