Cooperative Learning

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Understanding Cooperative

Learning

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COOPERATIVELEARNINGIN THE CLASSROOM

What Is Cooperative Learning? Learning is something students do, not something that is done to

students. Learning is not a spectator sport. It requires students' direct and active involvement and participation. Like mountain climbers, students most easily scale the heights of learning when they are part of a cooperative team.

Cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals. Within cooperative situations, individuals seek outcomes beneficial to them­ selves and all other group members. Cooperative learning is the instruc­ tional use of small groups through which students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning. It may be contrasted with competitive learning in which students work against each other to achieve an academic goal such as a grade of "A" that only one or a few students can attain and individualistic learning in which students work by themselves to accomplish learning goals unrelated to those of the other students. In cooperative and individualistic learning, teachers evaluate student efforts on a criteria-referenced basis, but in competitive learning, students are graded on a norm-referenced basis. Though there are limitations on when and where you can use competitive and indi­ vidualistic learning appropriately, you may structure any learning task in any subject area: with any curriculum cooperatively.

Cooperative learning relies on three types of cooperative learning groups. Formal cooperative learning groups last from one class period to several weeks. Formal cooperative learning is students working to­ ~ether to achieve shared learning goals by ensuring that they and their ~roupmates successfully complete the learning task assigned. Any learn­ ing task in any subject area with any curriculum can be structured ~ooperatively. Any course requirement or assignment may by reformu­ ated for formal cooperative learning. When working with formal coop­ ~rative learning groups, you must (a) specify the objectives for the lesson, b) make a number of pre-instructional decisions, (c) explain the task and he positive interdependence to students, (d) monitor students' learning md intervene in the groups to provide task assistance or to increase tudents' interpersonal and group skills, and (e) evaluate students' earning and help students process how well their groups functioned. 'ormal cooperative learning groups ensure that students are actively nvolved in the intellectual work of organizing material, explaining it, ummarizing it, ~nd integrating it into existing conceptual structures.

UNDERSTANDINGCOOPERATIVELEARNING

Informal cooperative learning groups are ad-hoc groups that last from a few minutes to one class period. You can use them during direct teaching (lectures, demonstrations, films, and videos) to focus student attention on particular material, set a mood conducive to learning, help set expectations about what the lesson will cover, ensure that students cognitively process the material you are teaching, and provide closure to an instructional session. Informal cooperative learning groups are often organized so that students engage in three- to five-minute focused discussion before and after a lecture and two- to three-minute turn-to­ your-partner discussions throughout a lecture. Like formal cooperative learning groups, informal cooperative learning groups help you ensure that students do the intellectual work of organizing, explaining, summa­ rizing, and integrating material into existing conceptual structures dur­ ing direct teaching.

Cooperative base groups are long term (lasting for at least a year), heterogeneous cooperative learning groups with stable membership whose primary purpose is to allow members to give each other the support, help, encouragement, and assistance each needs, to succeed academically. Base groups provide students with long-term, committed relationships that allow group members to give each other the support, help, encouragement, and assistance needed to consistently work hard in school, make academic progress (attend class, complete all assign­ ments, learn), and develop in cognitively and socially healthy ways Uohnson, Johnson, and Holubec 1992; Johnson, Johnson, and Smith 1991).

In addition to these three types of cooperative learning groups, cooperative learning scripts are used to structure repetitive classroom routines and recurring lessons, which, once structured cooperatively, provide a cooperative learning foundation for your classes. Cooperative learning scripts are standard cooperative procedures for conducting generic, repetitive lessons (such as writing reports or giving presenta­ tions) and managing classroom routines (such as checking homework or reviewing a test). Once planned and conducted several times, they become automatic activities in the classroom and make building a cooperative classroom easier.

When you use formal, informal. and cooperative base groups repeat­ edly, you will gain a routine level of expertise, that is, you will be able to structure cooperative learning situations automatically without con­ scious thought or planning. You can then use cooperative learning with fidelity for the rest of your teaching career.

