Research on Efficient Group Organization in Active Learning

In recent years, active learning with group work has been adopted in educational institution lessons. Application of group work is expected to create student’s independence and cooperativeness, thinking faculty, expressiveness and so on. However, in group work, there are drawbacks that adversely affect the progress and outcomes of activities if an imbalance occurs in the personality and characteristics among members of the group. Therefore, in order to maximize the learning effect of group work, balancing the performance exerted by the organized group is indispensable. In this research, a complementary group organization model “Formation of Ability Averaging” (FAA) considering characteristics and problems of individuals was proposed. Also, in order to demonstrate the characteristics of capacity averaging organization, several organization methods were compared. In the experiment, Think-Pair-Share group work was executed with the history of general studies as a theme. The superiority was evaluated by questionnaire survey using Visual Analog Scale after activity. As a result, in the Ability Averaging Formation designating the positions within the group, the interest that leads to self-study after class was high, and the effect of student’s motivation to learn was observed. In addition, FFA was able to determine the condition of organization by the organizer, so the number of groups organized was larger than that of the other, indicating high degree of freedom and versatility.