COOPERATIVE LEARNING

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COOPERATIVE LEARNING
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Cooperative Learning

• Cooperative learning is a successful teaching
  strategy in which small teams, each with students
  of different levels of ability, use a variety of
  learning activities to improve their
  understanding of a subject.

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• Each member of a team is responsible not only for
  learning what is taught but also for helping
  teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of
  achievement.
• Students work through the assignment until all
  group members successfully understand and
  complete it. 

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Why Cooperative learning?

• Cooperative efforts result in participants
  striving for mutual benefit so that all group
  members
• gain from each other's efforts. (Your success
  benefits me and my success benefits you.)
• recognize that all group members share a common
  fate. (We all sink or swim together here.)

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• know that one's performance is mutually caused by
  oneself and one's team members. (We can not do it
  without you.)
• feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group
  member is recognized for achievement. (We all
  congratulate you on your accomplishment!).

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Why use Cooperative Learning?

• Research has shown that cooperative learning
  techniques
• promote student learning and academic achievement
  
• increase student retention
• enhance student satisfaction with their learning
  experience
• help students develop skills in oral
  communication
• develop students' social skills
• promote student self-esteem
• help to promote positive race relations

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• A learning goal is a desired future state of
  competence or mastery in the subject area being
  studied.
• A goal structure specifies the type of
  interdependence among individuals as they strive
  to accomplish their goals. Interdependence may
  be positive (cooperation), negative
  (competition), or none (individualistic efforts).

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Individualistic We Are Each In This Alone

• Individuals work by themselves to accomplish
  learning goals unrelated to those of other
  individuals.
• Work alone
• Strive for own success
• What benefits self does not affect others
• Own success is celebrated
• Rewards are viewed as unlimited
• Evaluated by comparing performance to preset
  criteria

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Competition I Swim, You Sink I Sink, You Swim

• Individuals work against each other to achieve a
  goal only one or a few can attain.
• Work alone
• Strive to be better than classmates
• What benefits self deprives others
• Own success and others' failure is celebrated
• Rewards are limited
• Graded on a curve or ranked from "best" to
  "worst"

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Cooperation We Sink Or Swim Together

• Individuals work together to achieve shared
  goals.
• Individuals work together to maximize their own
  and each other's learning.
• Work in small, often heterogeneous groups
• Strive for all group members' success
• What benefits self benefits others
• Joint success is celebrated
• Rewards are viewed as unlimited
• Evaluated by comparing performance to preset
  criteria

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Basic Elements Of Cooperative Teams

• 1. Positive Interdependence
• Team members perceive that they need each other
  in order to complete the group's task ("sink or
  swim together").
• Instructors may structure positive
  interdependence by establishing
• mutual goals (maximize own and each other's
  productivity),
• joint rewards (if all group members achieve
  above the criteria, each will receive bonus
  points),
• shared resources (members have different
  expertise), and
• assigned roles (summarizer, encourager of
  participation, elaborator

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2. Individual Accountability

• Assessing the quality and quantity of each
  member's contributions and giving the results to
  the group and the individual.

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3. Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction

• Team members promote each other's productivity by
  helping, sharing, and encouraging efforts to
  produce.
• Members explain, discuss, and teach what they
  know to teammates.
• Instructors structure teams so that members sit
  knee-to-knee and talk through each aspect of the
  tasks they are working to complete.

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4. Interpersonal And Small Group Skills

• Groups cannot function effectively if members do
  not have and use the needed social skills.
• Instructors emphasize these skills as
  purposefully and precisely as job-performance
  skills.
• Collaborative skills include leadership,
  decision-making, trust- building, communication,
  and conflict-management skills.

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5. Group Processing

• Groups need specific time to discuss how well
  they are achieving their goals and maintaining
  effective working relationships among members.
  Instructors structure group processing by
  assigning such tasks as
• (a) list at least three member actions that
  helped the group be successful and
• (b) list one action that could be added to make
  the group even more successful tomorrow.
• Instructors also monitor the groups and give
  feedback on how well the groups are working
  together.

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• Rectangle activity

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The Instructor's Role in Cooperative Learning
Make Pre-Instructional Decisions

• Specify Academic and Social Skills Objectives
  Every lesson has both (a) academic and (b)
  interpersonal and small group skills objectives.
• Decide on Group Size Learning groups should be
  small (groups of two or three members, four at
  the most).
• Decide on Group Composition (Assign Students to
  Groups) Assign students to groups randomly or
  select groups yourself. Usually you will wish to
  maximize the heterogeneity in each group.

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• Assign Roles Structure student-student
  interaction by assigning roles such as Reader,
  Recorder, Encourager of Participation and Checker
  for Understanding.
• Arrange the Room Group members should be "knee
  to knee and eye to eye" but arranged so they all
  can see the instructor at the front of the room.
  
• Plan Materials Arrange materials to give a
  "sink or swim together" message. Give only one
  paper to the group or give each member part of
  the material to be learned.