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" ' How Do You Know a Group Is Cotlpera.HvP

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uf ,;r, the classroom. Other types hinde1 student learning ,mct create dis.harmony and dissatisfaction in the classroom. To use learning · groups effectively, you must know what is and is not a cooperative group.

Cooperative learning groups are just one of many types of groups that can be used in the classroom. When you use instructional groups, ask yourself, "What type of group am I using?" The following list of types of groups might help you answer that question.

1. The Pseudo-Learning Group: Students are assigned to work to­ gether, but they have no interest in doing so. They believe they will be evaluated by being ranked on individual performance. While on the surface students talk to each other, under the surface they are competing. They see each other as rivals who must be defeated, so they block or interfere with each other's learning, hide information from each other, attempt to mislead and confuse each other, and distrust each other. As a result, the sum of the whole is less than the potential of the individual members. Students would work better individually.

2. The Traditional Classroom Learning Group: Students are assigned to work together and accept that they have to do so, but assignments are structured so that very little joint work is required. Students believe that they will be evaluated and rewarded as individuals, not as members of the group. They interact primarily to clarify how assignments are to be done. They seek each other's information, but have no motivation to teach what they know to their groupmates. Helping and sharing is minimized. Some students loaf, seeking a free ride on the efforts of their more conscientious groupmates. Conscientious members feel exploited and put forth less than their usual effort. The result is that the sum of the whole is more than the potential of some of the members, but harder working, more conscientious students would be better off working alone.

3. The Cooperative Learning Group: Students are assigned to work together and are happy to do so. They know that their success depends on the efforts of all group members. Such groups have five defining characteristics. First, the group goal of maximizing all members' learning motivates members to roll up their sleeves and accomplish something beyond their individual abilities. Members believe that they sink or swim together, and if one fails, they all fail. Second, group members hold themselves and each other accountable for doing high-quality work to

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a 1.:ommitrnent to and concern for each other. Fourth, group members are taught social skills and ~e expected to use them to coordinate their efforts and achieve their goals. Taskwork and teamwork skills are em• phasized, and all members accept responsibility for providing leader• ship. Finally, groups analyze how effectively they a.re achieving the~ goals and how well members are working together to ensure continuous improvement of the quality of their learning and teamwork processes,. As a result, the group is more than the sum of its parts, and all students perform better academically than they would if they worked alone.

4. The High-Performance Cooperative Learning Group: This is· a group that meets all the criteria for being a cooperative learning group and outperforms all reasonable expectations. What differentiates . the high-performance group from the cooperative learning group is the level of commitment members have to each other and the group's success. Jennifer Futemick, who is part of a high-performing, rapicbesponse team at McKinsey & Company, calls the emotion binding her teammates together a form of love (Katzenbach and Smith 1993). Ken Hoepner of the Burlington Northern Intermodal Team (also described by Katzenbach and Smith 1993) stated: "Not only did we trust each other, not only did we respect each other, but we gave a damn about the rest of the people on this team. If we saw somebody vulnerable, we were there to help." Members' mutual concern for each other's personal growth enables high-performance cooperative groups to exceed expectations, and also have fun. Unfortunately, but understandably, high-performance coop­ erative groups a.re rare because most groups never achieve this level of development.

To use cooperative learning effectively, you must realize that not all groups are cooperative groups. The learning group performance curve illustrates that how well any small group performs depends on how it is structured (see Figure 1.1 )(Katzenbach and Smith 1993 ). Placing people in the same room and calling them a cooperative group does not make them one. Study groups, project groups, lab groups, homerooms, and reading groups are groups, but they are not necessarily cooperative. Even with the best of intentions, you can end up with traditional classroom learning groups rather than cooperatiye learning groups. One of the major parts of your job is to form students into learning groups, diagnose

FIGURE 1.1

The Leaming Group Performance Curve

High-performing Cooperative Learning

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where on the performance curve the groups are, strengthen the basic elements of cooperation, and move the groups up the performance curve until they are truly cooperative learning groups.

How Can You Make Cooperation Work? Together we stand, divided we fall.

