YFSD - Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning

These notes on cooperative learning are primarily based on David and Roger Johnson's Circles of Learning, with some deviations from their advice on Assigning Students to Groups. You may "jump" directly to a section in this document by selecting from the following menu.

Why Cooperative Learning is important

An essential instructional skill that all teacher need is know how and when to structure students' learning goals competitively, individualistically, and cooperatively. Each goal structure has its place; an effective teacher will use all three appropriately.
The Choice
Teachers can structure lessons competitively so that students can work against each other to achieve a goal that only one or a few students can attain. Students perceive that they can attain their goal only if the other students in the class fail to obtain their goals. (grading on a curve)
Teacher can structure lessons individualistically so that students' work by themselves to accomplish learning goals unrelated to those of other students. Individual goals are assigned each day, students' efforts are evaluated on a fixed set of standards, and rewards are given accordingly. Whether a student accomplishes his or her goals has no influence on whether other students achieve their goals in an individualistic learning situation.
Teachers can structure lessons cooperatively so that students work together to accomplish shared goals. Students are assigned to small groups and instructed to learn assigned material and make sure that the other members of the group learn the assigned material. Individual accountability can be checked randomly by selecting a paper from each group to grade. A criterion - referenced evaluation system is used.

What is Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning is not having students sit side-by-side at the same table to talk with each other as they do their individual assignments.
Cooperative Learning is not having students do a task with instructions that those who finish first are to help the slower students.
Cooperative Learning is not assigning a report to a group of students wherein one student does all the work and the others put their names on the product, as well.
Cooperative Learning is much more than being physically near other students, discussing material with other students, helping other students or sharing material among students, although each of these is important in Cooperative Learning. Here is what Cooperative Learning is, described in four (4) basic elements.

Positive Interdependence: This is achieved through mutual goals: divisions of labor; dividing materials, resources, or information among group members; assigning students differing roles; and by giving joint rewards. In order for a learning situation to be cooperative, students must perceive that they are positively interdependent with other members of the their learning group.

Face - To - Face Interaction: It is the interaction patterns and verbal interchange among students promoted by positive interdependence that affect education outcomes.

Individual Accountability: The purpose of a learning situation is to maximize the achievement of each individual student.

Interpersonal and Small Group Skills: Students must be taught the social skills needed for collaboration and they must be motivated to use them. Students must also be given time and procedures for analyzing how well their learning groups are functioning and the extent to which students are employing their social sills to help all group members to achieve and to maintain effective working relationships within the group.

The Teacher's Role in Structuring Cooperation Among Students

Clearly specify the objectives for the lesson.
Make decisions about placing students in learning groups before the lesson is taught.
Clearly explain the task, goal structure, and learning activity to the students.
Monitor the effectiveness of the learning groups and intervene to provide assistance or increase students' interpersonal and group skills.
Evaluate student achievement and help students discuss how well they collaborated with each other.

Strategies for Structuring Cooperative Learning
Objectives
Specifying Instructional Objectives

The teacher must specify the academic objective and the collaborative skills objective.

Decisions
Deciding on the size of the group

The more group members you have, the more chance to have someone who has special knowledge helpful to the group and the more willing hands and talents are available to do the task.
The larger the group, however, the more skillful group members must be in providing everyone a chance to speak, coordinating the actions of group members, reaching consensus, and keeping all members on task.
The materials available or the specific nature of the task may dictate group size.
The shorter the period of time available, the smaller the learning group should be.

Teachers with students who are just beginning to use cooperative learning groups should start with pairs or threesomes. As students become more experienced and skillful, they will be able to manage larger groups. Six may be the upper limit for a cooperative learning group in most schools.

Assigning Students to Groups

Teachers should emphasize homogeneity of students. This prevents the more able students from tending to dominate and the less able from expecting others to do their work for them.
Students should not select their own groups, teacher selected groups are generally more effective.
Groups should stay together the length of an instructional unit. Some teachers keep groups together for a full year, semester, or quarter. Don't break up groups that are having trouble: the students won't learn the skills they need to collaborate with one another.

