Effective Team Work and Group Process Human Relations Chapter 11: Cooperative Learning in the Classroom By Jacqueline Malcolm, Grace Corda, Zaeem Minan, Melissa Joseph

Introduction to Cooperative Learning Cooperative Learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize everyone's learning. Within cooperative learning groups, students discuss the material to be learned with one another, help one another to understand it, and encourage one another to work hard.

Types of Cooperative Learning Formal Cooperative learning Informal Cooperative Learning Cooperative base groups Completes assignment, lesson, unit, project to maximize own and group mates’ learning. Discusses assigned questions for a few minutes to focus attention, organize knowledge, set expectations create mood, ensure cognitive processing and rehearsal, summarize, provide closure. Permanent; lasts for one semester, one year, or several years to ensure that all members make academic progress and develop cognitively and socially in healthy ways. Teacher Procedure Make Reinstruction Decisions. Explain task and cooperative structure. Monitor learning groups and intervene to improve task work and team work. Asses learning and monitor group effectiveness. Conduct introductory focused discussion. Conduct Intermittent-pair discussions every ten or fifteen minutes. Conduct closure-focused discussion. Structure opening class meeting to check homework, ensure that members understand academic material, complete routine tasks such as taking attendance, and prepare members for the day. Structure ending class meetings to ensure that all members understand academic material, know what homework to do, and are making progress on long-term assignments. Members help and assist each other learn between classes Conduct semester- or year-long school or class service projects

Specifying the Instructional Objectives To plan for a lesson, you must know what the lesson is aimed at accomplishing. You need to specify academic objectives and social skills objectives that detail what interpersonal and small groups skills you wish to emphasize during the lesson Group size depends on “Team” T = Time limits E = Experience working in groups A = Age M = Materials and equipment available

Assigning students to groups By stratified random -1 or 2 characteristics Better dept of understanding, perspectives Problem solving & cognitive and social development More cognitive disequilibrium

Interdependence & problem solving Specific roles can be used to: Reduce problems no contributions or member dominating the group Ensure group members learn to target skills Create interdependence among groups

Classroom Designs Labels, signs for boundaries of space Colour, form, lightning attracts visual attention on points of emphasis Materials distributed and arranged that communicates joint effort

Task Define three things: What assignment is? What to do in order to complete it How to do it “Sink or swim together”

Feedback Recognize efforts and contributions Provides remediation or needed assistance Reassigns responsibilities to avoid and redundant efforts by members

Social skills Be specific, start small, don’t overload; and emphasize over learning Students must teach both academic subject, task work, and interpersonal skills required to work in a group

Monitor and Intervene Monitor each learning group, intervene when needed to improve task work and team work. Monitor students, Behavior Providing task assistance Intervene to teach social skills Provide closure to the lesson

Evaluate and Process Group Interaction Assess the quality and quantity of learning Process how well the group has functioned Four parts of processing 1.Feedback 2.Analysis 3.Celebration 4.Reflection

Informal Cooperative Learning Groups Focuses student attention on material Set a mood conducive to learning Helps cognitively organize material Sets attention and provides closure Allow for identifying and correcting misconceptions, incorrect understanding, and gaps in comprehension Personalizes learning experiences

Using informal cooperative learning Two important aspects of using informal cooperative learning Make the task and the instructions explicit and precise Require the groups to produce a specific product, such as a written answer

Base group They may be used in two ways Class group School base group

The Agendas of both types of base groups Academic support tasks: Base group members encourage one another to master course content and complete all assignments. Personal support tasks: listens sympathetically when a member has a problem. Routine tasks: provides a structure for managing course procedures such as taking attendance and homework. Assessment and evaluation tasks: provides a structure for assessing and evaluating student academic learning.

Forming Base Groups Group size: Three or Four members Assigning Students: Random assignment to ensure heterogeneity Arranging the room: providing a permanent place for each group to meet Preparing materials: Standard forms students use at each meeting; group file folders Assigning roles: Runner, explainer, accuracy checker, encourager

The Cooperative School In a cooperative school, students work primary in cooperative teams. Each level of cooperative teams supports and enhances the other levels. A cooperative school structure begins in the classroom with the predominant use of cooperative learning (Johnson & Johnson,1994). Work teams are the heart of the team-based organizational structure, and cooperative learning groups are the primary work teams. The second level in creating a cooperative school is to create faculty-based cooperative teams and a school-based decision-making procedure.

Summary To increase your expertise in using cooperative learning is to use all three goal structures – cooperation, competition, and individual work ( in an integrated way ). An example of the integrated use of cooperative learning procedures is to have students arrive at class and meet in their base groups. The teacher uses informal cooperative learning groups by helping students understand the advantages and disadvantages of being humans. All three types of cooperative learning tend to be used during a lesson. The lesson begins with a base group meeting, the instructor may present new material while using informal cooperative learning, a formal cooperative learning lesson is conducted, the instructor summarizes using informal cooperative learning, and the class ends with a base group meeting.