-Watchword of the American Revolution

To structure lessons so students do in fact work cooperatively with each other, you must understand the basic elements that make coopera­ tion work. Mastering the basic elements of cooperation allows you to:

1. Take your existing lessons, curriculums, and courses and structure them cooperatively.

2. Tailor cooperative learning lessons to your uniqu.e instructional needs, circumstances, curriculums, subject areas, and students.

3. Diagnose the problems some students may have in working to­ gether and intervene to increase learning groups' effectivenfSS.

For cooperation to work well, you must explicitly structure five essential elements in each lesson (see Figure 1.2).

The first and most important element of cooperative learning is positive interdependence. You must provide a clear task and a group goal so that students know they sink or swim together. Group members must realize that each person's efforts benefit not only that individual. but all other group members as well. Such positive interdependence creates a commitment to other people's success as well as one's own, which is the heart of cooperative learning. Without positive interdepen­ dence, there is no cooperation.

The second essential element of cooperative learning is individual and group accountability. The group must be accountable for achieving its goals, and each member must be accountable for contributing a fair share of the work. No one can "hitchhike" on the worlc of others. The group has to be clear about its goals and be able to measure (a) its progress toward achieving them and (b) the individual efforts of each member. Individual accountability exists when the performance of each individ­ ual student is assessed and the results are given back to the group and the individual so they can ascertain who needs more assistance, support, and encouragement in completing the assignment. The purpose of coop­ erative learning groups is to make each member a stronger individual,

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FIGURE 1.2

Essential Components of Cooperative Leaming

Face-to-Face \ Positive

Interdependence Promotive

Interaction

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Individual InterpersonalAccountability/

Personal and Small-Group / SkillsResponsibility

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Group Processing

that is, students learn together so that they can subsequently perform better as individuals.

The third essential element of cooperative learning is promotive interaction, preferably face-to-face. Students need to do real work to­ gether in which they promote each other's success by sharing resources and helping, supporting, encouraging, and praising each other's efforts to learn. Cooperative learning groups are both an academic support system and a personal support system. Some important cognitive activi­ ties and interpersonal dynamics occur only when students promote each other's learning by orally explaining bow to solve problems, discussing the nature of the concepts being learned, teaching one's knowledge to classmates, and connecting present and past learning. Through promot­ ing each other's learning face-to-face, members become personally com-, mitted to each other as well as to their mutual goals.

The fourth essential element of cooperative learning is teaching students some necessary interpersonal and small-group skills. Coopera­ tive learning is inherently more complex than competitive or individu­ alistic learning because it requires students to learn academic subject

matter (taskwork) as well as the interpersonal and small-group skills required to function as part ofa group (teamwork). Group members must know how to provide effective leadership, make decisions, build trust, communicate, and manage conflict, and be motivated to do so. You must teach teamwork skills just as purposefully and precisely as academic skills. Because cooperation and conflict are interrelated (see Johnson and Johnson 1991, 1992), the procedures and skills for managing conflicts

• constructively are especially important for the long-term success of learning groups. (Procedures and strategies for teaching students social, skills can be found in Johnson [1991, 1993] and Johnson and F. Johnson [1994].)

The fifth essential component of cooperative learning isgroup pro­ cessing. Group processing exists when group members discuss how well . they are achieving their goals and maintaining effective working rela­ tionships. Groups need to describe what member actions are helpful and unhelpful and make decisions about what behaviors to continue or change. Continuous improvement of the learning process results from the careful analysis of how members are working together and how group effectiveness can be enhanced. '

Using cooperative learning requires disciplined action on your part. The five basic elements are not jl!st characteristics of good cooperative learning groups. They are a discipline that must be rigorously applied to produce the conditions for effective cooperative action.

WhyUse Cooperative Learning? A conviction to use cooperative learning results from knowing the

research. Since the first research study in 1898, nearly 6O0experimental and over 100 correlational studies have been conducted on cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts to learn (see Johnson and Johnson 1989 for a complete review of these studies). The multiple outcomes studied can be classified into three major categories (see Figure 1.3): efforts to achieve, positive relationships. and psychological health.

