On all of my placements, I have never had to personally put students in groups. But, I have learnt the importance of grouping students and how much it affects their ability to work. I also learnt about the meanings of collaborative work and cooperative work;
"Collaborative learning refers to a method enabling children to work together in small sized groups to work together to achieve a common goal. Students are not only responsible for their own learning, but also the learning of their peers; meaning their success is another’s." (Slavin, 2010).
Similar to collaborative learning, cooperative learning involves students are still working in groups, but are under the instruction of the teacher, giving students a chance to discuss information and practice skills presented by the teacher. Unlike collaborative learning though, cooperative methods require students to research and find information individually" (Slavin, 2010).
I have first hand seen the benefits of mixed ability grouping in classes. Whilst working with a Kinder class, there was a group of 3 students put together, all who had difficulty working and concentrating. When given tasks, usually already differentiated from the other students', they still couldn't concentrate together and did not finish their work. But, when myself and the teacher were without helpers one morning, we had to put these three students into other groups; and it was the most work I had seen them complete in the three weeks I was there - it was amazing to see the difference in their work when placed in mixed ability groups.
It was a great learning experience for me!