SEND Five-a-day

High - quality teaching for pupils with SEND uses grouping of peers meaningfully in relation to specific learning outcomes . Effective teaching means groupings of peers are brought together for explicit purposes rather than being fixed. For example, to promote reading fluency, Chard et al. (2002) found that, ‘using grouping practices that allow more proficient readers to guide less able readers is also an effective way to build fluency. Wissinger et al. (2018) found that, to improve reading of history texts, structured collaborative interaction among peers was effective. The authors described this as students working in peer - mediated groups to work collaboratively on tasks such as reviewing background information, reading and analysing source documents and completing graphic organisers and in heterogeneous groups to discuss perspectives and analyse historical problems. Dennis et al. (2016), in their examination of the effect of teaching approaches on outcomes for pupils with ‘maths learning difficulties’ [specific learning difficulties relating to maths], found the largest effect sizes (unbiased effect size estimate = 0.82) for peer - assisted learning.

Static Grouping V’s Flexible Grouping

Static Grouping

Flexible Grouping

Keeps students in the same groups for weeks or months.

Organises students intentionally

Don’t switch up groups according to tasks

Groups are fluid for different learning experiences

Rob students of opportunities to earn from peers and develop relationships with ALL of their peers

Groups are for short periods of time e.g. lesson, week, 2 weeks

Groups are well matched to the task and take into account characteristics not just academic ability