From the research, we know that cooperation, compared with com­ petitive and individualistic efforts, typically results in:

1. Greater Efforts to Achieve: This includes higher achievement and greater productivity by all students (high-, medium-, and low-achievers), long-term retention, intrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, time on task, higher-level reasoning, and critical thinking.

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2. More Positive Relationships Among Students: This includes in­ creases in esprit de corps, caring and committed relationships, personal and academic support, valuing of diversity, and cohesion.

3. Greater Psychological Health: This includes general psychological adjustment, ego strength, social development, social competencies, self­ esteem, self-identity, and ability to cope with adversity and stress.

The powerful effects that cooperation has on so many important outcomes separate cooperative learning from other instructional meth­ ods and make it one of the most important tools for ensuring student success.

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Outcomes of Cooperation 1.3

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The Underlying Organizational Structure The issue of cooperation among students is part of a larger issue of

the organizational structure of schools (Johnson and F. Johnson 1994)., W.Edwards Deming, J. Juran, and other founders of the quality move­ ment have stated that more than 85 percent of the behavior of members of an organization is directly attributable to the organization's structure, not to the nature of the individuals involved. Your classroom is no exception. If competitive or individualistic learning dominates your classroom, your students will behave accordingly, even if you temporar­ ily put them in cooperative groups. If cooperative learning dominates your classrooll)., your students will behave accordingly, and a true learning community will result

For decades schools have functioned as mass-production organiza­ tions that divide work into component parts (l_st grade, 2nd grade, English, social studies, science) performed by teachers isolated from their colleagues, working alone in their own rooms, with their own students and their own curriculum materials. Such a system views students as interchangeable parts in the education machine, tyho can be assigned to any teacher. Using cooperative learning the majority of the time allows you to change your classroom from this mass-production model to a team-based, high-performance model. In other words, coop­ eration is more than an instructional procedure. It's a basic shift in organizational structure that affects all aspects of classroom life.

How Can You Gain Expertise in Cooperative Learning?

Expertise is reflected in a person's proficiency, adroitness, compe­ tence, and skill in doing something. Gaining expertise in using coopera­ tive learning is not a quick process. Natural talent alone is not enough to make a great teacher. Being well trained in how to use cooperative learning and unusually well disciplined in structuring the five basic elements in every lesson are also necessary. Expertise in structuring cooperative efforts is reflected in your ability to:

1. Take any lesson in any subject area with any level student and structure it cooperatively.

2. Use cooperative learning (at a routine-use -level)60 to 80 percent of the time. ·

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3. Describe precisely what you are doing and why to communicate to others the nature and advantages of cooperative learning and teach colleagues how to implement cooperative learning.

4. Apply the principles of cooperation to other settings, such as collegial relationships and faculty meetings.

Such expertise is gained through a progressive-refinement procedure of (a) teaching a cooperative lesson, (b) assessing how well it went, (c) reflecting on how cooperation could have been better structured, (d) teaching an improved cooperative lesson, (e) assessing how well it went, and so forth. Thus, you gain experience in an incremental, step­ by-step manner.

As you progressively refine your ability to use cooperative learning effectively, seek the help of colleagues and help them as well. We know that to learn a moderately difficult teaching strategy might require teachers to participate in between 20 and 30 hours of instruction in its theory, 15 to 20 demonstrations using it with different students and subjects, and an additional 10 to 15 coaching sessions to attain higher­ level skills. Expertise in a more difficult teaching strategy, like coopera­ tive learning, might require several years of training and practice. Transfer (trying out cooperative learning in your classroom) and main­ tenance (long-term use of cooperative learning) are important keys to gaining expertise. As Aristotle said, "For things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." You have to do cooperative learning for some time before you begin to gain real expertise.

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10

Monitoring Students' Behavior

Five-Minute Walk 1. Select social skill(s) to observe. 2. Construct observation sheet. 3. Plan route through the classroom. 4. Gather data on every group.

