Group Me!：A Grouping Tool to Support New Teachers for Building Relationships in Class

Chie Ohtani

Proceedings and bstracts of the 26th Japan U.S. Teacher Education Consortium

36

"Group Me!?" was developed by this researcher in order to facilitate icebreaking and building relationships among learners to create a better learning environment through a grouping process. It is a grouping tool to shuffle students, while reflecting the instructor's intention without being noticed by learners. (http://www.tamagawa.ac.jp/info/groupme/). 
 In this study, two comparable classes were chosen and an experimental lesson was conducted. The results showed a significant difference in the descriptions on internal aspects, strengths, and attitudes of the group that used Group Me!?.