Cooperative Learning

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Cooperative Learning

• Better learning through teamwork

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Cooperative Learning

• What is cooperative learning?
• Benefits
• What makes a group cooperative?
• Three types of cooperative learning groups
• Concerns
• References

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What is it?

• Cooperative learning is working actively
• in small groups
• to maximize learning
• toward a common goal

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Benefits of Cooperative Learning

• Cooperative learning has been studied
  exhaustively over the last 90 years
• More is known about cooperative learning than
  nearly any other aspect of education
• Cooperative learning results in improved
• Learning
• Understanding
• Recall
• Self-esteem

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Benefits of Cooperative Learning

• Positive peer relationships are essential to
  success in college
• Cooperation among students results in
• Higher achievement
• Greater productivity
• Improved relationships
• Better emotional health

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Benefits of Cooperative Learning

• Cooperative learning can revitalize students and
  faculty
• Working together allows students to
• Learn more
• Enjoy learning
• Develop skills
• Especially important because real world work is
  group work

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What are the requirements?

• Cooperative learning requires
• Positive interdependence
• Individual accountability
• Face-to-face interaction
• Teamwork skills
• Group processing

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Positive Interdependence

• Individual success depends on the teams success
• Require consensus
• Assign roles
• Share resources
• Individual reward based on teams success

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Individual Accountability

• Individual accountability reinforces positive
  interdependence
• Evaluate performance individually and
  collectively
• Peer evaluation

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Face-to-face Interaction

• Cooperative learning requires face-to-face
  interaction
• Interaction can be structured
• Provide sufficient time for interaction

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Teamwork Skills

• Students often lack teamwork skills
• Identify relevant social skills
• Active listening
• Expression of differences
• Teamwork taught like course material
• Monitor and assess

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Group Processing

• Group processing needed to keep a team
  functioning smoothly
• Regularly review performance
• Explain purpose and relationship to social skills

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Cooperative Learning Groups

• Three types of cooperative learning groups
• Informal groups
• Formal groups
• Base groups

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Informal Groups

• Temporary groups of short duration
• No more than one class period
• Focus attention on material to be learned
• Particularly useful when attention begins to
  lapse

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Formal Groups

• Centered around a single task
• Size, duration, and composition is task dependent
• Team activities emphasize
• Discussion, Application, and Mastery
• Students work to accomplish shared goals
• Formal evaluation

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Base Groups

• Long term cooperative learning groups that
  provide support for student development
• Not focused on a particular task
• Duration of one or more terms
• Teams should be heterogeneous
• Instituted by course, college, or department

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Concerns

• Spending all this time on group exercises will
  prevent me from getting through the syllabus.
• Effective group work requires little in-class
  time
• Pose questions to small groups
• Successful teaching is more than covering the
  syllabus. What matters is how much was actually
  learned.
• Handouts can supplement lectures

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Concerns

• Without lecture I will lose control of the class
• That is one point of view
• On the other handseveral times during class
  students may become actively immersed in the
  material youre trying to get them to learn

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Concerns

• What if students resent the approach?
• Prepare students for it from the beginning
• Explain why you are doing it
• Better grades
• Teaching to others aids understanding
• Professional training

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Concerns

• What about students who want to get credit
  without actively participating in the work?
• Always a danger
• Include provisions to ensure individual
  accountability
• Call randomly on individuals
• Peer evaluations

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References

• www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/Coopreport.html
• Cooperative Learning Making Groupwork Work,
  Karl A. Smith in Using active learning in college
  classes A range of options for faculty. Tracey
  E. Sutherland Charles C. Bonwell (eds.) New
  Directions for Teaching and Learning 67,
  Jossey-Bass,San Francisco.
• www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/Resist.html
• Felder, Richard M., Brent, Rebecca, Effective
  Strategies for Cooperative Learning, J.
  Cooperation Collaboration in College Teaching,
  10(2), 69-75, 2001.

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References

• teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/collaborative.html
• home.capecod.net/tpanitz/ebook/Quotes.html
• www.ku.edu/cte/resources/teachingtips/cooperative
  .html
• scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/jte-v7n1/gokhale.
  jte-v7n1.html
• www.edletter.org/past/issues/2000-mj/models.shtml
• www.ntlf.com/html/lbi/bib/92-2dig.htm
• clte.asu.edu/active/mainde.htm