© 2024, Whitney Lawrence, licensed under CC BY-NC-N Literature Review on Resurged Ability Grouping Practices as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic by Dr. Whitney Lawrence Abstract: Howard E. Gardner proposed the notion that human beings possess different ways of knowing, understanding, and communicating with the world. Despite his Theory of Multiple Intelligences, some educators continue to instruct and assess students without considering diverse learning styles. People possess certain combinations of different intelligences that affect how they learn and demonstrate learning in school. This literature review aims to provide a comprehensive report on the importance of exploring resurging ability grouping practices as we move from the impact of COVID-19. The article provides a review of current grouping practices, effects of ability grouping on students and their achievement, as well as perceptions of administrators and teachers. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 These verses demonstrate the Holy Spirit’s gift of variances of favors to different people. When man was created, God established the gifts of each individual. Howard E. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences can be seen through 1 Corinthians. This theory identifies individual aptitude sets of capabilities and ways in which one prefers to demonstrate intellectual abilities.1 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 explains there are different gifts, but the same God produces them for individual benefits. Despite the connections between individual gifts with teaching and learning, the impact of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory and its connection to ability grouping is deficient in literature. Homogeneous grouping has been defined as a practice of separation of students in the same grade into groups or classes that are differentiated based on test scores and school records.2 An essential step missing from this definition is the separation of students not only with similar ability, interest, or background knowledge, but also correlating styles of learning. When educators use the learning gifts provided to each student to create intentional instruction, it speaks directly to students. In Teaching to Change Lives: Seven Proven Ways to Make Your Teaching Come Alive, Howard Hendricks defines the 1 Howard E. Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice (New York: Basic Books, 2006) 3. 2 James A. Kulik and Chen-Lin C. Kulik, “Meta-Analytic Findings on Grouping Programs,” Gifted Child Quarterly 36, no. 2 (1992): 73, https://doi.org/10.1177/001698629203600204.
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