Cooperative Learning Methods to Improve the Efficiency of Junior

Middle School Students’ Classroom Study

Xie Liyuan (Wendy)

I．Introduction

As we all know, the fundamental purpose of English teaching  in the compulsory education in our country is to inspire and cultivate the students' interest in learning, to help students build self-confidence, develop good study habits, develop independent learning ability, form the effective learning strategies; to enable students to master the basic knowledge and basic skills of language, establish the primary language, to obtain the initial ability to use English, and to lay the foundation for real communication. Now many effective reforms and progress are formed to influence positively in English Teaching in junior middle school, but there are still a lot of problems.

First, the traditional teaching methods still play an important role in Junior middle school, to learn the knowledge, the teaching method can be used easily in the classroom, because the teachers do not need to use their brains to think about how to organize classroom activities, just put information to students and students are like receiving devices to accept the use of vocabulary, phrases and grammar, so students accept all these passively.

The second reason is that the examination oriented education forces the teachers to test the students through scores instead of individual development. The third reason is that many students are afraid of learning English. They know the importance of learning English. But they are tired of learning English,  because the teaching methods and classroom activities are obsolete, and also because of their fear of the English language.

The third reason is because we have large classes. At present, there are nearly 50 students in a class in many middle schools, and this makes it difficult for teachers to organize activities in the classroom. And we know that the aim of language learning is to communicate in the language. So the most effective method is to enable students to have the opportunity to use the language. However, the size of the class makes it impossible for the teachers to meet the needs of every student, to guide and help them. Based on the above listed problems, we should find out ways to solve them. Cooperative learning is one of the realistic ways to improve the current situation. Cooperative learning has a long history of many years in both theory and practice, but there is still not a concise and accurate definition. Many famous linguistics make different definitions. According to many famous experts, cooperative learning is the philosophy of teaching. “Cooperative learning is the mutual engagement of participants in a coordinate effort to solve problem together (Koschmann, 1997).” “Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning (Johnson, Johnson,

Holubec, 1993).”

As a model of language teaching, cooperative learning for junior middle school English teaching gives lots of benefits. First of all, it can strengthen the interaction between students, and between teachers and students. Second, it can help teachers to improve the teaching methods, so as to form a variety of models of classroom teaching. Third, it can make English class full of charm, which makes students improve themselves together. What’s more, it can help the struggling students overcome inferiority complex, be brave to participate in classroom activities. Finally, it can cultivate students' cooperation ability and creative thinking ability.

II．Theoretical background

Psychology theory suggests that good interpersonal relationships can promote students’ cognition, emotion and behavior. Cooperative learning creates a positive interaction in the classroom learning for students, and forms good interpersonal communication. Cooperative learning is an important objective for the students' development, and also is the supplement and improvement of class teaching. It can not only solve the students’ achievement polarization problems, but also provide more chances for interaction between students and teachers, students and students. More importantly, it creates an appropriate environment and conditions for the comprehensive development of students, can enhance the independent performance, encourage students to promote cooperation among students, to stimulate student's independent consciousness and effectiveness, guide the students to respect others, to cultivate students' autonomy in cooperation, so that the students can truly achieve sustainable development in the collective.

Besides, constructivist theory claims that  knowledge is discovered by students and transformed into concepts students can relate to. It is then reconstructed and expanded through new learning experiences. Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction as opposed to passively receiving information. Learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge. Constructivist teaching fosters critical thinking, and creates motivated and independent learners. This theoretical framework holds that learning always builds upon knowledge that a student already knows; this prior knowledge is called a schema. Because all learning is filtered through pre-existing schemata, constructivists suggest that learning is more effective when a student is actively engaged in the learning process rather than attempting to receive knowledge passively. A wide variety of methods claim to be based on constructivist learning theory. Most of these methods rely on some form of guided discovery where the teacher avoids most direct instruction and attempts to lead the student through questions and activities to discover, discuss, appreciate, and verbalize the new knowledge (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Learning consists of active participation by the student versus passive acceptance of information presented by an expert lecturer. Learning comes about through transactions and dialogue among

students and between faculty and students, in a social setting. Students learn to understand and appreciate different perspectives through a dialogue with their peers.

Psychodynamic theory emphasizes the effect of unconscious processes in the group that exist beyond the awareness of the participants. The interaction approach is concerned with overt interpersonal behavior between members of the group. McLeish et al (1973) maintain that the interaction analysis system should include:

1. the affective or emotional components of behavior,2. the cognitive or intellectual components,3. content or message components,4. sociological or personal network segments of behavior.