5. Provide the data to the groups or to the class as a whole. 6. Chart/graph the results.

Youxjob begins in earnest when cooperative learning groups start working. While students are working together, you must move from group to group systematically monitoring the interaction among group members to assess students' academic progress and IJSe of interpersonal and small-group skills. You're responsible for listening to each group and coUecting data on the interaction among group members. You can also ask individual students to act as observers along with you. Based on these observations, you can intervene to improve students' academic learning and group skills.

MONITORING STUDENTS' ISEHAVIOR

Monitoring has four stages:

1. Preparing to observe the learning groups by deciding who, if anyone, might help you observe and which observation forms to use.

2. Observing to assess the quality of cooperative efforts in the learn­ ing groups.

3. Intervening when necessary to improve a group's taskwork or teamwork.

4. Having students assess the quality of their own individual partici! pation in the learning groups to encourage self-monitoring.

Preparing to. Observe You must decide whether you will ask individual students to help

you observe (you, of course, are always an observer) and choose the observation forms and procedures you will use.

Student Observers and Sampling Plans As students become experienced working in cooperatf ve learning

groups, they should be trained to be observers. Observation is aimed at recording and describing members' behavior within a group to provide objective data about the interaction among group members. The goal is to give students feedback about their participation in the group and help them to analyze the group's effectiveness. Students can be roving ob­ servers who circulate throughout the classroom and monitor all learning

,, groups or they can observe their own groups (one observer per group). When observing their own groups, student observers should remain close enough to see and hear the interaction among group members but should not participate in the academic task. Student observers shouldn't comment or intervene until the time set aside near the end of the class period for the learning groups to review their work. The role of observer should rotate so that each group member is an observer an equal amount of time.

You and student roving observers need a sampling plan to ensure that all groups are observed for approximately equal amounts of time. Simply decide before a lesson begins how much time you will spend observing each learning group (this is a sampling plan). You can observe one learning group for the entire class period, collecting information on every member, or you may decide to observe ei3.ch group an equal portion of the class period. You might also choose to observe each group for two

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FIGURE 10.1

Structured Observation Form

Observer: Date:

Action Yvette Keith Dale Total

Contributes Ideas

Encourages Participation

Checks for Understanding

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minutes at a time and rotate through all the groups several times during a class period. You will need to interrupt the sampling plan if you decide you should intervene in one group.

Academic and social skills objectives demand assessment of academic and teamwork efforts.

Academic

Teamwork

Observation Procedures

Observation procedures may be structured (using an observation schedule on which frequencies are tallied) or unstructured (making informal descriptions of students' statements and actions). In both structured and unstructured observation, it's important not to confuse observation with inference and interpretation. Observation is descrip­ tive; inferences are interpretative. Observation involves recording what students do while they work together to complete a task. Inferences and interpretations about how well students are cooperating are made based on the observation data.

To make structured observations, you:

1. Decide which teamwork and taskwork skills you will observe.

2. Construct an observation form to record the frequencies of targeted actions. (If students are going to be observers, the form must be appro­ priate for their age group.)

3. Observe each group and record how often each student performs the specified behaviors.

4. Summarize your observations in a clear and useful manJJ.er and present them to the groups as feedback.

5. Help group members analyze the observation data and infer how effectively the group is functioning and how well each group member is engaging in the targeted skills.

Observation Forms

Structured.Several types of observation forms can be used. These are useful tools for gathering and sharing specific information on how group members work together while completing an assignment.

Figure 10.1 is a simple observation form you can use.

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1. Using one observation sheet per group, write each group member's name across the top of the columns, placing one name above each column (reserving the first column for the targeted skills and .the last column for the row totals).

FIGURE 10.2 Checklist

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Behavior Yes No Comments

1. Do students understand the task? . 2. Have students accepted the positive interdependence and the individual accountability?

3. Are students working toward the criteria, and are those criteria for success appropriate?

4. Are students practicing the specifiedbehaviors?

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2. Write each targeted skill on a separate row in the first column. 3. Place a tally mark in the appropriate row and column when a

student engages in one of the targeted actions. Don't worry about record­ ing everything, but observe as accurately and rapidly as possible.

