Student Grouping: Investigating a Socio-Educational Practice in a Public School in Portugal
Abstract
:1. Introduction and Background
1.1. Student Grouping Practices
1.2. Student Grouping Practice: What, Where, When, How, Who?
2. Materials and Methods
Data Analysis
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Institutional ‘Barriers to Participation in Learning and School’
There are kids with a lot of difficulties and the subjects are not covered with as much difficulty as in the other groups. It’s a lower level of difficulty.[Excerpt from FG—Coordinator of the Portuguese Language]
C1—Basically, these children … the weaker groups … what are the advantages of being divided … the classes are homogeneous, I’d call them level classes, because they are level classes.P1—Level classes.C1—Practically, everyone has the same difficulties. Having two teachers in these groups you do more individualised work with them.P1—More direct, more personalised.C1—And they make some progress. And we don’t just consider this progress in terms of knowledge. We also consider advances in terms of behaviour, work methods, we think it’s very important.P1—One very important thing is that we can adapt syllabus.C1—We can.P1—We adapt the syllabus, but then there’s a constraint later. If there’s an exam or assessment test … there’s no correspondence afterwards … that’s what’s been happening. These are the limitations we see.[Excerpt from FG—Mathematics Coordinator and the Portuguese Teacher]
I think that, even though the “best group” doesn’t accept this practice very well, the ones who benefit most from it are the students who have more difficulties because in this practice and in this group, we have two teachers. In the past, when they were in the mother class, they might not have been able to simply copy from the blackboard, and now in these classes these students manage to get a positive score, or they are able to copy from the blackboard, or they are able to make other progress.[Excerpt from FG—Portuguese Teacher]
In the new group, the students with more difficulties, participate more because they are among their peers while in the other groups, they are shy.[Excerpt from FG—Portuguese Language Coordinator]
In E [high level group] the students benefit, some for the better. There is enrichment work beyond the curriculum, there is broader enrichment. In the other two groups [with more difficulties], we must limit ourselves to teach what they achieve. Although the philosophy of the project, and I want to stress this, is that the curriculum is the same for everyone.[Excerpt from FG—Mathematics Coordinator]
P2—So the school put these three classes together and it wasn’t right at the beginning [of the school year].P5—Exactly.P2—But they did some tests and realised that there are students who learn more easily, who are good … they can learn more quickly and there are others who have more difficulties. So, they divided these students in three classes … with …P5—Consonant …P2—Depending on the student’s abilities.P5—Exactly.[Excerpt from FG—Parent 2 and Parent 5]
The explanation I’ve received is that this is also an experiment that the school is carrying out. It’s been going on for several years and it seems to have had good results in terms of school success.[Excerpt from FG—Parent 4]
The weaker students have two teachers who teach them more slowly.[Excerpt from FG—Parent 1]
3.2. Situational ‘Barriers to Participation in Learning and School’
At the beginning of the school year, we explain to the parents, the school board and the directors that we place the children in the same class as the others, a “mother” class, and then, at a certain point, we split them into groups. Three classes form three other classes. Most of the parents agree with the way the practice operates, but sometimes the parents of the students in the higher groups are less keen on the practice because they believe that their children will be penalised. However, we explained how it works and the objectives of the practice and they ended up understanding its purpose.[Excerpt from FG—Mathematics Coordinator]
When it’s explained to them that their children will have more individualised closer support that will better meet their needs, they don’t question anything else. If it helps them [the students with the lowest results] parents welcome this practice.[Excerpt from FG—Portuguese Teacher]
P4—According to what they say, the student who is particularly good learns straight away and in a class with some very bad students, what happens, that student who is distracted, is chattering, the teacher tries to explain the subject to the slowest one. So, the students split up into groups all benefit from practice.P2—I also agree …P1—It’s been working.[Excerpt from FG—Parent 1 (P1), Parent 2 and Parent 4]
3.3. Dispositional ‘Barriers to Participation in Learning and School’
Sometimes they are almost our children.[Excerpt from the FG—Mathematics Coordinator]
The students here are more supported, they are accompanied in an affectionate and very close way.[Excerpt from FG—Socio-cultural Animator]
P2—My son has some learning difficulties in Portuguese. He does, but it’s nothing special, it’s just that he’s in the weakest group. The thing about Portuguese [language] is that he has two teachers, and I think that’s a good thing, because he says that the teacher checks his notebook and sees when he’s doing well … and that’s good for them because it’s they’re taught more closely.P4—More personalised.P2—It’s that way. I think so.P4—I also ask my son if he likes it and he says yes, he likes it. He doesn’t have any problems.[Excerpt from FG—Parent 2 and Parent 4]
My son often tells me that the teacher has been looking at his notebook and then tells him that he did very well at the board. There’s positive reinforcement … and I think it’s teaching more closely, and this has proved to be the case.[Excerpt from FG—Parent 3]
