Te Kotahitanga Phase 4

Cooperative Learning

Introducing Cooperative Learning

There’s some things you can’t do by yourself

Vocabulary

Positive interdependence

Individual accountability

Group and individual reflection

Small group skills

Face to face interaction

Cooperative Learning is a widely researched

teaching methodology(374 studies in 100 years)

Advantages of Cooperative Learning

• Caters for student preferences

• Increases academic learning and provides authentic opportunities for the development of problem-solving and higher thinking skills and sponsors creativity

• Promotes greater independence in students and increases student involvement and motivation in learning tasks

• Improves attitudes to school and learning and reduces disruptive behaviour

• Fosters the development of interpersonal skills

• Is shown to be student preference at all ages

3 Styles ofstructuringthe learningenvironment

Competitive

“I swim, you sink.”“You swim, I sink”

Individualistic

“We are each in this alone.”

Cooperative

“We sink or swim together”

5 Fundamental Elements of Cooperative Learning

• Positive Interdependence

• Individual accountability

• Group and individual reflection

• Small group skills

• Face to face interaction

Positive Interdependence

“This is the core of cooperative learning” (Brown and Thomson, 2000)

The success of the individual depends on the success of the group as a whole.

Each group member needs the others to complete the assigned task

Positive Interdependence

• Shared materials where each group member has a different but necessary resource.

• Group roles. Less skilled members must have an appropriate role or task within the group.

• Groups have a common goal which all must achieve i.e. one product.

• Members share in the group’s success e.g. individual mark + bonus mark / praise for the group.

• Physical setting can enhance opportunities for cooperation e.g. one table per group.

• Groups can be encouraged to develop a group identity.

Individual accountability

“to ensure that every individual will be able to perform on their own.” (Brown & Thomson, 2000)

Cooperative Learning does not allow 1 or 2 individuals to evade learning or participating in work.

Every member has to be clear about their own task / role and every member is required to learn and contribute to the work.

Individual accountability “What you can do in a team today you can do on your own

tomorrow”

Each student is responsible for:• Their own learning

• Ensuring their group members learn as much as possible

• Achieving the group goal

• The smooth functioning of the group

Fostering individual accountability

“The team builds our skills”• Randomly choose one member of a group to answer

questions or report on the progress of the group

• Remind the group often that they are mutually responsible for the work they complete

• Have each group member explain their group’s work to another group

• Randomly choose a group to hand in work in progress

• Students sign their work to show they are ready to stand by it

Group and Individual Reflection

Reflection is a vital component of Cooperative Learning which:

• Fosters higher order thinking skills in authentic settings

• Develops student responsibility for their own learning

• Allows for future growth

Reflection involves

• Evaluating how well they did the task and how well they worked together

• Analysing what they did in order to identify factors that helped or hindered the smooth functioning of the group

• Setting goals that will help groups function better in the future

To encourage reflection teachers can

• Ask groups to complete short evaluations of their work – both content and process

• Have students set goals for themselves and their teams

• Encourage groups to reflect mid-task if they encounter difficulties

• Provide feedback

Small Group Skills“taught not caught”THIS TAKES TIME

• We are not born cooperative

• The skills often need to be taught e.g. encouraging, questioning, paraphrasing, summarising etc.

Face to face interaction“knee to knee and eye to eye”

• Encourages participation

• Stimulates communication, sharing of ideas / resources/ answers

• Fosters a sense of involvement, belonging and commitment

Factors that foster successful face to face interactions

• Groups of no more than 4

• Requires setting up the physical environment so it makes it easy for students to work cooperatively in groups and makes it difficult for any student not to be involved

• Teach appropriate skills when required

5 Fundamental Elements of Cooperative Learning

• Positive Interdependence

• Individual accountability

• Group and individual reflection

• Small group skills

• Face to face interaction

Spencer Kagan adds - Simultaneous Interaction

• Active learning is maintained as often as possible

• Small, active teams work best

Final Message

GEPRISPTe Kotahitanga has seven elements which work

interdependently – STRATEGIES is only one

Component.

Cooperative Learning provides a collection of

strategies that will help move classroom

interactions from traditional to discursive.