Opening the classroom to the community: Interactive groups

4.2. Objectives

Interactive Groups are conceived to offer all students an education of the highest quality. To get this, low achievers are not segregated from their regular classroom. All the needed resources are introduced in the classroom to guarantee that these students can continue their education with the highest possible expectations (Gràcia & Elboj 2005). Having this in mind, interactive groups aim at:

• Coping with diversity into the regular classroom, contributing to overcome school failure and segregation:

  • Inclusion vs segregation.

  • Remedial classes vs regular classroom work.

• Promoting dialogic and cooperative learning, increasing interaction in the classroom.

  • Peer interaction.

  • Students and volunteers.
• Developing the student's teamwork skills and the capacity to interact and collaborate with others effectively.

• Speeding up the process of learning and increase learners' interest.

  • Through interaction between students, teachers and volunteers.

  • By staying in constant activity.

• Intensifying instrumental learning and favour the learning of values and students' emotional development.

  • Solidarity, respet for diversity, teamwork, initiative, self-steem.

• Contributing to the improvement of coexistence.

• Providing the necessary support to all students through maintaining a common learning environment and reorganising the natural existing resources.

  • Participation of a diverse range of professionals, volunteers and families in the classroom: tutors, specialist teachers, volunteers, families,...

  • Cooperation among students: peer tutoring, cooperative learning, diversity and differences among students is understood as an enriching element that ease interaction between students.

• Guaranteeing the acquisition of curricular contents, and a better understanding of the majority language as well as other languages.