III．Cooperative learning ways to improve students’ efficient learning

All cooperative learning methods share the idea that students work together to learn and are responsible for their teammates’ learning as well as their own. In addition to the idea of cooperative work, Student Team Learning methods emphasize the use of team goals and team success, which can be achieved only if all members of the team learn the objectives being taught.

Three concepts are central to all Student Team Learning methods---team rewards, individual accountability, and equal opportunities for success. There are many types of cooperative learning which can be used in language teaching.1. Student teams-achievement divisions(STAD)

This is a cooperative learning method for mixed-ability groupings involving team recognition and group responsibility for individual learning. There are usually five steps in the method: class presentations, group discussion, individual quizzes, individual improvement scores, and group recognition.

With this method, students are assigned to four-member learning teams that are mixed in performance level, gender, and ethnicity. The teacher prepares a lesson in advance, and then students work within their teams to make sure that all team members have mastered the lesson. Finally, all students take individual quizzes on the material, at which time they may not help one another. Students’ quiz scores are compared to their own past averages, and points are awarded on the basis of the degree to which students meet or exceed their own earlier performance. These points are then summed to form team scores, and teams that meet certain criteria may earn certificates or other rewards.

We can use it in the reading lessons. Usually, when we teach reading, students get bored. They don’t like doing the reading even if the teachers have tasks for them. So if we use STAD, we can motivate students to learn the materials by themselves, teachers give each group some specific tasks, for example, give them some questions about the reading materials, or summarize the paragraphs or the whole passage, or some other kinds of exercises, then set time for them to finish. We can assess individual achievement on the reading material via quizzes. And the detailed scoring system can make each student work hard on his\her own groups because the system is based on improvement over a running average of past scores. Another important step is the group recognition, which gives students most motivation in their future learning. Teachers will find that students learn very efficiently in the class if they follow each step.2. Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT)

In this method, students play games with members of other teams to add points to their team scores. Teams-Games-Tournaments are one of the effective evaluating procedures of Cooperative Learning. It requires home groups or base groups that consistently function in the class for a period of time.  The basic processes of TGT are described as following. First, students need to complete the tasks cooperatively; Secondly, they would revise a unit or substantial portion of content, generally before a written test; then teachers should motivate those with test-fear to be at ease; after that, students will learn and to reinforce what is learned. 

And for the teachers, they should prepare the following items: 1) A list of teams generally made of three members, each from a different home

group (post two three copies of the list in the room), 2) A set of question and answer sheets for each team, 3) A set of number cards (numbers corresponding to the number of questions) for

each team, 4) A score sheet for each team.

Teams-games-tournaments would be efficient in reviewing lessons. When we review the whole unit or the whole book, we usually do some exercises to consolidate what students have learned, but actually it is not efficient, because students don’t get motivated to do these exercises which seem just heavy burden for them. So if we teachers can use the TGT method, students get question and answer sheet for their own team, and they also have a score sheet which is used to evaluate their study.

When all these have been done, it would make students’ study more efficient. 3. Jigsaw

It is a cooperative learning technique that promotes better learning, improves student motivation and enjoyment of the learning experience. The jigsaw technique was first developed in the early 1970s by Elliot Aronson and his students at the University of Texas and the University of California. Since then, hundreds of schools have used the jigsaw classroom with great success.

The jigsaw teaching strategy is very simple to use. It requires students are separated into small groups (not above 6) which are called home group according to the chosen materials can be broken into segments. Provide each group with a set of the material, one for each member with numbered segments. After each student get their own piece of puzzle, the students who hold same numbered segments will come together to discuss the information to be an expert, then go back to home group as a teacher to teach their members. The last step is whole class question and discusses this topic together.  It is also a very good method to use in teaching reading. It can encourage students to become involved in the lesson.4. Cooperative integrated reading and composition (CIRC)

This is a cooperative learning approach to teaching reading and language arts developed by Robert Stevens. CIRC has been used with students in second through fifth grade, and a companion model, Student Team Reading and Writing (STRW), has been used in middle school literacy instruction. CIRC is a multifaceted approach that involves students in learning both factual content and skills. The teacher provides initial instruction that is followed by students practicing collaboratively to complete tasks such as developing vocabulary knowledge, developing comprehension of the story, extending story comprehension through writing about the story, and engaging in the writing process for creative writing activities. Students check factual knowledge, make and elaborate on predictions, and provide clarifying explanations to one another about what they are reading. At the end of the instructional cycle, the students receive tests scores that are used for team recognition like that described above in STAD. Research studies have shown that CIRC and STRW have significant, long-term, positive effects on students’ achievement, attitudes, and peer relations.

