I strongly support the use of
cooperative learning in the classroom and I am not alone. As stated, “One
important reason for its advocacy is that numerous research studies in K–12
classrooms, in very diverse school settings and across a wide range of content
areas, have revealed that students completing cooperative learning group tasks
tend to have higher academic test scores, higher self- esteem, greater numbers
of positive social skills, fewer stereotypes of individuals of other races or
ethnic groups, and greater comprehension of the content and skills they are
studying” (Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec 1993; Slavin 1991; Stahl and VanSickle
1992). Who would avoid using this
approach in the classroom with such successful studies? These studies are
even more accurate being developed across such a wide variety of circumstances.
Every teacher wants their students to feel good about themselves, develop
increased communication skills, have less segregation between the students and
best of all, have higher grades and reading levels!
In my last blog posting, I had
informed my readers that I am a visual learner. As the video on inquiry-based
lessons has helped me to structure and create my own inquiry lessons, the video
on cooperative learning lessons has as well.
In the beginning of a cooperative
learning lesson or task, the teacher is to clarify the aims with the students. As mentioned, “…teachers should
begin planning by describing precisely what students are expected to learn and
be able to do on their own well beyond the end of the group task and curriculum
unit” (Stahl, n.d., p.1). It is important to inform the students beforehand
in order for them to focus and work on or with such information or skills. If
the students are told toward or at the end, most groups will not be successful.
The teacher is also to provide the students with the learning materials. The
teacher in the video reminds her students of the goal of the lesson and what
the students will be using to reach the goal. She explains to her students that
the goal for today is to organize all of their notes following a specific
worksheet to complete the pre-writing part of their essay in their groups. The students
know that they need to devote their attention on this particular worksheet in
order to complete that day’s task of helping them plan their essay. If they do
not do the pre-writing, they will be behind in the essay writing process.
For cooperative learning groups, the
teacher is to put a lot of thought into organizing the student study teams. It
is key to divide the students into groups considering their developmental,
cultural, and intellectual differences. One thing I have learned is to never
allow students to work with their friends. The students are always off task,
laughing, and fooling around. As written, “When groups are maximally heterogeneous and the other
essential elements are met, students tend to interact and achieve in ways and
at levels that are rarely found in other instructional strategies” (Stahl, n.d., p.2). This shows how important it is for teachers
to go through all of the different aspects of his or her students in order to
create productive and extremely beneficial learning environments. Once
heterogeneous groups are made, the teacher is to tell the students where their
group is going to meet. This will allow for more time to work rather than every
group of students talking to one another trying to figure out where they should
all sit. Also, the groups will be spread out evenly and none of the groups will
be working too close together. When the students go to that location, it is
important that everyone can see one another. No student should have his or her
back to another student. Everyone is to be able to make eye contact and use a
low volume when speaking. As the groups begin to complete their task, the teacher
will come around to assist teams.
The teacher is to move from group
to group during the completion of a cooperative learning task. I think the most
important reason why teachers should do this is to continuously motivate
students to stay on task. One way to motivate students is to pose questions.
This gets the students thinking and more discussion to occur. Working together
in a group requires social and group skills. Students need to be encouraging,
providing constructive criticism of others ideas, taking control, etc. A way of
motivating students who are not participating in positive social interaction is
to assign everyone a specific role. This is known as individual accountability.
As stated, “…each must be
held individually responsible and accountable for doing his or her own share of
the work and for learning what has been targeted to be learned” (Stahl, n.d., p.3).
This allows the teacher to see if the student has understood the content being
targeted. It is a prevention of one or two people doing all of the work for the
group.
At the end of a cooperative
learning lesson or task, the students are to do an evaluation and share their
work. In the cooperative learning video, a clip was shown where all of the
students’ desks in a classroom were placed in a square. The teacher had the
group leader of each group evaluate and share his or her thoughts about the
progress of his or her group. I think this is an excellent idea because students
should hear what their classmates think. When evaluation forms are filled out,
the only person that reads them is the teacher. This is a way for the students
to reflect and make a difference based on others and not just themselves.
Everyone has different thoughts and perspectives on a situation. What one
person thinks needs improvement, another may be thinking of something else. Also,
in another video clip, the teacher of a fifth grade class had presentations of
group work and the other students would give feedback. The students were to
share their work and their peers were to evaluate them. The teacher would call
on different students to say what they liked and what could use improvement. This is
important for developing presentation skills, but I don’t find it as helpful in
terms of the collaboration of the project. The students who presented would
need to discuss with one another on what they achieved, how successful they
were, and what could use improvement in the future.
The five phases of cooperative
learning are ways for the teacher to help students develop intellectually as
they work in the social environment.
~ Christine Brown
References
Stahl,
Robert J. “The Essential Elements of Cooperative Learning in the Classroom.”
Educational Resources Information Center. Used with permission.
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