Flexible Grouping as a Means for Classroom Management in a Heterogeneous Classroom

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 10 Number 1 (2011), p. 118‑128.

The current paper concerns issues of classroom management in heterogeneous classrooms. This paper is part of an ethnographic study aiming to examine teacher collaboration in a primary school.

The article draws strongly on field notes and on interviews with teachers.

The intention was to discover how the two teachers in the classroom studied categorized pupils according to the learning styles model they had invented, and how the resulting groups were used for the purposes of classroom management.

The study revealed that learning styles seem to work as a grouping method.
Furthermore, the findings indicate that flexible grouping can diminish problematic situations traditionally related to heterogeneous classrooms.