Introduction & Goals

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Research in business, education, and neurological sectors have confirmed that productivity is enhanced when tasks are performed in small group, face to face, encounters. Amplification of the 'thinking' prefrontal cortex and associated 'emotional' midbrain areas is key to sustaining motivation, attention, and task completion.

It is the goal of this website to reveal the associated benefits of group pedagogy to help schools function at their highest level. In many instances classrooms are not allowing students to use their full cognitive potentials because a large proportion of the time involves sitting and observing: the teacher lectures, presents slides, or passes out worksheets. Even when these are done in an efficient manner, the process is not incorporating the realm of the human social dynamic that arouses thought, creativity, and the motivational areas of the brain.  

What has research determined? It is beneficial to have students included in discussions, especially if they are positioned to have eye contact and offer a significant number of contributions to the discussion. Student participation at the board to analyze problems and even lead a discourse is another way to maximize student involvement.

More significantly, however, students sitting in groups of three to five in close proximity with explicit instructions and guidelines outperform their counterparts in teacher-led lecture classes. The cooperative setting (even as part of a larger classroom instruction program) promotes tolerance and motivation to learn as well. The prefrontal cortex-midbrain connection is repeatedly stimulated in such settings and the growth of dendritic connections to nerve cells is increased. The consequence is better long-term mastery of subject matter and skills. In addition, the spontaneous social engagement encourages what our society strongly desires in our citizens: tolerance and altruistic behavior.

This site discusses these topics and includes the studies and commentaries from researchers in the areas of neurology, education, sociology, and business. Specific instructions are given on (a) how schools can improve their 'priming' to make the environment more conducive for learning as well as (b) classroom procedures that maximize concentration and higher level thinking such as analysis and creativity.

Brian Pack

packb@uwm.edu