We are living, learning and working in a world where interaction between people are ever-increasing and jobs are more and more geared towards networking and collaborating. So, if we are not specifically teaching cooperative skills, we may not be effectively preparing students for future success. A modern learning environment, or digital classroom does not equate to children becoming insular in little learning worlds of their own, only interacting with their device. In fact, in successful and effective learning environments, it is the complete opposite. Students are able to use modern technology and devices to collaborate and connect more than ever. So developing competencies in this area may be more important than ever before. Cooperative learning is so important for a variety of reasons:
-it promotes active involvement in learning & higher levels of engagement- in small groups each member has the opportunity to participate, students take more ownership and think more critically when involved in a team
-it promotes a celebration of diversity- children have the opportunity to work with all kinds of people, not just their friends or those they choose to work with
-it allows for interpersonal development- children learn to relate to others and work together
-it provides more opportunities for personal feedback- more exchanges among the children
A true cooperative learning experience requires that a number of criteria be met.
They are:
-Division of labour among students in the group
-Face-to-face interaction between students
-Assignment of specific roles and duties to students
-Group processing of a task
-Positive interdependence in which students all need to do their assigned duties in order
for the task to be completed
-Individual accountability for completing one's own assigned duties
-The development of social skills as a result of cooperative interaction
-Division of labour among students in the group
-Face-to-face interaction between students
-Assignment of specific roles and duties to students
-Group processing of a task
-Positive interdependence in which students all need to do their assigned duties in order
for the task to be completed
-Individual accountability for completing one's own assigned duties
-The development of social skills as a result of cooperative interaction
What does cooperative learning look like?
Cooperative Learning does NOT look like:
*A group of students working on a group task or activity where one student takes the lead, completes the work, and all the other students put their names on the task or activity
Cooperative Learning DOES look like:
*Positive Interdependence- meaning there is a group sense of "sink or swim" together
*Face-to-face promotive interaction- meaning children are helping each other learn, and complimenting others successes and efforts
*Individual and group accountability- meaning each of us has to contribute to the group achieving its goals
*Interpersonal and small group skills- this involves communication, trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution skills
*Group processing- this involves reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how it could function even better
(Based on research compiled from the website –http://clcrc.com/index.html#essays of the Cooperative Learning Center at the University of Minnesota)
COOPERATIVE LEARNING BASIC CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Positive Interdependence-
This is the most important element — the heart of co-operative learning. If there is no positive interdependence, there is no co-operation. The Johnsons call it the “we” rather than the “me” element. When students believe that they “sink or swim together”, when they develop an “all for one and one for all” attitude to working in their groups, then the teacher has succeeded in structuring positive interdependence.
The members of the group perceive that they cannot succeed unless everyone succeeds; that if one fails all fail. This creates a commitment to other people’s success as well as to one’s own. Teachers can structure positive
interdependence by:
-ensuring mutual goals (having a single product, report)
-division of labour (ensuring that everyone is required to contribute a different piece of work to the finished product)
-resource interdependence (sharing of information, materials, and resource among members of the group)
-assigning various group maintenance roles to students
2. Individual Accountability-
In co-operative learning, the individual student is responsible both for his or her own learning and for contributing to the group. It is essential that teachers check the progress and understanding of individual students. This can
be done by:
-using the usual individual test and assessment
-randomly selecting a student to report back from the group
-checking the understanding of individual students as the teacher monitors the groups
-having the students do self reports on their learning and contribution to the group. This ensures that there is no "hitch-hiking" and that everyone does their share of the work
One of the underlying notions of cooperative learning is that the group strengthens the individual. As Vygotsky (1978) put it, what students can do in the group today, they can do on their own tomorrow.
3. Group Reflection-
Groups learn about working together by reflecting on their experiences of teamwork. Reflecting on their work is the key to continuous improvement. It involves evaluating how well they achieved their goals and how well they
worked together; analysing what they did in order to identify what the factors were that helped or hindered the smooth running of the group; and setting goals that will help the group function better in the future. Evaluating,
analysing and goal setting are higher order thinking skills, so that reflection encourages students to take a metacognitive and strategic approach to their work. The task of reflection can be done in a variety of ways — in small groups or with the whole class, informally through discussion or with reflection sheets. It adds a bit of variety to use a range of methods.
4. Small Group Skills-
A basic tenet of co-operative learning is the explicit teaching of the required skills. Nobody is born with the skills for effective group work — they have to be learned. For group work to be effective, students must be taught task skills, which include skills and strategies for learning; and interpersonal skills, which ensure the smooth functioning of the group. These are complex skills which have to be identified, taught, modelled and practised. A guiding principle in co-operative learning is to teach the skills in the context in which they will be used,
so as to enable the student to practise the skills in authentic situations where they are needed and naturally reinforced. A co-operative classroom affords many opportunities for such practice.
While it does take time to teach these skills, it is invested time which will pay off in the smoother running of the classroom and more effective learning strategies for students.
5. Face to Face Interaction-
The first aspect of face to face interaction is the notion of physical proximity. For effective communication, groups have to be “eye to eye” and “knee to knee”. When a group is working well, it shows — heads are together, bodies are leaning inwards. It is also easy to see when a group is dysfunctional. One or two students may
be apart, members of the group may be looking around or engaged in individual tasks.
A second aspect involves the notion of
promoting each other’s learning face to face by encouraging each other, giving feedback, explaining concepts, sharing ideas, challenging suggestions. All these help to make the group become personally committed to each other and the goals of the group. This actively involves them in the learning process. Talking helps thinking, and face to face interaction encourages talking and discussion. These five elements form the basis of cooperative
learning and are the foundation for co-operative group work. Each is important, but it is the combination of the five which makes co-operative learning such a powerful tool for thinking and learning. Together they form the
acronym PIGSF (Pigs Fly):
P Positive interdependence
I Individual accountability
G Group reflection
S Small group skills
Not all co-operative learning activities will incorporate all five elements; but to establish a truly co-operative classroom, teachers must develop competence in structuring into their programme all these essential elements.
Everyone has had personal or observational experience of groups that did not work. We have all experienced the domineering person who takes over the group, the “hitchhiker” who lets you do all the work and then takes the credit, the lack of achievement of goals because of bickering and badly handled conflict and controversy in the group, and/or the exclusion of the team member who is a bit different. If we were to stop and analyse the reason for the group dysfunction, it is likely that one or more of the essential elements of cooperative learning were not present.www.nzcer.org.nz
My classroom recently identified what cooperative learning would look, sound and feel like for them:
This post is to be continued as we develop and practice our cooperative learning skills....
