Abstract:

This paper, based on the questionnaire about grouping and evaluating in cooperative learning in a certain primary school, aims to research the effect of grouping and evaluating on the cooperative learning in small English classes. It is found that teachers can not group the students scientifically and they often take a single evaluation method when students finish the group activities. To solve these problems, solutions are put forward. It is necessary for teachers to consider the size of the group, the members’ learning level in each group and the roles that they can play in the group. Teachers are also required to take a variety of evaluation methods timely and use the formative assessment in daily teaching.

Key words: cooperative learning; small classes; grouping and evaluation

摘要：

本文基于在小学开展的关于合作学习中分组和评价的相关调查问卷，意在研究分组和评价对小班化英语教学中小组合作学习的影响。研究发现了一些问题：在分组过程中，教师不能科学分组，而在小组活动结束后的评价中，教师采取的评价方法过于单一。针对这些问题，本文提出了一些解决方案。教师在分组前要综合考虑小组成员数量，学习程度以及每个成员在小组中可以担任什么角色；而在小组活动结束时，要进行及时的评价，以形成性评价为主，采用多种评价相结合的方式。

关键词：小组合作学习; 小班化；分组和评价

1. Introduction
The national English curriculum advocates cooperative learning in English classes, because it promotes the multilateral interaction between students and teachers or students and students and provides opportunities for students to learn to work cooperatively with others. However, it is difficult for teachers to organize the group work effectively. In practice, there are many problems with cooperative learning. For example, due to large sizes of classes, they are divided into too many groups or there are too many members within a group. Consequently, it is difficult for teachers to supervise and evaluate each group or each member. What’s more, in order to control the whole class and avoid the wander at will in the classroom, teachers often form a team according to the seats arrangement without considering about the learning level within the group. It is worth the effort to study the cooperative learning in English classes.
The purpose of this paper is to understand the present situation of cooperative learning in small English class through questionnaires, and to find out the existing problems and solutions, so that cooperative learning can really play a role in improving classroom teaching.