Teachers in the social instructional approach act as facilitators in discussion and cooperative learning of students as opposed to the student's source of knowledge on the content. 

It employs instructional approaches such as peer assisted learning and student centered discussion within the classroom that involved students to participate and learn from their classmates in order to deeper their understanding of the material. Teachers may use this approach as it increases diversity and differentiation within the classroom as students can be focused in their own learning groups with students who have the same academic level and interests. In order for such group discussions that are student-focused to work, there needs to be a safe environment where everyone feels free to contribute. If not, then only a few students may be involved and it could result in negative effects if students are not respectful of each other. Oxford University Press ELT (2013) describes collaboration in the classroom and Edutopia provides how teachers can create a flexible collaborative classroom for students.