Pros and Cons of Teaching Groups and Individual Students

In this essay, I will talk about the differences and pros and cons of one to one and group teaching. All the arguments given are based on my teaching experience with young learners.

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lin C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

Pros of one to one teaching for teachers

The biggest advantage of this teaching style is the easily manageable class. The teacher doesn't need to think about more classroom management skills and ways of working with an individual student. The second plus of one to one teaching is that the teacher saves more energy. It is easy to keep the student focused on content. By contrast, it is hard to keep the whole group focused on the class.

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Pros of one to one teaching for students

Participation and talking time is longer during one to one teaching. In comparison with group teaching, where the student's talking time is reduced. A student has more chances to develop his study styles and skills.

Cons of one to one teaching for teachers

The teacher doesn't have a wide selection of activities or fun games as it is not possible to play a lot of games with only one student. It is very hard to continue the lesson when the student, especially a young learner, refuses or is not able to move forward. The reasons for this kind of situation may be different. For instance, a kid can be sleepy, hungry, moody, etc.

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Cons of one to one teaching for students

One to one teaching can be very tired and exhausted, as the whole class time is on one student's shoulders. The student doesn't have an opportunity to observe other students' learning speed, participation, answers, etc. There is no possibility of experience exchange. The possibility of being stressed is very high during one to one teaching. The student cannot relax and enjoy the study process, instead, he must be always ready to give new answers. There is no competition during one to one teaching. In my opinion, healthy competition is a must for a student. It can create a high level of motivation.

Pros and cons of teaching groups

For teachers

The teacher has a chance to observe, compare and evaluate students' behavior, learning abilities and participation. It will let the teacher understand the productiveness of different activities and based on that data the teacher can design more suitable activities and will increase his class quality. The teacher can be more creative by organizing different interesting activities, such as role-plays, team building activities, etc. Time flies faster while teaching groups.

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Pros of group teaching for students

It is a big advantage to study in a group for students. They learn how to work in teams. They are more relaxed and confident. There is a competition between students. The students are becoming more patient as they know they should wait for their turns.

Cons for teachers

It is getting hard for a teacher to teach a group where the members maybe have the same level but different learning speed, abilities or behavior. The possibility of facing hard and unpleasant situations is very high during group teaching. Time management and equal involvement of students in a class are one of the biggest drawbacks of group teaching.

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Cons for students

Students talking and participation time is reduced.

In conclusion, with all these arguments, presented in this essay, I tried to analyze the differences between one to one and group teaching. I hope this essay will be helpful for other teachers as well.

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