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Explain Task And Cooperative Structure

• Explain the Academic Task Explain the task, the
  objectives of the lesson, the concepts and
  principles students need to know to complete the
  assignment, and the procedures they are to
  follow.
• Explain the Criteria for Success Student work
  should be evaluated on a criteria-referenced
  basis. Make clear your criteria for evaluating
  students' work.
• Structure Positive Interdependence Students
  must believe they "sink or swim together."
  Always establish mutual goals (students are
  responsible for their own learning and the
  learning of all other group members).
  Supplement, goal interdependence with
  celebration/reward, resource, role, and identity
  interdependence.

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• Structure Intergroup Cooperation Have groups
  check with and help other groups. Extend the
  benefits of cooperation to the whole class.
• Structure Individual Accountability Each
  student must feel responsible for doing his or
  her share of the work and helping the other group
  members. Ways to ensure accountability are
  frequent oral quizzes of group members picked at
  random, individual tests, and assigning a member
  the role of Checker for Understanding.

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• Specify Expected Behaviors The more specific
  you are about the behaviors you want to see in
  the groups, the more likely students will do
  them. Social skills may be classified as
• forming (staying with the group, using quiet
  voices),
• functioning (contributing, encouraging others to
  participate),
• formulating (summarizing, elaborating), and
• fermenting (criticizing ideas, asking for
  justification).
• Regularly teach the interpersonal and small group
  skills you wish to see used in the learning
  groups.

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Monitor and Intervene

• Arrange Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction
  Conduct the lesson in ways that ensure that
  students promote each others success
  face-to-face.
• Monitor Students' Behavior This is the fun
  part! While students are working, you circulate
  to see whether they understand the assignment and
  the material, give immediate feedback and
  reinforcement, and praise good use of group
  skills. Collect observation data on each group
  and student.

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• Intervene to Improve Taskwork and Teamwork
• Provide taskwork assistance (clarify, reteach) if
  students do not understand the assignment.
  Provide teamwork assistance if students are
  having difficulties in working together
  productively.

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Evaluate and Process

• Evaluate Student Learning Assess and evaluate
  the quality and quantity of student learning.
  Involve students in the assessment process.
• Process Group Functioning Ensure each student
  receives feedback, analyzes the data on group
  functioning, sets an improvement goal, and
  participates in a team celebration.
• Have groups routinely list three things they did
  well in working together and one thing they will
  do better tomorrow. Summarize as a whole class.
  Have groups celebrate their success and hard
  work.

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Jig-Saw Procedure

• Task Think of a reading assignment you will
  give in the near future. Divide the assignment
  in three parts. Plan how you will use the
  jig-saw procedure. Script out exactly what you
  will say to your class in using each part of the
  jig-saw procedure.
• Procedure One way to structure positive
  interdependence among group members is to use the
  jigsaw method of creating resource
  interdependence. The steps for structuring a
  "jigsaw" lesson are
• 1. Cooperative Groups Distribute a set of
  materials to each group. The set needs to be
  divisible into the number of members of the group
  (2, 3, or 4 parts). Give each member one part of
  the set of materials.
• 2. Preparation Pairs Assign students the
  cooperative task of meeting with someone else in
  the class who is a member of another learning
  group and who has the same section of the
  material and complete two tasks
• a. Learning and becoming an expert on their
  material.
• b. Planning how to teach the material to the
  other members of their groups.

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• 3. Practice Pairs Assign students the
  cooperative task of meeting with someone else in
  the class who is a member of another learning
  group and who has learned the same material and
  share ideas as to how the material may best be
  taught. These "practice pairs" review what each
  plans to teach their group and how. The best
  ideas of both are incorporated into each others
  presentation.
• 4. Cooperative Groups Assign students the
  cooperative tasks of
• a. Teaching their area of expertise to the other
  group members.
• b. Learning the material being taught by the
  other members.
• 5. Evaluation Assess students' degree of
  mastery of all the material. Reward the groups
  whose members all reach the preset criterion of
  excellence.

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1. Positive Interdependence  (sink or swim
together)

• Each group member's efforts are required and
  indispensable for group success
• Each group member has a unique contribution to
  make to the joint effort because of his or her
  resources and/or role and task responsibilities

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

• Orally explaining how to solve problems
• Teaching one's knowledge to other
• Checking for understanding
• Discussing concepts being learned
• Connecting present with past learning

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3. Individual Group Accountability

• Keeping the size of the group small. The smaller
  the size of the group, the greater the individual
  accountability may be.
• Giving an individual test to each student.
• Randomly examining students orally by calling on
  one student to present his or her group's work to
  the teacher (in the presence of the group) or to
  the entire class.

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• Observing each group and recording the frequency
  with which each member-contributes to the group's
  work.
• Assigning one student in each group the role of
  checker. The checker asks other group members to
  explain the reasoning and rationale underlying
  group answers.
• Having students teach what they learned to
  someone else

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4. Interpersonal Small-Group Skills

• Social skills must be taught
• Leadership
• Decision-making
• Trust-building
• Communication
• Conflict-management skills

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5. Group Processing

• Group members discuss how well they are achieving
  their goals and maintaining effective working
  relationships
• Describe what member actions are helpful and not
  helpful
• Make decisions about what behaviors to continue
  or change

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• Class Activities that use Cooperative Learning

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• 1. Jigsaw
• Groups 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.