C1—Internally, they’re good, they get good grades, they’re one of our best classes, in both groups we teach the same content. The content is taught in the same way with different strategies. Of course, I’m not going to demand that children achieve the content or know everything … but that they learn things that will allow them to progress … slowly in their lives. That’s what they achieve internally … both in terms of knowledge and personal (know-how). But then, in the external assessment, the socio-affective aspect doesn’t matter at all, only the cognitive aspect matters. As the socio-affective component doesn’t count, the results aren’t very good in these two groups. They’re very poor …P1—For me the main barrier is precisely there … we work hard, they get good results, they succeed, but then you get to the benchmarking test, and they don’t get any results.[Excerpt from FG—Mathematics Coordinator and the Portuguese Teacher]
3.4. Effects of the Practice of Student Grouping
Above all, this practice allows them to overcome barriers that will improve the expectations of young people’s academic performance (…) while there are significant improvements in other areas, such as integration, cooperation, and socialisation, knowing how to be and intervene appropriately in classes.[Excerpt from FG—Portuguese Language Coordinator]
They feel happy at school. The two groups with the greatest difficulties, given that the other group remain the same, they fit in and know how to co-operate, they learn to work as a group, they exchange opinions and at a certain point they manage to achieve their educational goals.[Excerpt from the FG—Mathematics Coordinator]
4. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
- Institutional dimensions—Institutional dimensions of the practice under study related to learning and school success;
- 1.1
- Pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment—Description of the practice, with reference to the institutional initiative. Organisation of time, space, groups (size, for example), activities (more time, fewer different activities per day), content and study cycles (contextualisation of the curriculum), work teams, rhythm, general rules, rules for performance;
- 1.2
- Student participation—Student participation with reference to the initiative of children and young people. Spaces, times, activities, and procedures. Deliberative, educational, and/or evaluative participation. Student participation in decisions regarding content, themes, activities, performance, and rules;
- 1.3
- The quality of learning—Pedagogical quality and scientific quality of learning;
- 1.4
- Positive and negative expectations—Regarding student performance, student interests/motivation, and the position/conduct of families;
- 1.5
- Inter-institutional support and work—Collaboration between institutions, with the aim of favouring school success;
- Dispositional dimensions—Dimensions relating to the disposition/conditions for learning (management of educational objectives; stimulation, construction of academic aspirations, and expectations; attitude towards intellectual work; feeling of belonging, strangeness);
- 2.1
- Stability of intervention teams—Strong and continuous relationships. Temporal dimension;
- 2.2
- Sustaining learning—Student role learning that is a prerequisite for the student role (behavioural norms: language, posture, internalised self-control, impersonal, self-mastery);
- 2.3
- Sustaining learning: student role—Improving school grades;
- 2.4
- Sustaining learning that is a prerequisite for professional life—Learning geared towards acquiring competences that can help people integrate into the labour market and/or geared towards promoting lifelong learning (e.g., professional/vocational training; curricular integration of academic and professional components; job search tools and procedures; etc.);
- Situational dimensions—Specific life situations, including own, family, and social responsibilities or expectations associated with age, gender, or stage in the life cycle;
- 3.1
- Communication, translation, and negotiation and interaction between schools, parents/families, and communities—Role of teachers, technicians, and others in communication, translation, and negotiation with the others in the development of practice. Times, spaces, and procedures;
- 3.2
- Reference figures’ influence (peer group, school/leisure context, parents)—In the school and personal lives of children and young people who are part of the different practices and who condition decision-making, behavioural, and emotional and motivational attitudes of children and young people towards school and academic and professional aspirations;
- Transformation effects—Social/institutional, dispositional, situational, collective, individual effects, promoted by the practice under study, that most contribute to creating conditions for overcoming barriers (institutional, situational, and dispositional) to participation and learning.
1 | This socio-educational practice was previously identified as successful in promoting school success through an interview with the local coordinator of the project and document analysis in the first phase of the research project. |
2 | The Portuguese education system is structured in 1st cycle (4 years), 2nd cycle (2 years), 3rd cycle (3 years), and secondary education (3 years). Compulsory education ends with the completion of 12 years of schooling, between the ages of 6 and 18. |
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Loureiro, A.; Rodrigues, M.d.O. Student Grouping: Investigating a Socio-Educational Practice in a Public School in Portugal. Soc. Sci. 2024, 13, 141. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13030141
Loureiro A, Rodrigues MdO. Student Grouping: Investigating a Socio-Educational Practice in a Public School in Portugal. Social Sciences. 2024; 13(3):141. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13030141
Chicago/Turabian StyleLoureiro, Armando, and Marta de Oliveira Rodrigues. 2024. "Student Grouping: Investigating a Socio-Educational Practice in a Public School in Portugal" Social Sciences 13, no. 3: 141. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13030141
APA StyleLoureiro, A., & Rodrigues, M. d. O. (2024). Student Grouping: Investigating a Socio-Educational Practice in a Public School in Portugal. Social Sciences, 13(3), 141. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13030141