4. Make notes on the back of the observation form about actions that take place but do not fit into the actions being observed.

5. Write down specific positive contributions by each group member to ensure that every member receives positive feedback.

6. Look for patterns of behavior in the group. 7. After the work session is over, total the columns and rows. 8. Show the observation form to the group. Ask the group members

what they conclude about:

a. Their own participation in the group. b. The group functioning in general.

9. After the discussion, help the group set a growth goal. Ask, "What could you add to be even a better group tomorrow than you were today?" This emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement in group effectiveness.

10. Transfer the totals to long-term record sheets and the appropriate charts or graphs.

A variety of observation instruments and procedures are described in Johnson and R. Johnson (1993).

Unstructured.You make unstructured (or anecdotal) observations by "eavesdropping" on each group and making specific observations that are (a) brief enough to write down quickly, (b) capture an important aspect of the behavior of one or more students, and (cJ help answer questions about the successful implementation of cooperative learning. Be sure to write positive incidents on cards and file them in the student's personal file after they have been used to give the student feedback. These can be used during parent conferences as examples of the student's competencies and positive qualities.

Observing Keep the following guidelines in mind when you observe learning groups:

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MONITORING STUDENTS' BEHAVIOR

Guideline One: Always monitor groups while they work. Whenever possible, use a formal observation sheet. The more concrete the data, the more useful they are to you and your students.

Guideline Two: Try not to count too many different behaviors at one time. You may wish to choose two to four behaviors from Figure 10.1 to record the first few times you observe. Once you have used the observa­ tion sheet several dozen times, you will be able to keep track of all the behaviors included.

Guideline Three: Sometimes you may use a simple checklist in addition to a systematic observation form. Figure 10.2 is an example of such a checklist:

Guideline Four: Focus on positive behaviors. These should be cele­ brated when present and discussed when missing.

Guideline Five: Supplement and extend the frequency data with notes on specific student actions. Skillful interchanges that you observe and can share with students (and parents) later as objective praise are particularly useful.

Guideline Six: Once students understand cooperative learning and how they should behave when helping each other learn, train students to be observers. Student observers can obtain more complete data on each group's functioning. Student observers can be used at all grade levels. For very young students you must keep the system very simple, perhaps only "Who talks?" Be sure to give the class adequate instructions

FIGURE 10.3 Mystery Person

Here is one fun way to conduct and discuss an observation.

1. Inform the class that you Will be focusing on one student whose name will be kept secret.

2. Observe during the lesson Without showing whom you are observing.

3. ·oescribe what the person did (frequency data) to the class as a whole without naming the person.

4. Askstudents to guess the mystery person's identity.

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and practice on gathering the observation data and sharing them with the group. When using student observers, allocate several minutes at the end of each group session for the group to teach the observer what members of the group have just learned.

A note about visitors: Visitors should not be allowed to sit and watch a lesson passively. When someone visits your classroom, hand them an observation form, briefly explain the observer's role, and put them to work. Visitors may be roving observers or they may observe one single group, depending on the purpose of their visit.

Intervening in Cooperative Learning Group~

As you observe students, you will sometimes need to intervene to facilitate a group's taskwork or teamwork.

Intervening to Provide Task Assistance

Systematically observing cooperative learning groups provides you with a "window" into students' minds. Listening to students explain how to solve a problem or complete an assignment to groupmates provides better information about what students do and do not know and understand than correct answers on tests or homework assignments. As students work cooperatively they make hidden thinking processes overt and subject to observation and commentary, enabling you to observe how students are constructing their understanding of the as­ signed material and intervene when necessary to help students correct misconceptions.

You will sometimes need to intervene to clarify instructions, review important procedures and strategies for completing the assignment, answer questions, and teach task skills. When discussing concepts and information to be learned, remember to use language or terms relevant to the learning. Instead of saying, "Yes, that is right," say something more specific to the assignment, such as, "Yes, that is one way to find the main idea of a paragraph." The use of the more specific statement reinforces the desirecftoo..qling and promotes positive transfer by helping students associate a terni with their learning.

