Author: Pavla Sadecka
Origin: CZECH REPUBLIC
Implemented in: Portugal and Ireland
The objective of this GP is to activate all the knowledge that students already have about magnets and to extend it with further knowledge. The lessons start with an experiment carried out by the teacher, which is then followed by a brainstorming in class to find out what the students already know about magnets and what they would like to know about them. The teacher writes the students’ answers down on a flipchart and once the list is complete, the teacher splits the questions into different home groups and topics and distributes them among the students in order to create expert groups. The students have to do research together in their expert groups to find out the answers to the questions, which at the end they will present to the members of their home group, as well as by posters to the whole class. Finally the students have to answer a quiz to see if they can apply their acquired knowledge to various examples and experiments.
Success stories
This GP requires a set of materials, and organizational skills in the teacher in order to keep control over the home, expert and puzzle groups. However, the teachers who tried this GP did not report any particular problem. A Portuguese teacher only mentioned that for the expert group method she realized how important it is that all the members of the group work well, as otherwise that “could compromise the learning of other members of the home group”. In most cases, however, the teachers noticed that the method used in this GP motivated the students to work efficiently, as they had responsibility towards their groups. An Irish teacher said that the “task on magnetizing the iron bar was very impressive” and that the students enjoyed it. As he saw his students working very well during the implementation of this GP, he even filmed the students while they were working on their experiments in order to create a video for them.
