How to use flexible grouping in STEM

Collaboration is a future-ready skill. Almost every job requires people to work with others. That makes it one of the most important skills for students to practice in school, especially in STEM lessons. 

In STEM, students must work together to solve problems. One way to do that is with flexible grouping.

What is flexible grouping?

Flexible grouping is an evidence-based teaching practice that supports all learners. Students work together in temporary groups to develop a skill or to complete an activity. 

The groups can be homogeneous (made up of students with similar skill levels). Or they can be heterogeneous (made up of students with varying skill levels). Each group should have between two and six students. The groups change often based on the learning objective and students’ needs. 

Flexible grouping helps students work to their strengths and develop new skills. Because STEM involves many content areas (science, technology, engineering, and math), students have more chances to bring their strengths to the group. And they can build skills in areas they may find challenging. 

Learn more about flexible grouping. 

How flexible grouping supports students who learn differently 

Flexible grouping is especially beneficial for students who learn and think differently. Because each group typically works with a teacher for part of the lesson, students with challenges don’t feel singled out. 

Here are some other benefits of flexible grouping. 

Students see that diverse strengths are valued. Students who learn and think differently may have challenges in some areas but not in others. In flexible groups, students see that everyone brings value to the learning community. They get to know and work with each other in each new group. 

Students collaborate and own their work. With flexible grouping, students build skills for working together. Plus, they can take ownership and responsibility for their learning. This is similar to higher education or career settings where teams often rely on people with different skills to manage a project.

Students develop communication skills. Doing STEM work in a small group lets students discuss what they’re working on. Flexible grouping gives them a chance to communicate with a diverse range of peers. They can work on both STEM-specific vocabulary and interpersonal language. 

How to get started with flexible grouping in STEM

1. Define the learning objectives for your STEM lesson.  

Get clear on the STEM concepts you want your students to master. This will help you in two ways. First, the learning objective will help you decide what groups to create, which students belong in the groups, and the size of the groups. Second, with the end goal in mind, you can create checkpoints to monitor each student’s progress and adjust the groups as needed.

2. Review data to decide how to form groups.

Review student data to help you decide which students to group together. For example, you can look at exit tickets from the previous day’s STEM lesson to see which students haven’t mastered the learning objectives yet. Group those students together to practice that skill.

3. Set guidelines for collaborative work. 

Work with students to set expectations for group work. This helps students become comfortable with working together. 

A predictable group structure can also help. Consider assigning roles so that each student is responsible for a piece of the work — and no one feels left out. For a lab investigation, you might assign a materials manager, a time manager, a data collector, and a clean-up manager. You can rotate roles for new activities so each student gets a chance to try them out. The titles can also change to fit each new activity.

4. Ask students to reflect. 

Give students a chance to reflect on what went well in the group and what didn’t. This could be in the form of a peer rubric, a feedback form, or a class discussion. Did they meet the learning objectives? What went well in their group? What was challenging? What questions do they still have? This debrief can help you make decisions for the next groups you’ll form.