ByCheryl M. Mingo

University of the Virgin IslandsSchool of Education

EDU 551- Curriculum DevelopmentProfessor: Dr. L. Thomas

June 14, 2011

http://youtu.be/HEh8Z0sbiRE

What is Cooperative Learning?

• A small group interactive instructional strategy

• Allows students to collaboratively work on meaningful tasks

• Students working to help themselves and others in the group to learn

• Academic engagement through social interaction

• Activities structured so that students need each other to accomplish tasks

Why Use Cooperative Learning?

• Helps motivate students

• Students construct their own knowledge

• Students develop social and group work skills necessary in life

• Promote positive interaction among students

• Students learn through active involvement rather than sitting and listening and watching

Cont’d Why Use Cooperative Learning?

• Promote student learning and academic achievement

• Increase student retention

• Enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience

• Help students develop skills in oral communication

• Promote student self-esteem

• Help to promote positive race relations

Purposes of Cooperative Learning

• To improve the academic skill of all the team members enabling them to face the world with more confidence and with improved levels of skill.

• To learn the skills of working together and getting onwith each other while completing a task. Students learn to handle conflict, deal with issues without criticizing the people behind the issues and to respect this views and opinions of others.

• To produce what might be called “thinking interaction”. We see how a teacher can set tasks up so that students are able to practice their developing cognitive and meta-cognitive skills.

Cooperative Learning Strategy Visual Concept Diagram

(Slavin, 1990)

A History of Cooperative Learning In the late 1700s Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell

made extensive use of cooperative learning groups in England, and the idea was brought to America when a Lancastrian school was opened in New York City in 1806.

Within the Common School Movement in the United States in the early 1800s there was a strong emphasis on cooperative learning.

In the last three decades of the 19th Century, Colonel Francis Parker brought to his advocacy of cooperative learning enthusiasm, idealism, practicality, and an intense devotion to freedom, democracy, and individuality in the public schools. Parker's advocacy of cooperation among students dominated American education through the turn of the century.

Cont’d History of Cooperative Learning

John Dewey promoted the use of cooperative learning groups as part of his famous project method in instruction.

In the late 1930's, however, interpersonal competition began to be emphasized in schools

In the late 1960s, individualistic learning began to be used extensively.

In the 1980s, schools once again began to use cooperative learning.

5 Elements of Cooperative Learning

• Positive Interdependence (sink or swim together)

• Face-to-Face Interaction (promote each other's success)

• Individual & Group Accountability( no hitchhiking! no social loafing)

• Interpersonal &Small-Group Skills

• Group Processing

Cooperative Learning ~ Grouping Strategies

• Homogeneous groupings

• Heterogeneous groupings

• Group Role Function Leader

Recorder

Reporter

Monitor

Collector

• Focused Listing• Group Investigations• Send-a-Problem• Uncommon Commonal

ities • Roundtable

• Double Entry Journals • TAPPS• Structured Problem

Solving • Think-Pair-Share• Three Step Interview • Jigsaw Method

CL Activities - JigsawGroups with five students are set up. Each group member is assigned some unique material to learn and then to teach to his group members. To help in the learning students across the class working on the same sub-section get together to decide what is important and how to teach it. After practice in these "expert" groups the original groups reform and students

teach each other. (Wood, p. 17) Tests or assessment follows.

Think-Pair-Share - Involves a three step cooperative structure. During the first step individuals think silently about a question posed by the instructor. Individuals pair up during the second step and exchange thoughts. In the third step, the pairs share their responses with other pairs, other teams, or the entire group.

Three-Step Interview (Kagan) - Each member of a team chooses another member to be a partner. During the first step individuals interview their partners by asking clarifying questions. During the second step partners reverse the roles. For the final step, members share their partner's response with the team.

RoundRobin Brainstorming (Kagan)- Class is divided into small groups (4 to 6) with one person appointed as the recorder. A question is posed with many answers and students are given time to think about answers. After the "think time," members of the team share responses with one another round robin style. The recorder writes down the answers of the group members. The person next to the recorder starts and each person in the group in order gives an answer until time is

called.

Assessments for Cooperative Learning Activities

• Reflection Journals can be used during the closing of a lesson or activity period to allow students to reflect on their experiences, understandings and group work. The journals provide a record of accomplishments and one more resource for evaluation and assessment.

• Group and Peer Assessment - Prior to the activity or project, a list of descriptors is provided for or brainstormed by the large group. Throughout the activity or at the end f the activity, each member of the group provides an assessment of their effort in the assigned task. A rating scale or mark is accompanied by the student's explanation for the rating. Group members can also provide a rating for another group member and give a reason for the rating.

Does Cooperative Learning Really Work?

The short answer to this question is yes. In the vast majority of studies, forms of cooperative learning have been shown to be more effective than non cooperative reward structures in raising the levels of variables that contribute to motivation, in raising achievement, and in producing positive social outcomes.

THANK YOU!!!

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