It’s all too easy to fall into the habit of seeing only individual practice as “real” practice on a given skill or concept. In reality, though, our students can practice these skills not just by themselves, but also in pairs and in small groups.
Why?
Cooperative learning provides students with more than just the opportunity to practice a specific academic skill. Students reinforce their own knowledge through working with others, as they support and, in turn, are supported by their partners or teammates.
Cooperative learning also encourages the development of teamwork skills, like cooperation, communication, conflict-management, trust, and other important social skills. The development of these skills will not only help your students, but it can also help to bring a much more positive atmosphere to your classroom as a whole.
How do I make it work?
• Keep the size of your groups small. The smaller the group, the easier it is to make sure each student is held accountable for his or her own work.
• Observe the groups to make sure all members are contributing equally to their group’s goals.
• You may wish to give individual tests or quizzes – or require other individual assessments, such as posters or essays – to assess each student’s understanding of the material. This can be factored into the group grade to show how well a group managed to teach each other the appropriate material.
• Individuals within the groups can be assigned specific roles – one student may be the Recorder, while another is the Researcher, or you may find it more useful to split up the material being covered and assign a specific portion to each student, so that they can teach each other.
• Model interpersonal and small-group skills for your students. Show them what it looks like to make a group decision or to manage a conflict within a group.
• Offer students the opportunity to assess their teammates. This can give you a chance to find out about problems within a group that you may have missed in your observations. You can use this information to determine what kinds of interpersonal and small-group skills to model before your next cooperative learning exercise!
What kinds of Cooperative Learning groups are there?
There are more ways to group students than can possibly be listed on one page. Some of the most popular methods are Jigsaw, Think-Pair-Share, and Numbered Heads Together. For more information or tips on other cooperative learning structures, bookmark these pages: The Cooperative Learning Center and Cooperative Learning at the Georgia Dept. of Education.
References:
The Cooperative Learning Center