This is a very useful teaching method to teach the writing lessons. It can help students to create critical thinking which will lead them to get the writing skills.5. Group Investigation

It is a general classroom organization plan in which students work in small groups using cooperative inquiry, group discussion, and cooperative planning and projects. In this method, students form their own two- to six-member groups. After choosing subtopics from a unit that the entire class is studying, the groups break their subtopics into individual tasks and carry out the activities that are necessary to prepare group reports. Each group then makes a presentation or display to communicate its findings to the entire class.

Group Investigation is a helpful way to help students practice their oral English in class. Many Chinese students are afraid of speaking English, if teachers can often use this method to teach, students would get lots of benefits from it. It will help them

overcome their fears to learn English and improve both their speaking and listening.6. Cooperative scripting is a study method in which students work in pairs and take

turns orally summarizing sections of material to be learned. A formalization of this age-old practice has been researched by Dansereau (1985) and his colleagues. In it, students work in pairs and take turns summarizing sections of the material for one another. While one student summarizes, the other listens and corrects any errors or omissions. Then the two students switch roles, continuing in this manner until they have covered all the material to be learned. A series of studies of this cooperative scripting method has consistently found that students who study this way learn and retain far more than students who summarize on their own or who simply read the material (Newbern, Dansereau, Patterson, & Wallace, 1994). It is interesting that while both participants in the cooperative pairs gain from the activity, the larger gains are seen in the sections that students teach to their partners rather than in those for which they serve as listeners (Spurlin, Dansereau, Larson, & Brooks, 1984) .Teachers can use this method to help students to improve their comprehensive ability.

IV． Considerations

There is a feeling in groups where visible authority is present that the ultimate responsibility for each person’s action and its consequences resides in the figure of authority. In learning groups, students rarely take responsibility for the role they play in contributing to a successful experience. So when using these cooperative learning methods, we should be aware of the following considerations.

First of all, teachers should create the right type of group for the need, according to different cooperative learning methods, some methods need homogeneous groups, in some methods, students need to be divided into heterogeneous groups. And teachers should pay attention to the size of the group, keep group size small. Ideally, learning groups include no more than four students. Base groups may be larger, up to six students.

Secondly, don't use cooperative learning for all instructional goals. While cooperative learning is a powerful strategy, it can be overused, or misapplied. If teachers use the methods in each kind of class, students would get tired of it, and it may work or be less efficient, because students need time to investigate ideas and pursue interests on their own. In most classrooms, it is recommended that cooperative learning be used 60 to 80 percent of the time.

Another important thing to remember is to use a variety of strategies when choosing students for groups. If students always stay in the same group, they will feel that is boring, so teachers should change group members at set intervals. Teachers can group them by their study level, and gender, sometimes even their personality, or by

random assortment，or some other methods to group them. In one word, the aim is to

keep students fresh on the classroom activities.At last, the teachers’ role should be clear in the activities. Teachers need to make

pre-instructional decisions, to select instructional materials and objectives, assign

students to groups, arrange the classroom, and assign roles. Teachers also need to explain the academic task, to structure positive interdependence, and to specify desired behaviors. In addition, they will execute the cooperative lesson, which includes monitoring students' behavior and providing closure. And post-lesson activities are very important too, some teachers may ignore these, remember it is very important because this is the evaluating procedure, without it, students cannot get motivated for long. So it is important and necessary to evaluate the quality and quantity of learning, and analyze group effectiveness.

V．Conclusion

Why have we human beings been so successful as a species? We are not as strong as tigers, not as big as elephants, and we have no camouflage like lizards. We are intelligent, but can intelligent human survive alone for a long time in the forest? No. What has really made us human beings such successful animals is our ability to apply our intelligence to cooperating with others to accomplish group goals. Cooperating is the key to success.

In that case, we should understand that the students’ tasks are not to do something as a team, but to learn something as a team, where the team’s work is not done until all team members have mastered the material being studied. Cooperative learning is not only a kind of learning skills, but also social skills. Teachers should cultivate the ability of students' cooperative learning, improve their learning ability, help students learn self-oriental and interest-oriental, at the same time, students can integrate into the society better in the future.

In Magna Didactica, Comenius said，“Seek and find a method of teaching, the

teacher can therefore teach less, but students can learn more; so that the school can therefore be less noisy, disgust and useless work, more leisure, happiness and solid progress.” Cooperative learning is one of those teaching methods.

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