Cooperative Learning

Hello and welcome to my third blog! Hope you’re all doing well and ready to read my blog post! This week, I’m going to talk about Cooperative Learning. After watching the videos of Kagan’s Cooperative Learning-Structures for Success that the professor gave us and doing some research on my own, I realized that Cooperative Learning is a great and very effective teaching method that I absolutely want to try and implement on my own future class. Why?

As Benjamin Franklin once said:                          

“Tell me and I forget.
Teach me and I remember.
Involve me and I learn”.

Every student can benefit from effective cooperative learning. Cooperative learning is a powerful student-centered teaching strategy that’s more than just a passing fad. Research has shown that when implemented properly, students in cooperative learning classrooms outperform their peers in traditional classrooms. The key is knowing how to implement the strategies to foster interaction while making sure all students are held accountable. The theory and practice of Cooperative Learning is based on the principle that we can learn from each other as well as from a teacher and that one of the most important tasks of a teacher is to create sufficient classroom opportunities for such learning to take place.

What good results come from a change to Cooperative Learning methods? Why should we use it in the classroom?                                                                                                                            

Cooperative Learning is so important in the classroom because it helps students become actively engaged in their learning process and improve their understanding of the content, it promotes academic achievement, enhances retention, increases motivation, develops social skills and builds self-esteem. In Cooperative Learning, each member of the team is responsible for their own learning and also for helping their teammates learn. I think this concept often gets lost. Students work together to help one another learn.

When is the best time to begin implementing cooperative learning?

The best time to begin using CL in the classroom is at the start of a new term or school year. This way, the students will not be exposed to individual work and then have to “switch gears” and learn to work in a group in the middle of the year.

Do you have to use cooperative learning all the time?

No, it is not necessary to use CL in your classroom at all times. It is often advised to use CL for a unit or two, use another teaching method for a while, and then revisit CL at a later time.

How to Form Cooperative Learning Teams?

Forming effective teams is important when implementing cooperative learning strategies, but it’s not always easy to figure out the best way to form teams of students who will work well together. Here are some tips to help you get started!

What’s the Most Effective Team Size?

Research has shown that a team of four students is the most effective size for several reasons. A four-person team allows for many different kinds of interactions. The group can work as a team, or it can be broken down into two sets of partners. Each team should be as heterogeneous as possible so that kids can learn to work with all different kinds of people.

There are six different pair combinations possible in groups of four. There are many ways an instructor can place learners into groups. The following are a few ways this can be done:

1. Instructor Assigned Groups: The instructor can assign learners to groups to ensure that the groups are heterogeneous. The real advantage to forming groups in this manner is that instructors can see to it that groups are heterogeneous in terms of academic ability, ethnic background, gender, and any other factors that they feel are important. The instructor tries to make sure that best friends and worst enemies are not in the same groups. If they are, communication patterns in the group are not as effective.

2. Randomly Assigned Groups: The instructor can simply have learners number off, placing all the ones in one group, etc.

3. Social Integration Groups: The instructor can ask learners to privately name learners they would like to work with and any they would not like to work with in groups, and use this information to construct groups.

 4. Subject-Matter: Related Groups If a group of learners are interested in a particular topic, they could be assigned to the same group to research and present the topic to the rest of the class.

5. Geographic Groups: Particularly useful for formal or base groups, this allows participants who live near each other to have a greater ease in meeting.

6. Self-Selected Groups: The instructor can simply ask learners to form their own groups – “Find three other people to work with on this project.” This can work well for short-term groups but can be counter productive if participants always end up in the same groupings. Most Effective Groups The most effective groups are usually the instructor assigned groups because they are more likely to be heterogeneous. Random groups and the others are very useful for short-term assignments, projects, but should not be used all the time or learners miss out on a lot of the advantages of working with heterogeneous groups.

Important Factors and tips to Consider when forming a team

·       If possible, each team should consist of one high-performing student, two average students, and one low-performing student.

·       Teams should generally include both boys and girls.

·       Each team should reflect the ethnic diversity of your classroom.

·       Cooperative Learning teams generally stay together for about six weeks in upper elementary classrooms. Older students may be fine in the same team for an entire grading period.

·       After forming your teams, provide opportunities for them to get to know each other. Use icebreaker activities, also called “team builders” as they are essential.

·       If the number of students in your class isn’t divisible by four you can have teams of three or teams of five also, but any more than five students seems to be a problem. I prefer teams of three if I have extras. This is because I notice that in a team of five, one student seems to be left out. Other teachers prefer to have a few teams of five because they have students who are frequently absent. They place these students on five-member teams so that any time that student is absent, the team has four members. However, sometimes I wonder if these students might be less likely to be absent if they perceived themselves to be important members of small teams. If they are seated at the end of a five-person team, they may feel that they are not needed.

·       What about that student who can’t get along with anyone? I place all my students on a team, but if I have someone who is extremely rude and hard to get along with, I provide another seat in the class also. I let the class know that working on a team is fun, but it comes with certain responsibilities. You have to respect the members on your team and treat them as you would like to be treated. If someone can’t seem to do that, I remove them from the team for that day and give them an alternate assignment that’s not nearly so fun. In fact, I make sure the assignment is very challenging and involves lots of paperwork. If they ask for help, I say that if they were on a team they could get help. I let them know that if they complete the assignment and come in the next day with a better attitude, they may rejoin their team. I have had very difficult students who would start every day with their team and by lunch time they were on their own. Gradually, though, they were able learn how to treat the other students with respect and stay in the team all the time. Just be clear about your expectations for behavior. (Retrived from https://www.lauracandler.com/cooperative-learning-teams/)

 

Some Cooperative Learning strategies

There are some popular strategies that can be used with all students to learn content (such as science, math, social studies, language arts, and foreign languages). However, they are particularly beneficial to ELLs for learning English and content at the same time. Most of these strategies are especially effective in teams of four:

1. Round Robin: Present a category (such as "Names of Mammals") for discussion. Have students take turns going around the group and naming items that fit the category. (Kagan, 2009)
2. Roundtable: Present a category (such as words that begin with "b"). Have students take turns writing one word at a time. (Kagan, 2009)
3. Writearound: For creative writing or summarization, give a sentence starter (for example: If you give an elephant a cookie, he's going to ask for...). Ask all students in each team to finish that sentence. Then, they pass their paper to the right, read the one they received, and add a sentence to that one. After a few rounds, four great stories or summaries emerge. Give children time to add a conclusion and/or edit their favorite one to share with the class.
4. Numbered Heads Together: Ask students to number off in their teams from one to four. Announce a question and a time limit. Students put their heads together to come up with an answer. Call a number and ask all students with that number to stand and answer the question. Recognize correct responses and elaborate through rich discussions. (Kagan, 2009)
5. Team Jigsaw: Assign each student in a team one fourth of a page to read from any text (for example, a social studies text), or one fourth of a topic to investigate or memorize. Each student completes his or her assignment and then teaches the others or helps to put together a team product by contributing a piece of the puzzle.
6. Tea Party: Students form two concentric circles or two lines facing each other. You ask a question (on any content) and students discuss the answer with the student facing them. After one minute, the outside circle or one line moves to the right so that students have new partners. Then pose a second question for them to discuss. Continue with five or more questions. For a little variation, students can write questions on cards to review for a test through this "Tea Party" method.

After each Cooperative Learning activity, you will want to debrief with the children by asking questions such as: What did you learn from this activity? How did you feel working with your teammates? If we do this again, how will you improve working together?

To conclude: I hope that the material on this post was helpful to all of you as much it was for me! Have a nice day everyone! See you in class!