I tell student that it is not communist for them to work together.  That cooperation works a lot better than competition if there is interdependence (so says Adm Smith and Rene Tom).  The can work together on homework but they should have independent write ups.  Personally, I learned more from working with my fellow students as we were encouraged by our professors.  But I (as are  teachers) am old fashioned We follow John Dewy..

I tell student that it is not communist for them to work together.  That cooperation works a lot better than competition if there is interdependence (so says Adm Smith and Rene Tom).  The can work together on homework but they should have independent write ups.  Personally, I learned more from working with my fellow students as we were encouraged by our professors.  But I (as are  teachers) am old fashioned We follow John Dewy..

Vilemar:

I set-up team debates and allow them to choose "for" or "against" the topic, which is usually related to their prior reading/experience/local or global issue. They enjoy researching and rebutting each other's argument and learn to value their shared exchanges. I am only the guide on the side in setting things up and monitoring to ensure all goes smoothly. The attached conference paper explains the process and results that I hope would be helpful in answering your question.

Best regards,

Debra

Conference Paper Debating: A Dynamic Teaching Strategy for Motivating Student...

We can form a group of 8 people or less than that. They were given the opportunity to ask and answer questions. They can also share their experiences while studying in class. They are taught the courage to express their feelings and thoughts ranging from small groups. They are more active to learn and seek information among themselves and exchange ideas in a group.

Is there any application of socialmetrics in your classes? Is the group seen as one entity?

I work with debates in the classroom between them and with me. Also I ask for exercises in couples or teams and after they present its findings to the class. Team homework permits more interacting with someone. As much interaction, much learning.

It depends on the students' age. There has been much research ( Michele Grossen, Eveline Wuthke)about the the type of questions asked by the teacher which either enhances the students' engagement such as open questions or and starting a task context related which allows students' existing knowledge to be alerted and hence their interest. I  do not know why teachers seem to find it hard or expect it to be less learning oriented when they pose open questions. With young children open questions may attract wild guesses or remarks, but the older the students get the less they have experienced room for thought. In the end the students have adjusted and do not make spontaneous remarks or reply open -ended questions anymore, and at that point the teacher seems to go back to the model of: Question by teacher, response by student, and final remark by teacher (Mehan). This model  can only be deconstructed by teachers' open questions to draw out open answers by students, or by offering time between students to make out the answers they could provide after a teacher question. However, when students are not used to this type of work in the classroom both parties have to practice.

I am advisor to the Virtual University System in this regard throughout the teaching-learning process is carried out from a virtual platform , where there is a tool called forums.

But interaction is supported by other means such as email, whatsap , social networks, wikis, blogs. etc...

I believe that the group activities are important for student-student and student-teacher interaction. However, these activities could be stepped up with the mediation of the teacher.  It is required the teacher to walk between the groups, asking them questions, provoking speeches and arguments between students.

Besides activities and small group formation, is there any work which considers the students in group and not as an individual? Students learn in a way when alone and in a different way when in group. 

I use a talk ball to generate interaction in small groups. The ball allows the student to choose who they want to get into the conversation next. Usually this generates controversy and all students end up participating in the discussion.

Student-student interaction can be promoted by group activities like team building, cooperative learning, collaborative learning, project work and the like.

My first concern is what do you want to accomplish by the students interacting with other students.. There are lots of gimmick 'strategies' to increase student interactions, much of it resulting in sharing misconceptions, errors, gut-level thoughts and reactions, and a lot of immediate first impressions of a topic, etc. In many other instance the students interact to get something done such as complete a task or series of tasks, which in no way is close to their learning anything of academic significance per amount of time talking. Team building, collaborative group activities, cooperative task completion strategies, and project work are all focused on getting one or more tasks done--such as 'building a team' or completing a project. However if significant levels of  learning, mastering, and remembering specific academic content and abilities are what you expect as an outcome, then the nature of the conditions surrounding their interaction and requirements that must be fulfilled for them to stay on task in ensuring the learning of every student on the team so that they remember the content and abilities well beyond the end of the period, group task, and week must be met. There are over two dozen specific conditions that have to be planned for, carried out, monitored, and/or completed for this to happen. When these are in place then you have the conditions for 'Optimal Cooperative Learning' rather than what it universally accepted as 'cooperative learning' where the emphasis is placed on increasing interaction and cooperation while de-emphasizing the academic achievement and long term retention of targeted content and abilities. Merely using 'strategies' that increase interaction or talking for their own sake will do very little to increase academic achievement for the students involved--and in many instances pass on misconceptions, errors in fact, faulty reasoning, and a whole host of other results that most teachers say they want to avoid most of the time.