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• 2. 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.

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• 3. Three-Step Interview
• 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.

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• 4. Round Robin Brainstorming
• 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.

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• 5. Three-minute review
• Teachers stop any time during a lecture or
  discussion and give teams three minutes to review
  what has been said, ask clarifying questions or
  answer questions.

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• 6. Numbered Heads
• A team of four is established.
• Each member is given numbers of 1, 2, 3, 4.
• Questions are asked of the group.
• Groups work together to answer the question so
  that all can verbally answer the question.
• Teacher calls out a number (two) and each two is
  asked to give the answer.

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• 7. Team Pair Solo
• Students do problems first as a team, then with a
  partner, and finally on their own.
• It is designed to motivate students to tackle and
  succeed at problems which initially are beyond
  their ability.
• It is based on a simple notion of mediated
  learning. Students can do more things with help
  (mediation) than they can do alone.
• By allowing them to work on problems they could
  not do alone, first as a team and then with a
  partner, they progress to a point they can do
  alone that which at first they could do only with
  help.

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• 8. Circle the Sage
• First the teacher polls the class to see which
  students have a special knowledge to share.
• For example the teacher may ask who in the class
  was able to solve a difficult math homework
  question, who had visited Mexico, who knows the
  chemical reactions involved in how salting the
  streets help dissipate snow.
• Those students (the sages) stand and spread out
  in the room. The teacher then has the rest of the
  classmates each surround a sage, with no two
  members of the same team going to the same sage.
• The sage explains what they know while the
  classmates listen, ask questions, and take notes.
  
• All students then return to their teams. Each in
  turn, explains what they learned.
• Because each one has gone to a different sage,
  they compare notes. If there is disagreement,
  they stand up as a team. Finally, the
  disagreements are aired and resolved.

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• 9. Partners
• The class is divided into teams of four.
• Partners move to one side of the room. Half of
  each team is given an assignment to master to be
  able to teach the other half.
• Partners work to learn and can consult with other
  partners working on the same material.
• Teams go back together with each set of partners
  teaching the other set.
• Partners quiz and tutor teammates.
• Team reviews how well they learned and taught and
  how they might improve the process.

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• 10. Double Entry JournalThe Double Entry Journal
  can be used as a way for students to take notes
  on articles and other resources they read in
  preparation for class discussion.
• Students read and reflect on the assigned
  reading(s).
• Students prepare the double entry journal,
  listing critical points of the readings (as they
  see them) and any responses to the readings, in
  general, or specific critical points.
• Students bring their journal notes to class
• Once in class, students may use their double
  entry journal to begin discussion, to do a paired
  annotation, or for other classroom and group
  activity.

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One Minute Papers

• Ask students to comment on the following
  questions. Give them one minute and time them.
  This activity focuses them on the content and can
  also provide feedback to you as a teacher.
• What was the most important or useful thing you
  learned today?
• What two important questions do you still have
  what remains unclear?
• What would you like to know more about?
• You can use these one minute papers to begin the
  next day's discussion, to facilitate discussion
  within a group, or to provide you with feedback
  on where the student is in his or her
  understanding of the material.

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• David and Roger Johnson. "Cooperative Learning."
  Online 15 October 2001. lthttp//www.clcrc.com/pa
  ges/cl.htmlgt.
• David and Roger Johnson. "An Overview of
  Cooperative Learning." Online 15 October 2001.
  lthttp//www.clcrc.com/pages/overviewpaper.htmlgt.
• Howard Community College's Teaching Resources.
  "Ideas on Cooperative Learning and the use of
  Small Groups." Online 15 October 2001.
  lthttp//www.howardcc.edu/profdev/resources/learnin
  g/groups1.htmgt.
• Kagan, Spencer. "Kagan Structures for Emotional
  Intelligence." Online 15 October 2001. lt
  "http//www.kagancooplearn.com/Newsletter/1001/ind
  ex.htmlgt
•  Solomon, R., Davidson, N., Solomon, E. (1992).
  Handbook for the Fourth R Relationship
  Activities for Cooperative and Collegial Learning
  . (Volume III). Columbia, MD National Institute
  for Relationship Training, Inc.
• Bossert, S.T. (1988). Cooperative activities in
  the classroom. Review of Educational Research,
  15, 225-250.
• Bruffee, K.A. (1993). Collaborative learning
  Higher education, interdependence, and the
  authority of knowledge. Baltimore, MD The Johns
  Hopkins University Press.
• Cohen, E.G. (1994). Restructuring the classroom
  Conditions for productive small groups. Review of
  Educational Research, 64, 1-35.
• Cooper, J. (1990, May). Cooperative learning and
  clooege teaching Tips from the trenches. The
  Teaching Professor, pp 1-2.
• Davis, J.R. Better teaching, more learning.
  Phoenix, AZ The Oryx Press.
• Kagan, S. (1992). Cooperative learning (2nd ed.).
  San Juan Capistrano, CA Resources for Teachers.