Arranging the Room

Group members should sit in a circle and be close enough to each other to communicate effectively without disturbing other learning groups, and the teacher should have a clear access lane to every group. Teachers should try avoid setting students at rectangular tables where they cannot have eye contact with all the other members.

Planning the Instructional Materials to Promote Interdependence

When a group is new or when members are not very skilled, teachers should distribute materials in carefully planned ways to communicate that the assignment is to be a joint (not an individual) effort and that students are in a "sink or swim together" learning situation. Three ways of doing this are:

Materials Interdependence: Give only one copy of the material to the group. Students will then have to work together to be successful.
Information Interdependence: Group members may each be given different books or resource materials to be synthesized. This requires every member to participate for the group to be successful.
Interdependence with Other Groups: Materials may be structured into a tournament format with intergroup competition as the basis to promote a perception of interdependence among group members.

All of these procedures may not be needed simultaneously. They are alternative methods of ensuring that students perceive that they must work together and behave collaboratively to succeed in the learning situation.

Assigning Roles to Ensure Interdependence

Cooperative interdependence may also be arranged through the assignment of complimentary and interconnected roles to group members. Each group member is assigned one or more responsibilities that must be fulfilled if the group is to function. Each group should have a:
Summarizer-Checker to make sure everyone in the group understands what is being learned.
Researcher-Runner to get needed materials for the group and to communicate with other learning groups and the teacher.
Recorder to write down the group's decisions and to edit the group's report.
Encourager to reinforce member's contributions.
Observer to keep track of how well the group is collaborating.

With these decisions made and the appropriate materials prepared, the teacher is ready to explain the instructional task and the cooperative goal structure to the class. The less experience the students have in working in cooperative learning groups, the more important it is that teachers explain carefully what cooperation is.

Explaining the Academic Task

Teachers must consider the following:

Set the task so that students are clear about the assignment.
Explain the objectives of the lesson and relate the concepts and information to be studied to students' past experience and learning to ensure maximum transfer and retention.
Define relevant concepts, explain procedures students should follow, and give examples to help students understand what they are to learn and to do in completing the assignment.
Ask the class specific questions to check the students' understanding of the assignment.

Structuring Positive Goal Interdependence

Communicate to students that they have a group goal and must work collaboratively.

Ask the group to produce a single product, report, or paper. Each member of the group should sign the paper to indicate that he/she agrees with the answers and can explain why the answers are appropriate.
Provide group rewards. A group grade is one way the necessity for collaboration. Some teachers reward groups where all members reach a preset criterion of excellence with free time or extra recess.

Structuring Individual Accountability

The purpose of cooperative learning is to enhance the learning of each member. In order to ensure that all members learn and that groups know which member to provide encouragement and help, teachers need to assess frequently the level of performance of each group member by:

Giving practice tests
Randomly selecting members to explain answers
Have members edit each other's work or
Randomly picking one paper from the group to grade

Structuring Intergroup Cooperation

Bonus points may be given if all members of a class reach a preset criterion of excellence. When a group finishes its work, the teacher should encourage the members to help other groups complete the assignment.

Explaining the Criteria for Success

At the beginning of the lesson the teacher should clearly explain the criteria by which the students work will be evaluated. The criteria for success must be structured so that students may reach it without penalizing other students and so that groups may reach it without penalizing other groups.

Teachers may structure a second level of cooperation not only by keeping track of how well each group and its members are performing, but also by setting criteria for the whole class to reach.

Specifying Desired Behaviors

Teachers need to define cooperation operationally by specifying the behaviors that are appropriate and desirable within the learning groups. There are beginning behaviors such as:

Stay in your group and do not wander around.
Use quiet voices.
Take turns.

When the groups begin to function more effectively, expected behaviors may include:
bullet Have member explain how to get the answer.

Ask each member to relate what is being learned to previous learnings.
Encourage everyone to participate.
Listen accurately to what all group members are saying.
Criticize ideas, not people.

Monitoring and Intervening

Monitoring Students Behavior
Whenever possible the teacher should use a formal observation sheet to count the number of times they observe appropriate behaviors being used by students.
Look for positive behaviors, which are to be praised when they are appropriately present and those which are a cause for discussion when they are missing.