One way to intervene is to interview a cooperative learning group by asking group members a set of questions that requires them to analyze their plan of action at a metacognitive level and explain it to you. Three standard questions are:

1. What are you doing? 2. Why are you doing it? 3. How will it help you?

FIGURE 10.4 f Intervening in Cooperative Learning Groups

O=Observe

IDQ= Intervene by sharing data or asking a question.

SP = Have students process and plan how they willtake care of the issue.

BTW = Tell students to go back to work.

Intervening to Teach Social Skills

Cooperative learning groups provide you with a picture of students' social skills. While monitoring the learning groups, you may find stu­ dents who do not have the necessary social skills to be effective group members. In these cases you will want to intervene to suggest more effective procedures for working together and specific social_ skills groups should use. You should also intervene to celebrate particularly-~it effective and skillful behaviors you notice. The social skills required for a productive group, along with activities that you may use in teaching

.FIGURE10.5 Id for Monitoring and Intervening

Check for H Present H Absent

Members seated closely Good seating. Draw your chairs closer together together.

Group has right materials Good, you are all ready. Get what you need-I will and is on tjght page watch.

Students who are assigned roles are doing them

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Good! You're doing your jobs. Who is supposed to do what?

Groups have started task Good! You've started. Let me see you get started. Do you need any help?

Cooperative skills being used Good group! Keep up the What skills would help here? (in general) good work! What should you be doing?

A specific cooperative skill Good encouraging! Good Who can encourage Edye? being used paraphrasing! Repeat in your own words

what Edye just said.

Academic work being done You are following the You need more extensive well procedure for this answers. Let me explain how

assignment. Good job! to do this again#

Members ensuring individual You're making sure everyone Roger, show me how to do accountability understands. Good work! #1. David, explain why the

group chose this answer.

Reluctant students involved I'm glad to see everyone I'm going to ask Helen to participating. explain #4. Help her get

ready and I'll be back.

Members explaining to each Great explanations! Keep it I want each of you to take a other what they are learning up. problem and explain to me and their reasoning step-by-step how to sotve it. processes

Group wanting to cooperate I'm glad you're helping the Each of you go to another with other groups other groups. Good group and share your answer

citizenship! to#6.

Equal participation Everyone is participating Rodney, you are the first to equally. Great group! answereverytime. Could

you be the accuracy coach?

Groups that have finished Yourworklooksgood.Now You are being very thorough. do the activity written on the But time is almost up. Let's board. speedup.

Groups working effectively Your group is working so well. What behaviors are helping you?

Tell me what is wrong with the way this group is working. Let's make three plans to solve the problem.

COOPERATIVELEIIRNING IN THE CLASSROOM

them, are discussed in Chapter 8 and in Johnson and F. Johnson (1994) and Johnson (1991, 1993).

General Advice About Intervening

Don't intervene any more than absolutely necessary. Many teachers jump in and solve problems for students. With a little patience, coopera­ tive groups can usually solve their own problems. Choosing when to intervene and when not to is part of the art of teaching. When you do intervene, turn the problem back to the group to solve. Many teachers do this by having members setaside their task, pointing out the problem, and asking the group to create three possible solutions and choose which solution to try first.

One 3rd grade teacher we know noticed when distributing papers that one student was sitting back away from the other three. A moment ater the teacher glanced over and only three students were sitting where our had been a moment before. As she watched, the three students came arching over to her and complained that Johnny was under the table

nd wouldn't come out.

"Make him come out!" they insisted (the teacher's role: police officer, dge, and executioner).

The teacher told them that Johnny was a member of their group and sked what they had tried to solve their problem.

"'Iried?" came the puzzled reply.

"Yes, have you asked him to come out?" the teacher suggested.

The group marched back and the teacher continued distributing pers to groups. A moment later the teacher glanced over to their table d saw no heads above the table (which is one way to solve the oblem). After a few more minutes, four heads came struggling out from der the table and the group (including Johnny) went back to work with at energy.

