Influence of Teachers’ Grouping Strategies on Children’s Peer Social Experiences in Early Elementary Classrooms

Abstract

Most children experience some form of grouping in the classroom every day. Understanding how teachers make grouping decisions and their impacts on children’s social development can shed light on effective teacher practices for promoting positive social dynamics in the classroom. This study examined the influence of teachers’ grouping strategies on changes in young children’s social experiences with peers across an academic year. A total of 1,463 children (51% girls, Mage = 6.79, SDage = 1.22) and 79 teachers from kindergarten to third-grade classrooms participated in this study. Teachers rated children’s behavioral problems as the most important consideration when creating seating charts or assigning children to small groups. Promoting existing or new friendships was rated as the least important consideration. Heterogeneous ability grouping, rated as somewhat important by the teachers, was associated with a decrease in children’s friendships and yet also a decrease in girls’ experience with peer conflicts. Our findings begin to fill in the gaps in the literature on the social impacts of ability grouping for young children.

Network‐related teaching and changes in classroom seating

“…Despite the potential merit in teachers operating from a network-related perspective when making decisions about classroom seating (Gest & Rodkin, 2011), it seems that it is more common for teachers to base these decisions on academic goals or concerns about classroom management (Gremmen et al, 2016;Kim et al, 2020).…”

“…Similarly, Kim et al (2020) used a sample of 1463 children and 79 teachers (kindergarten to third grade) to examine the association between teachers' grouping strategies and students' social functioning. Teachers rated concerns about student behavioral issues as most important when making seating changes and promoting student friendships as least important, thus supporting Gest and Rodkin's (2011) findings suggesting few teachers are network related.…”

“…Despite the potential merit in teachers operating from a network‐related perspective when making decisions about classroom seating (Gest & Rodkin, 2011), it seems that it is more common for teachers to base these decisions on academic goals or concerns about classroom management (Gremmen et al, 2016; Kim et al, 2020). Variability in teachers' decisions about classroom seating could also reflect a mix of student concerns, professional competencies, and personal beliefs.…”

“…Presumably, teachers who fit Gest and Rodkin's (2011) description of network‐related make decisions about classroom seating based on concerns about the quality of students' peer relationships, perhaps viewing changes in seating as a way to promote social inclusion or reduce concerns about bullying and teasing. For example, it is possible that network‐related teachers might be inclined to seat together students who typically do not interact (Gest & Rodkin, 2011; Kim et al, 2020). We would also expect network‐related teachers to be attuned to which students are being victimized by peers, information that could factor into decisions about classroom seating changes (Gest & Rodkin, 2011).…”

“…In this study, we asked teachers to rate how often they made major and minor seating changes. We reasoned that minor seating changes are likely used to address concerns about an individual student or two, whereas major changes are likely used to address broader concerns about classroom management (Brophy, 2006; Kim et al, 2020). Our supposition was that teachers concerned about students' peer relationships and attuned to their involvement in peer victimization would view changes in classroom seating as an opportunity to support specific students via the use of minor seating changes.…”