Cooperative LearningKapil kumarM.ED(H.I)

Content1. Introduction

2. Defination

3. History

4. Types

5. Elements

6. Techniques

7. Benefits

8. Advantages and Disadvantages

9. Review of Literature.

Introduction Cooperative Learning can be defined as collaboration in

an instructional setting either between or among members of small groups that achieves learning outcomes, including ability to remember and utilize what is learned

Students work together in small groups and learn through interaction with each other while the teacher coaches the process.

Cooperative Learning is part of a group of teaching/learning techniques where students interact with each other to acquire and practice the elements of a subject matter and to meet common learning goals.

DEFINITION• Cooperative learning involves students working

together in small groups to accomplish shared goals.

(Gillies, R., 2007)

• Successful cooperative learning tasks as intellectually demanding, creative, open-ended, and involve higher order thinking tasks.

(Ross and Smyth., 1995)

History

• Prior to World War II, social theorists such as Allport, Watson, Shaw, and Mead began establishing cooperative learning theory after finding that group work was more effective and efficient in quantity, quality, and overall productivity when compared to working alone.

 • However, it wasn’t until 1937 when researchers

May and Doob found that people who cooperate and work together to achieve shared goals, were more successful in attaining outcomes, than those who strived independently to complete the same goals

TYPES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Formal cooperative learningInformal cooperative learningGroup based learning

Types

Formal cooperative learning is structured, facilitated, and monitored by the educator over time and is used to achieve group goals in task work (e.g. completing a unit).

Any course material or assignment can be adapted to this type of learning, and groups can vary from 2-6 people with discussions lasting from a few minutes up to an entire period.

Conti…..

Informal cooperative learning incorporates group learning with passive teaching by drawing attention to material through small groups throughout the lesson or by discussion at the end of a lesson.

These groups are often temporary and can change from lesson to lesson

Group based learning• In group-based cooperative learning, these peer groups

gather together over the long to develop and contribute to one another’s knowledge mastery on a topic by regularly discussing material, encouraging one another, and supporting the academic and personal success of group members.

• Base group learning is effective for learning complex subject matter over the course or semester and establishes caring, supportive peer relationships, which in turn motivates and strengthens the student’s commitment to the group’s education while increasing self-esteem and self-worth.

Effective Cooperative Learning Groups

5 Elements

1. Positive Interdependence

2. Individual and group Accountability

3. Face-To-Face Interaction

4. Interpersonal and small group skills

5. Group Processing(reflection)

Positive Interdependence Task and goals are clearly defined Efforts of each team member benefits the individual as well

as the group Commitment made to both personal as well as group

success Students must fully participate and put forth effort within

their group Each group member has a task/role/responsibility therefore

must believe that they are responsible for their learning and that of their group.

Individual and Group Accountability

Each group member will be held accountable for your share of the work and mastering the learning.

Each team member must contribute to the group as a whole

Each team member is accountable for helping the group to reach its goals

Each student must demonstrate mastery of the content being studied

Face-To-Face Interaction

• Promote one another success by sharing resources• Encourage, help, and applaud each other effort’s• Support one another academically and personally• Explain how to solve problems• Teach each other• Check’s for one another understanding• Discuss concept being learned• Connect present with past learning• Foster the group mutual goal

Interpersonal and small group skills

Each team member must: • Be motivated• Provide effective leadership• Be able to make decisions• Be able to build trusts• Be able to communicate• Be able to manage conflict

Group processing(reflection) Students :• Communicate openly, freely, respectfully discussing their

concern• Maintain effective working relationship• Describe what member actions are helpful• Make decisions about behaviours to

continue/change/discontinue• Process status of goal achievement and accomplishment

Techniques

JigsawThink-Pair-Share

Three-Step Interview

Round Robin Brainstorming

Three-minute Review

Numbered Heads Book Ends

Jigsaw

• Group students into sets of five. Assign unique

information to learn to each group member. After

reading the material, instruct group members to

take turns teaching their material to their

teammates.

Think-Pair-Share

• Pose a question, and ask students to think about

its answer. Instruct students to pair off and take

turns explaining their answers to each other.

• This is a four-step discussion strategy that incorporates wait time and aspects of cooperative learning. Students (and teachers) learn to LISTEN while a question is posed, THINK (without raising hands) of a response, PAIR with a neighbor to discuss responses, and SHARE their responses with the whole class. Time limits and transition cues help discussion move smoothly. Students are able to rehearse responses mentally and verbally, and all students have an opportunity to talk. Both students and teachers have increased opportunities to think and become involved in group discussion. (Lyman)

Three-Step Interview• Group students into pairs. In step one, ask

individuals to interview their partners. In step

two, ask partners to reverse roles. In step three,

select a few students to explain their partners’

answer to the entire class.

