The role of the teacher

Getting students in the classroom work on extended tasks in groups require varies approach from other ways of working in classroom like, whole class teaching. In classroom instruction a teacher plays a key role.  Managing a classroom during a lesson is his main role. The teacher prepares effective activities considering their level of learning, interest, and making pre-instructional decisions in group size during the group members doing their activities. He should monitor, supervise and making sure that all the students are actively involved in the tasks. When the teacher making pre-instructional decision he has to consider group size, limiting time for group tasks based on the students’ experience and ability, age, and the availability of materials that appropriate for the tasks (Johnson Johnson, & Holubac,1998:285).                                                                                                                                                               

In addition, a teacher has a role in assigning students to group work. For this purpose he needs to use a random or stratified random procedure to make groups in mixed way (Woolfolk 2001:343).            A students’ personal selection is considerable and it can be from heterogeneous groups. Woolfolk (Ibid.) added that the size of the group depends on the goals of the instruction. If the purpose is to motivate each student to participate in discussions, problem resolution, or computer assisted learning 2 to 4 members in group is better. In other way, if the goal is for the group members to review, rehearse information, or practice, 4 to 6 students are the exact size.

Giving students roles in each group is also the role of the teacher. The students must share the responsibilities to do the tasks.

The room arrangement is other very important role of the teacher. A suitable environment may attract students to do activities in pleasure. Putting furniture, the form of arrows, or lines which suit the type of activities and creating instructional materials used for the activities, and displaying group work is also his duty (Johnson, Johnson, Holubec, 1998:258).