Heads Together

The present study compared the effects of two teacher questioning strategies, Heads Together and Whole Group, on elementary school students' on-task rates and their performance on daily social studies quizzes. Twenty 3rd graders in a racially and ethnically integrated classroom were exposed to both treatments under an alternating treatment design. Data indicated that students always performed better under Heads Together conditions. These performance differences ranged from 2 to 30 percentage points on daily quizzes and averaged about 16 percentage points over the course of the investigation. Moreover, the percentage of pupils on task was always higher when the cooperative learning intervention was in effect. Consumer satisfaction findings suggest that the students themselves preferred Heads Together over the more traditional teaching method. Implications for instructional practice are discussed.