I want to see the laws that regulate the interaction of students in a classroom environment. See what they can learn from others, what impedes their growth in groups, do socialgrams and the like.

There are no 'laws,' but there are a set of conditions that have to be met. I am in North Carolina at present and my research paper on these conditions are on my computer back at Arizona State University. Will send them to you when I get there. Please send your email address. 

Great Robert. [email protected]

I will read your papers as well. I saw you have three at RG and they are interesting for the project I am working on now.

I want to see how leadership is settled inside a classroom. When students may be motivated by others, why, creativity in group, fear in group, the roles of each individual in the group, etc.

Having debates and group activities involving dialogues are the common strategies to enable interaction among students in class room set up. Beyond this, depending on the theme that is left for the class on a particular day, we can arrange for individual assignments in which they are supposed to come out with their own views and then interact with others who are given just opposite themes of the earlier ones. In such exercises they are directed towards a multi dimensional interaction and thought processes. For eg. I had to give them cases relating to the application of labor laws. In such session i used to have news items in which there is an emphasis for laws and also there is an opposition for laws. i used to give both the news pieces to two different individual and ask them to present their views. Such that they get different ideologies of the same issue. On some occasions, when there is a doubt raised by a student, asking the other students whether they are able to / willing to answer the question. By doing this the student who asked is also left free for further clarifications if any with his own peer, at the same time, the one who is ready to answer is also boosted with his self-image as to help other student to know what is what.        

WE SET UP TEAMS DEBATES ON MOODLE PLATFORM.

THEY DISCUSS COMMUNITY PROBLEMS AND SHARE EXPERIENCES HAVING TEACHERS AS TUTORS. 

Here is a link to a pre-print studying some aspects of this, with a rather extensive set of references:

http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/PVB/Harrison/EffectiveTeams/EffectiveTeams.pdf

A small example follows.  Relevant to your question is, first, the bat-ball problem at the bottom of page 6, with an implementation example in the paragraph on pg. 8 beginning with "One of the common ways ...":

http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/PVB/Harrison/PerspectivesOnPedagogy/PerspectivesOnPedagogy.pdf

use role play and team debates using social media

I think  dividing the class into groups can create discussion opportunities to the students. Also, it may  help  the students to feel more responsibility in their learning. Moreover, it may enhance the students' critical thinking in order to  communicate their ideas and speak their minds.

Based on my interpretation of your question, I would offer the following:

Over the years I have discovered that simply allowing groups to have discussions does not lead to critical thinking and can often lead to group exploring secondary issues rather than the focal point. I clear stated question which requires a justification by the group offers a more challenging experience. Further, stating that the student must include critical keywords/ terms within their justification help to focus their scope and justification.

I have also discovered that students need to be taught critical thinking skills, so I often include prompt questions and explore simple approaches of attacking other people’s premises.  For example, data collection methods, sample group, age of supporting literature and so on. This works well, as the students develop these skills, which they transfer into their written work.

I have, from time-to-time changed the layout of a classroom to reflect the courtroom and the student act as lawyers where the students have to interview experts (other students) to argue their case for a given topic. With the right class, this is a great experience and the students really get involved, setting up TV screens for remote interviews.  Once one group issued ‘witness summons’ (subpoenas) to other students within the cohort.

Finally, I use peer mentoring within my labs and workshops as this builds a cooperative platform for group work and helps students to develop friendship, especially in the first year. The issue with this is that some of the students assessment work is similar.

hello

This is done by joint duties, classroom activities, non-classroom activities and joint research

regards