We don't know what happened under that table, but whatever it was, as effective. What makes this story even more interesting is that the

up received a 100 percent on the paper and later, standing by Johnny's k, the teacher noticed he had the paper clutched in his hand. The up had given. Johnny the paper and he was taking it home. He fided to the teacher that this was the first time he could ever ember earning a 100 on anything in school. (If that was your record, might slip under a few tables yourself.)

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~~,,, ,~n, !Vt Lt'.J\KNlNG IN THE CLASSROOM

EncouragingStudent Self-Assessment You can encourage self-monitoring by having each student assess

how often and well she (and other group members) performed the targeted skills and actions. One way to do this is to give each group member an assessment checklist or questionnaire. These forms should ask each student for self-assessments ("I" statements) about how often and well a student performed the targeted social skills and other ex­ pected behaviors; "you" statements about how well other group mem­ bers' actions were perceived as helpful or unhelpful; and "we" statements that allow group members to reach a consensus about which actions helped or hurt the group's work. Group members can then shaxe the forms as they analyze how well they worked together.

11 Closing the lesson

Periodically, students need to bring closure to what they are learning. We know several things about lesson closure:

1. Only students can provide closure. It happens internally, not externally.

2. Closure is an active process. 3. Closure is most effective when students can directly explain what

they have learned to someone else. This requires students to formulate, conceptually organize, and summarize learning by explaining it out loud to a groupmate. ·

Teachers can only structure and facilitate closure; they cannot per­ sonally provide it for students. The most effective ways to facilitate closure are through focused discussion groups, writing pairs, and note- taking pairs. ·

At the end of a lesson, students should work in small groups (pairs or triads) to reconstruct conceptually what they were responsible for leaxning. Students should recall and summarize the major points in the lesson, organize the material into a conceptual framework, integrate the new information into existing conceptual frameworks, underst~d where they will use it in future lessons and outside the classroom, cllld identify final questions for the teacher. Paxticipating in these activities immediately after a l.esson increases students' retention and aids in transfer.

\..UUl'l:KATIVE LEARNING IN THE 0.ASSROOM

Focused Discussion Groups Small, focused discussion groups are ideal for providing closure

because they allow students to formulate what they know and explain it to others. Structure such focused group discussions by:

1. Having students meet in their cooperative groups (or assigning them to new groups of two or three members).

2. Giving students the task of summarizing what was covered in the lesson and what they learned. The cooperative goal is to create one paper describing what the lesson covered, the five most important things learned, and two questions about the lesson that group members wish to ask. All members must agree and be able to explain the group's work.

3. Collecting the groups' papers and recording them to support the importance of the procedure and see what students have learned. Hand­ ing the papers back periodically with brief comments helps reinforce this procedure for students.

Cooperative Writing Pairs Organize students into pairs and ask them to work cooperatively to

write a"one-minute paper" at the end of a lesson describing the major points learned and the main unanswered questions they still have. Both pair members have to agree on what is written, and both must be able to explain it. The joint writing task helps students focus on the central themes of the course and improve their writing abilities. Tell students that their papers should include:

1. An introductory paragraph outlining the content of the lesson. 2. Clear conceptual definitions of the concepts and terms presented. 3. A summary of and judgment about the material covered. 4. A description of and judgment about the practical significance of

the material covered. 5. Anything the students know beyond what was covered in the

lesson.

Closure Cooperative Note-Taking Pairs Closure note-taking pairs are similar to the cooperative note-taking

pairs used intermittently during the lesson (see Chapter 9). Ask the note-taking pairs to review and complete their notes, reflecting on the

CLOSING THE LESSON

lesson and writing the major concepts and pertinent information pre­ sented. The cooperative goal is for students to ensure that they have a complete, comprehensive, and accurate set of notes summarizing what was covered in the lesson. Students begin by telling their partners:

1. Here is what I have in my notes. ' 2. Here are the key points covered in the lesson. 3. This is the most surprising idea presented by the teacher or in the

material. After->tiach student has done this, the pairs modify their individual

notes by adding anything one student had that the other did not and any new insights gained during the discussion. Students then sign each other's notes to indicate that they believe their partner's notes are

complete and accurate.