Research School Network: Adaptive decision making: When to Re-Teach and when to use Flexible Groups. Adaptive decision making: When to Re-Teach and when to use Flexible Groups.
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Adaptive decision making: When to Re-Teach and when to use Flexible Groups.
Adaptive decision making: When to Re-Teach and when to use Flexible Groups.
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by East London Research School
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Helen Ralston
Helen is an Assistant Director at the East London Research School with extensive secondary and all-through leadership experience. A former English teacher and headteacher in both specialist and mainstream settings, she now works as a trust leader for teaching and learning in Surrey.
I scan my classroom and face a sea of mini-whiteboards. There is a lot of information to process and a key decision to make: I’ve checked for understanding… now what?
Do I stop and re-teach the whole class? Or target the pupils who haven’t quite got it yet?
Both decisions are an act of immediate feedback to pupils: something is not quite right here and we’re going to fix it, together. It’s a choice that can either accelerate learning or needlessly slow the class down.
We know that effective feedback ‘supports pupil progress, building learning, addressing misunderstandings’ (EEF, 2021) but whilst teachers often notice misunderstandings, it is harder to act on them immediately.
To support this decision-making, and provide that immediate instructional adjustment (Wiliam, 2011) teachers can use three key questions.
1. How many pupils misunderstand?
If most pupils display an error, or partial misunderstanding, a whole-class re-teach is likely the most efficient response.
However, we need to be cautious with the idea of ‘re-teaching.’ Unless we believe that the reason for the misunderstanding was the class’ inattention to our input, a simple repeat is not likely to move learning forward. Instead, we need to approach the idea differently.
This may mean taking a step back to reactivate or re-consolidate some relevant prior knowledge or providing additional scaffolding or visual cues (Rosenshine, 2012).
However, if only a small group are struggling, flexible grouping allows educators to respond without slowing down the majority. This might involve targeted re-teaching, guided practice, or a short intervention while releasing the other pupils onto their independent practice.
2. What type of misunderstanding is present?
Not all errors are equal.
If the issue is procedural (e.g. a missed step or an incorrect method), flexible grouping can be highly effective. A short, focused re-teach to a small group can quickly remove the barrier to learning.
If the issue is conceptual (e.g. a misunderstanding of a core idea or a faulty mental model), it’s often more appropriate to use a whole-class response. These misconceptions tend to be “sticky” and can persist unless we address them explicitly and reconstruct them for all pupils.
Identifying whether pupils have made a procedural or conceptual error is much easier when we have carefully designed our multiple-choice questions. They allow us to quickly interpret responses: “Pupils who selected B are likely to have…” while “Those who chose C may be misunderstanding…”
3. What will have the greatest learning impact in the time available?
Time is always the key constraint.
A whole-class re-teach is powerful when it is tightly focused, addresses a key misconception and avoids unnecessary repetition. Poorly crafted re-teaching risks slowing momentum.
Flexible grouping allows for greater precision.
It enables teachers to:
Target specific misconceptions immediately
Provide scaffolded support where needed
Keep the rest of the class progressing
However, flexible grouping only works when the logistical and cultural conditions are in place: it is the more nuanced and complex of the two approaches.
We will return to this in a future blog.
So what?
The real power of checking for understanding lies in what we, as teachers, do next.
When we match our response to the scale, type, and impact of misunderstanding, our teaching is even more precise and purposeful.
Whole-class re-teaching and flexible grouping are both effective approaches, but they work in different conditions.
This comes down to our judgement: reading what pupils know, what they don’t yet know, and what will move their learning forward most effectively.
Reflective take-away
Next time you scan that sea of whiteboards, resist the temptation to jump straight into re-teaching. Instead, ask yourself: Is this a ‘whole-class moment’ or a ‘flexible grouping moment’ … and, importantly, why?
Look out for… A future blog post from East London Research school about the conditions and factors that need to be in place for flexible grouping to be most effective.
Further Reading:
Education Endowment Foundation (2021). Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning.
