【正文】 ay to teach science (Small amp。 Petrek, 1992, p. 30). Some see group work as particularly important in science classrooms. In addition to developing social skills and facilitating classroom management, working in teams reflects the way science is practiced. Science itself is a collaborative, cooperative enterprise. As Johnson and Johnson (1991) observe, just scan the list of articles in any issue of Science or other scientific journal and count the number of authors associated with each article. Scientists work in teams. As Rutherford and Ahlgren (1990, p. 189) point out, the collaborative nature of scientific and technological work should be strongly reinforced by frequent group activity in the classroom. So, how do you facilitate group work in the science classroom? Teacher Responses l In order to involve all members of a group in a handson learning activity, one should assign roles for the children. For example, one student may be the recorder, another could be in charge of materials, and another may actually perform the activity. The roles should be rotated or reassigned so that each child can be involved in every part of the process and so that each child may have a chance to play their favorite role. Kathleen Costello, 3rd grade teacher, Holy Spirit School, Columbus, OH l The challenge in education today is to effectively teach students of diverse ability and differing rates of learning. In my experience with a multiage, racially mixed, elementary classroom, this can be achieved through cooperative learning and crossage tutoring. In cooperative learning, all contribute to the group effort because students receive group rewards as well as individual grades. High achievers deepen their understanding and lower achievers gain a sense of acplishment through contributions to the group problem. Crossage tutoring allows tutees to receive individualized instruction and work with positive role models. Grouping students in this way eliminates dull, repetitive programs which, by nature, lead at best to minimum petencies. In a day raining of reinforced racial and socialeconomic isolation and racial prejudice in our schools and the alienation toward school among lower achieving students, group learning may be the only proven effective port in the storm. Strategies for implementing a group learning environment are many. Those which I have used successfully are: 1. Decide the size of the group. I typically use from two to six students, depending on the nature of the task and the time available. 2. Assign students to groups, preferably by your heterogeneous grouping rather than by student ability or student selfselection. Do not change group assignments with each new task, rather allow time for each group to get to know each other through the work of several tasks. I may change grouping as little as once a month. 3. Arrange the room so that groups can work together without disrupting other groups. 4. Plan instructional materials to promote interdependence. Give only one copy of the materials to the group. 5. Assign roles to assure interdependence. I give job titles such as summarizer, researcher, recorder, encourager, and observer. 6. Structure individual accountability as well as a group assessment in which individuals39。 rewards are based both on their own scores and on the average for the groups as a whole. 7. Discuss desired behaviors. Request that students take turns, use personal names, listen carefully to one another, and encourage everyone to participate. 8. Monitor student behavior. Circulate around the room to listen and observe groups in action. Note problems in pleting assignments and working cooperatively. 9. Allow opportunities for groups to orally report their findings to the whole class. 10. Give feedback to each group about how well the members worked with one another and acplished tasks and how they could improve. Sally Parker, The Montessori House, Tampa, FL Developer Thoughts l First of all, the room environment can be constructed so that it fosters the cooperative learning approach. Instead of putting desks in rows, put them together to make laboratory tables. Or better yet, get rid of most of the desks and put in tables. Also, there are many grouplearning activities that can be done in a different academic setting that will enable students to learn how to work together.... Doing science experiments is more fun in a group, even in a twosome, because you can share equipment and knowledge, learn how to make charts and graphs together, discuss the outes of the experiments, and e to conclusions together. The teacher can also suggest roles each member of a group can play such as one person reading the instrument, another recording the data, another physically starting the experiment, etc. Dianne K. Hyer and Roger C. Eckhardt, Students Watching Over Our Planet Earth (SWOOPE ), Los Alamos National Laboratory l Teachers should organize small groups to do the science activities. Our research and feedback from teachers in over one thousand classrooms have found very little problem getting students in small groups to cooperate. The problem has been associated with larger groups with limited equipment. The teacher may assign specific tasks to the students such as data keeping and various aspects of carrying out the experiment. Jerald A. Tunheim, Project SMILE (Science Manipulatives in the Learning Environment), Dakota State University, Madison, SD l In a handson approach to teaching science, some basic factors contribute to the success of students working in groups. Review the checklist to assess whether you attend to these factors. Team Task l Do you evaluate a task to determine if it actually lends itself to a team approach? (If students can do the task just as well on their own, why should they work in a group?) l Do you provide enough structure and support for teams to plete the task independently and successfully? (Is the structure and