Providing Task Assistance

In monitoring the groups as they work, teachers will wish to clarify instructions, review important procedures and strategies for completing the assignment, answer questions, and teach task skills as necessary.

Intervening to Teach Collaborative Skills

The teacher may notice the group does not collaborate well. The teacher should intervene to suggest effective procedures for working together and effective behaviors for students to engage in.

Providing Closure to the Lesson

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to summarize what they have learned and to understand where they will use it in future lessons. To reinforce student learning, teachers may wish to summarize the major points of the lesson, ask students to recall ideas or give samples, and answer any final questions they may have.

Evaluation and Processing

Evaluating the Quality and Quantity of Student Learning
Student learning needs to be evaluated by a criterion - referenced system.

Assessing How Well the Group Functioned

Even if class time is limited, some time should be spent talking about how well the group functioned each day, what things went well, and what things could be improved.
Groups new to this process may need an agenda which includes specific questions each member must address; i.e. Name two things they did well, one thing they need to do even better, or would like to work harder on.

Teaching Students Cooperative Skills

Assumptions

A cooperative context must be structured
Cooperative skills have to be taught
Peers are the key
Peer pressure to learn cooperative skills must always be coupled with peer support for doing so
The earlier students are taught cooperative skills the better
What skills need to be taught?
Forming: The bottom line skills needed to establish a functioning cooperative learning group.
Functioning: The skills needed to manage the group's activities in completing the task and maintaining effective working relationships among members.
Formulating: The skills needed to build deeper level understanding of the material being studied, to stimulate the use of higher quality reasoning strategies, and to maximize mastery and retention of the assigned material.
Fermenting: The skills needed to stimulate conceptualization of the material being studied, cognitive conflict, the search for more information, and the communication of the rationale behind one's conclusions.

Forming

Move into cooperative learning groups without undue noise and without bothering others.
Stay with the group.
Use quiet voices.
Encourage everyone to participate.
Use names.
Look at the speaker.
No "put-downs".
Keep one's hands and feet to one's self.

Functioning

Give direction to the group by:
Stating and restating the purpose of the assignment.
Setting or calling attention to time limits.
Offering procedures for how to most effectively complete the assignment.
Express support both verbally and nonverbally, and seek others ideas and conclusions.
Ask of clarification of what is being done in the group.
Offer to explain or clarify.
Paraphrase and clarify another member's contributions.
Energize the group when motivation is low by suggesting new ideas or with humor.
Describe one's feelings when appropriate.

Formulating

Summarize what has just been read or discussed as completely as possible without referring to notes. Each group should summarize from memory all the important ideas and facts.
Seek accuracy by correcting a member's summary, adding important information he or she did not include.
Seek elaboration by asking other members to relate the material being learned to earlier material and to other things they know.
Seek clever ways to remember important ideas or facts by using drawings, mental pictures, and other memory aides.
Demand vocalization to make overt the implicit reasoning process being used by other members and thus open to correction and discussion.
Ask other members to plan out loud how they would teach the material to another student.

Fermenting

Create academic controversies by asking the students to think divergently about the issue, find more information, or argue constructively about alternative solutions or decisions.

Skills involved in academic controversy include:

Criticize ideas, not people.
Differentiate where there is disagreement within the learning group.
Integrate a number of different ideas into a single position.
Ask for justification of why the members answer or conclusion or answer is the correct one or appropriate one.
Extend another member's answer or conclusion by adding further information or implications.
Probe by asking questions that lead to deeper understanding or analysis.
Generate further answers by going beyond the first answer or conclusion and producing a number of plausible answers from which to choose an alternative.
Test reality by checking the group's work with the instructions, available time, and other examples of reality.

Cooperative Learning and the Writing Process

Writing Process Activities = Cooperative Learning Strategies
Pre-Writing = Cooperative Brainstorming Discussion Groups
Drafting = Students become sources of input when they contribute ideas in language that is familiar to their peers. After the teacher mildels a lesson, students themselves can also serve as models.
Revising/Editing Peer responses = The teacher can check on groups and can also show students how to do so within their own group.
Publishing = Share products with other groups and school-wide / community-wide