Ability Grouping - Karilyn Parker

After reading through the chapter and article, I can definitely see the advantages and disadvantages of  ability grouping.

Ability grouping advantages for gifted and middle/low level students are that it allows for those higher level thinkers to be given learning situations to help each of them raise their learning potential at an accelerated pace. The low and middle level students have also been seen to still perform at the same level whether they are in a heterogeneous or homogeneous grouped classes. There is also the factor that gifted students would be in a class with highly motivated learners who are willing and interested in the learning. Low and middle level students feel that they can also begin to rise to the occasion, because they are not competing with gifted students.

The disadvantages of ability grouping are that gifted students are not getting any interaction with middle/lower level thinkers to be able to see other's view points. The group discussions with students of all different levels helps promote good questions and thinking skills. Also, teaching a room full of higher level thinkers can sometimes result in a lot of "leaders" in one room, which doesn't allow for a lot of good discussion but just a play for power.