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.
Cooperative learning is an organized and structured way to use small groups to enhance student learning and interdependence. Students are given an assignment, and they work together to accomplish this task. Each individual has responsibilities and is held accountable for aiding in the completion of the assignment.
Cooperative learning is sometimes thought of simply as 'group work,' but groups of students working together might not be working collaboratively.
5 ELEMENT OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING
There are five fundamental elements involved in cooperative learning. In fact, these five elements distinguish cooperative learning from other forms of group learning. When all of these elements are present in a learning situation, the result is a cooperative learning group. The five basic elements of cooperative learning are:
1) Positive Interdependence
Students have the sense that they're 'in this together,' feeling that each member's individual effort will not only help him, but the whole group. The grade of each student is dependent upon the effort of other group members. The key to positive interdependence is committing to personal success as well as the success of every member of the group.
2) Individual and Group Accountability
Each student is accountable for their own contribution to the group. Clearly described goals ensure that each student knows what she is responsible for and what the group is responsible for. No one can "hitchhike" on the work of others. The performance of each individual must be assessed and the results given back to the group.
3) Interpersonal And Small Group Skills
Interpersonal and small group skills are required to function as part of a group. These are basic teamwork skills. Group members must know how to be motivated and provide effective leadership, make decisions, build trust, communicate, and manage conflict.
- Completing tasks
- Communicating
- Decision making
- Managing conflict
- Appreciating group members
4) Face to Face Interaction
Students are promoting each other’s' learning through face-to-face activities where they discuss and explain assignment topics with each other. This means that students promote each other's success by sharing resources. They help, support, encourage, and praise each other's efforts to learn. Both academic and personal support is part of this mutual goal.
5) Group Processing
Students are given a means for analyzing their group for how well the group has learned, and whether or not collaborative skills are being used. Group members need to feel free to communicate openly with each other to express concerns as well as to celebrate accomplishments.
FOUR TYPES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING
1) Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD)
A cooperative learning method for mixed-ability groupings involving team recognition and group responsibility for individual learning.
Students are assigned in teams that are mixed in performance level, gender, and ethnicity. The teacher presents a lesson, 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.
The STAD method is most appropriate for teaching well-defined objectives with single right answers, such as mathematical computations, language usage and mechanics, geography and map skills, and science facts and concept.
2) Cooperative Integrated Reading
A comprehensive program for teaching reading and writing in the upper elementary grades; students work in four-member cooperative learning teams.
Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) is a comprehensive program for teaching, reading and writing in the upper elementary grades. Students work in four-member cooperative learning teams. They engage in a series of activities with one another, including reading , making predictions about how narrative stories will come out, summarizing stories, practicing spelling, decoding, and vocabulary.
They also work together to master main ideas and other comprehension skills. Three studies of the CIRC program have found positive effects on students’ reading skills, including improved scores on standardized reading and language tests.
3) RECIPROCAL TEACHING
Brown & Paliscar (1982) developed reciprocal teaching. It is a cooperative technique that allows for student pairs to participate in a dialogue about text. Partners take turns reading and asking questions of each other, receiving immediate feedback.
Students to use important metacognitive techniques such as clarifying, questioning, predicting, and summarizing. It embraces the idea that students can effectively learn from each other.
4) THINK, PAIR AND SHARE
Think-Pair-Share allows for students to contemplate a posed question or problem silently. The student may write down thoughts or simply just brainstorm in his or her head. When prompted, the student pair up with a peer and discusses his or her idea(s) and then listens to the ideas of his or her partner.
When teachers use this technique they don't have to worry about students not volunteering because each student will already have an idea in their heads, therefore, the teacher can call on anyone and increase discussion productivity.
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