How to Divide Students into Groups so as to Optimize Learning: Towards a Solution to a Pedagogy-Related Optimization Problem

Authors

Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

7-2012

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-12-18a

Published in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics IEEE SMC'2012, Seoul, Korea, October 14-17, 2012, pp. 1948-1953.

Abstract

To enhance learning, it is desirable to also let students learn from each other, e.g., by working in groups. It is known that such groupwork can improve learning, but the effect strongly depends on how we divide students into groups. In this paper, based on a first approximation model of student interaction, we describe how to optimally divide students into groups so as to optimize the resulting learning. We hope that, by taking into account other aspects of student interaction, it will be possible to transform our solution into truly optimal practical recommendations.