What if they just won't cooperate

One of the teachers from my last orientation group has asked me what to do if students just won't work in a group.

It can be a problem but it's part of a wider issue - what if they just won't work at all?

When I first started at my original school here in China most of my classes were great - a little noisy at times - but mostly pretty great. However there was one class  of Senior 2 students who weren't. They simply wouldn't even attempt the work that I set them, no matter how easy it was. I simplified and simplified until I was teaching them the same lessons that I was teaching my Junior 1 classes. I still couldn't get them to work. I talked with their class teacher and discovered that this class had been deliberately put together from all the most difficult students in the grade and that every teacher had the same problems with them. There was virtually nothing to be done with them. The way that the class had been assembled virtually guaranteed that they would fail. Still, you have to teach every class, whether they are easy or not. All I could do was keep on trying, pitching the easiest lessons I could with the most interesting tasks I could manage. I never did manage to get through to that class but that's the way it goes sometimes. You just have to accept that you can't win them all and try the best you can.

On the other hand I had a class in another school where after a couple of lacklustre lessons I started to teach one afternoon and got literally no response from them. They weren't my strongest class but they were far from being my weakest. Once again I couldn't get them to do anything - even down to the level of answering questions like "what is your name". On that occasion I had to go to get their class teacher, a colleague who spoke excellent English, and have him explain to them in Chinese that even if they didn't know the answers or were too embarrassed to try they had to respond and - right or wrong - I wouldn't be angry with them. I just needed them to answer. After that they were still reluctant but they got better as time went on  and once they realised that I really didn't mind wrong answers - that I was there to help them fix those problems, they started to be a pretty good class.

The point is this, whether it's an individual or a whole class that won't participate you need to find out why. The first class was just made up of the grade's most difficult students and was hard for everybody. The second class were  an average group but wouldn't participate because they were afraid of making mistakes.

There are all kinds of reasons that students - or classes - won't participate but I'm fairly sure that "they hate me" is bottom of the list. Let's think for a minute of what some of  those reasons might be.

They are unused to working with western teaching methods. (For example, in groups.)

They don't understand what you want them to do.

The task you have set them is too difficult for them

The task you have set them is too easy for them.

The task that you have set is too boring for them.

You have grouped them with other students that they don't get along with.

They are afraid to show their lack of knowledge.

They understand but don't have any confidence.

They are shy.

They genuinely have no interest in learning English.

They are too tired because of their heavy schedules.

Individual students may have family problems or emotional issues.

They think they are, in the western phrase, "too cool for school".

They don't want to show off how clever they are in front of their friends.

They physical layout of the classroom may prevent them working easily with other people.

Those are just a few reasons that are straight off the top of my head. I could sit here and think up as many again... and again... but the point I'm making is that unless you can figure out why the class - or the student - won't join in, there is no effective way to address it. Once you figure out "why" the rest still might not be easy but it's definitely easier.

Some of these things you can deal with easily... if the tasks are too hard, too easy or too boring the answer is right there in your hands. If they are shy or scared or don't want to show off, then simple encouragement and trying to be sensitive to the issue is the way to go.

Others are more difficult but you'll get nowhere until you start with the right question.

Moving on to the problem with groups there are certainly some things that you can do that will help out in general.

You should begin by thinking about the way groups are organised - the physical grouping, the size of the groups and whether or not it's actually possible for them to work as a group. Having ten students sitting in pairs behind each other means that they can't actually talk to each other. If you can't move them around then try to use smaller groups.

When you are designing the activity make sure that it is at the right level and that it's interesting enough. And - though it should be obvious - make sure it's actually doable... trial it. Think about the instructions, plan exactly what you are going to say and write on the board.

When you set up the groups make the strongest student in each group the leader and tell them that it's their job to ask everyone else in the group for their ideas.

While the activity is taking place make sure that you monitor all the groups. If any of them aren't participating then help them.

But most of all remember that while you have to try to reach every student there is always the chance that you won't be able to reach some of them. You do your best, set things up properly and monitor them but if you have done everything right and it still doesn't work... try not to let it get you down.

Sometimes life's just like that.