• This involves structured group activity with students. Using interviews/listening techniques that have been modeled; one student interviews another about an announced topic. \"en time is up, students switch roles as interviewer and interviewee. Pairs then join to form groups of four. Students take turns introducing their pair partners and sharing what the pair partners had to say. This structure can be used as a team builder, and also for opinion questions, predicting, evaluation, sharing book reports, etc. (Kagan)

Round Robin Brainstorming

•Group students into sets of four or five each, and instruct

each group to appoint a recorder. Pose a question having

several answers. Have group members think silently about

responses and then take turns sharing their ideas with the

others in the group. Ask group members not to criticize one

another's responses. Instruct the recorder to write down the

ideas. After a few minutes, stop the discussions, and select a

member of each group to read the recorder’s list aloud.

• Roundtable can be used for brainstorming, reviewing, or practicing while also serving as a team builder. Sequential form:

• Students sit in teams of 3 or more, with one piece of paper and one pencil. The teacher asks a question which has multiple answers. Students take turns writing one answer on the paper, then passing the paper and pencil clockwise to the next person. When time is called, teams with the most correct answers are recognized. Teams reflect on their strategies and consider ways they could improve. Simultaneous form: Each student starts a piece of paper, writes one answer, and passes it, so several papers are moving at once. (Kagan)

Three-minute Review

• Pause during or at the end of a lecture or discussion.

Ask students to work with partners to summarize the

lecture or discussion. After three minutes, call on a

few students to share their group’s summary with

the class.

Numbered Heads

• Group students into sets of four, and number the

members of each group one through four. Give the

groups questions to answer. Ask each group to

decide upon an answer, and call on all persons with

a certain number to take turns reporting to the class.

• This structure is useful for quickly reviewing objective material in a fun way. The students in each team are numbered (each team might have 4 students numbered 1, 2, 3, 4). Students coach each other on material to be mastered. Teachers pose a question and call a number. Only the students with that number are eligible to answer and earn points for their team, building both individual accountability and positive interdependence. This may be done with only one student in the class responding (sequential form), or with all the numbers, 3's for instance, responding using an Every Pupil Response technique such as cards or hand signals (simultaneous form). (Kagan)

Book Ends

• Ask students to pair up. Give them a topic, and tell

them to spend a couple of minutes deciding how to

teach that topic to their partners. After giving

participants time to think, invite them to take turns

teaching the topic to their partners.

Benefits of co-operative learning

Cooperative Learning Benefits

Cooperative Learning teaching techniques facilitate learning and memory by:

• Ensuring attention through active student participation• Adding meaning and relevance to the material• Enabling students to learn from “modeling” or through

observation of others• Students of all ability levels show higher academic

achievement when taught using cooperative learning techniques as opposed to traditional techniques.

• Encouraging student participation through expectation of rewards - desire to avoid possible punishments

Advantages and

Disadvantages of cooperative

learning

Advantages

• It has been shown to have a positive effect on student learning when compared to individual or competitive conditions

• It has the potential to produce a level of engagement that other forms of learning cannot

• Students may explain things better to another student than a teacher to a class. Students learn how to teach one another and explain material in their own words

• Questions are more likely to be asked and answered in a group setting

Disadvantages

• A burden is making the students responsible for each other’s learning apart from themselves

• One study showed that in groups of mixed ability, low-achieving students become passive and do not focus on the task

• Depending on an individual’s motivation and interest on a particular subject that will determine how well they would learn

• Low achiver become Puzzled Because of so many questions

Review of literature

• Maureen and keri (2002)• examined the effect of a cooperative learning programs on

the social acceptance of children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities by young children without disabilities.

• Sample size was 51 MMR. Random sampling method was taken for the selection of the sample. Children without disabilities were assigned to a cooperative learning programme or a social contact programme, which are taken as the control group.

• The result of the study indicated that the cooperative learning treatments resulted In positive changes in several indices in the social acceptance of the children with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities by their peers without disabilities.

Robert Slavin (1994) Student Team Learning - Slavin defines cooperative learning as

“instructional programs in which students work in small groups to help one another master academic content.

Through his review of the literature on cooperative learning, Slavin identifies three concepts that are fundamental to all cooperative learning/Student Team Learning techniques:

1. Students are rewarded as a team but are graded individually.

2. The team’s success is not conditionally based on individual performance of one student. All students must help each other to achieve learning goals.

3. All students are expected to improve based on their own previous performance, thus ensuring all students are challenged to do their best.

Spencer Kagan (1989)• Recommend that teachers use the “structural approach” to

cooperative learning, which involves “content-free ways of organizing social interaction in the classroom.

• The strategy of cooperative learning was developed as a means to reduce competition in American schools, which James Coleman (1959) identified as a negative component of the education system. Coleman suggests that instead of encouraging competition in the academic setting, “which effectively impedes the process of education,” schools should introduce a more collaborative approach to teaching.