Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy. There are small teams, which work with the students at different levels, according to their ability. They use variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of the subject. Each team member is not only responsible for what they learn, but also for helping teammates learn, thus, creating and atmosphere of achievement. The work on the assignment goes till all the students successfully understand and complete the assignment.
Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members:
Gain from each other’s efforts. (Your success benefits me and my success benefits you.)
Recognize that all group members share a common fate. (We all sink or swim together here.)
Know that oneself and one’s team members mutually cause one’s performance. (We cannot do it without you.)
Feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement. (We all congratulate you on your accomplishment!).
Use of Cooperative Learning
Research has shown that cooperative learning techniques:
Promote student learning and academic achievement
Increase student retention
Enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience
Help students develop skills in oral communication
Develop students’ social skills
Promote student self-esteem
Help to promote positive race relations
Why Use Cooperative Learning?
There is a long history of research on cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts. The multiple outcomes studied can be classified into three major categories: achievement/productivity, positive relationships, and psychological health. The research clearly indicates that cooperation, compared with competitive and individualistic efforts, typically results in
(a) higher achievement and greater productivity,
(b) more caring, supportive, and committed relationships, and
(c) greater psychological health, social competence, and self-esteem.
The positive effects that cooperation has on so many important outcomes makes cooperative learning one of the most valuable tools educators have.
What Makes Cooperative Groups Work?
Not all groups are cooperative groups. Sitting together will invoke more competition in them on individual basis. The lessons has to be structured in a way that require the group to work cooperatively with each other.
Mastering the essential components of cooperation allows teachers to:
1. Take existing lessons, curricula, and courses and structure them cooperatively.
2. Tailor cooperative learning lessons to meet the unique instructional circumstances and needs of the curricula, subject areas, and students.
3. Diagnose the problems some students may have in working together and intervene to increase the effectiveness of the student learning groups.
The essential components of cooperation are positive interdependence, face-to-face promotion interaction, individual and group accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing.
1. Positive Interdependence
(sink or swim together)
· Each group member’s efforts are required and indispensable for group success
· Each group member has a unique contribution to make to the joint effort because of his or her resources and/or role and task responsibilities
2. Face-to-Face Interaction
(promote each other’s success)
· Orally explaining how to solve problems
· Teaching one’s knowledge to other
· Checking for understanding
· Discussing concepts being learned
· Connecting present with past learning
3. Individual ; Group Accountability
(no hitchhiking! no social loafing)
· Keeping the size of the group small. The smaller the size of the group, the greater the individual accountability may be.
· Giving an individual test to each student.
· Randomly examining students orally by calling on one student to present his or her group’s work to the teacher (in the presence of the group) or to the entire class.
· Observing each group. Then recording the frequency with which each member-contributes to the group’s work.
· Assigning one student in each group the role of checker. The checker asks other group members to explain the reasoning and rationale underlying group answers.
· Having students teach what they learned to someone else.
4. Interpersonal ; Small-Group Skills
· Social skills must be taught:
o Leadership
o Decision-making
o Trust-building
o Communication
o Conflict-management skills
5. Group Processing
· Group members discuss how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationships
· Describe what member actions are helpful and not helpful
· Make decisions about what behaviors to continue or change
CONCLUSION
From the interviews it is evident that these two people a teacher of mathematics and the Case Manager are taking into perspective the entire cooperative learning programs, keeping in mind all the state objectives. They are agreeing to the fact, that the changes are coming in the educational arena, but these changes are very slow. They are trying to be very interactive, and are very receptive to changes. They agree on the fact that apart from student development faculty development is also important. They work for this cooperative movement and try to make it into success and try that all the schools should follow this pattern.
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