ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the use of functional sub grouping in a school context. It introduces the systems-centered training method of functional sub grouping in four different age-level classrooms as a technique for dialogue with the goal of facilitating learning through the process of joining on similarities rather than separating on differences during class discussion. A secondary goal was to improve skills in facilitating the functional sub grouping technique and to find effective ways to teach and use functional sub grouping in school environments. The chapter suggests that functional subgrouping is an effective dialogue method for deepening student understanding of academic content, for engaging students at an emotional level to enhance their cognitive learning, for engaging students in a meta-cognitive process during a class discussion and for developing listening skills. Action research in an educational context empowers the teacher as a researcher in the classroom in direct relationship with the students as active, contributing participants in the inquiry.
