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Great Overall Resource for Cooperative Learning

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Great Overall Resource for Cooperative Learning

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Despite this, the pedagogy is popular in classrooms across districts and grade levels , creating a need for tips and information that teachers can act upon.

Below is a guide that covers general principles and specific strategies to use for each of the three types of cooperative learning.

General Cooperative Learning Principles

Instead of a noun, think of cooperative learning as a verb.

Sometimes called collaborative learning, it is delivering instruction through small groups, empowering students to work together to build their understanding of topics and concepts.

There are five aspects of cooperative learning that drive its success, according to a frequently-referenced review from the journal of Theory into Practice :

These aspects work slightly differently depending on which type of cooperative learning you use.

There are strategies for each of the three types, which are outlined below.

1. Formal Cooperative Learning Strategies

Formal cooperative learning involves grouping students for a timeframe that lasts between a single class and a few weeks.

Your role as a teacher focuses on designing the goals of the ongoing exercise, such as completing an assignment. This involves structuring groups by selecting students who work well together, yet have the range of strengths needed to reach objectives.
Here are four strategies to try:
a. Address Deviant Norms

It's easy for unfavourable group norms - unwritten rules - to develop and spread, according to a study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology .

Specifically, group norms continuously change as team members interact with one another, potentially opening the door for bad habits. You may, for example, instruct students how to give constructive feedback. But if one student begins to criticize others, his or her group members may copy the behaviour.

To facilitate positive interdependence, you must monitor group activity. When spotting the development of harmful norms, explain why they hurt cooperative learning and demonstrate a solution.

In doing so, students will grow into supportive group members.

b. Assess Teamwork

Because cooperative learning requires clear communication and active collaboration between group members, grading teamwork can motivate students to act properly.

When creating a product in groups, consider monitoring student activity to give marks for:

Openly communicating

Actively helping each other

Frequently giving constructive feedback

Consistently working to complete individual tasks

Placing this level of importance on proper group behaviour, your class should quickly learn the processes needed to complete team tasks. If you're not familiar with them, consider different formative assessment strategies to reinforce your approach.

c. Play a Trust Game

Playing trust games teaches the importance of teamwork and accountability - essential elements to the success of long-term learning groups.

For example, a variation of the trust fall activity can help each student build a connection with his or her group members. Dividing the class based on their formal cooperative learning teams, ask them to create a circle with one student standing in the middle. Once you give a signal, that student must fall towards any group member, who will then catch him or her.

You can supplement these games by explaining important elements of group work, such as active listening.

Such activities are not only fun, but allow group members to bond in a stress-free setting - a benefit frequently seen in classrooms where learning is gamified.

d. Use Relevant Scenarios when Applicable

When students tackle real-world problems that affect them, there's clear potential for engagement.

Classes that feature this kind of problem-based learning see higher attendance and better attitudes, according to a medical education study . Although conducted with post-secondary students, you can see similar enthusiasm from younger students as they collaboratively solve relevant issues.
Plus, this approach can:

Benefit students who struggle to grasp abstract concepts

Save your time, as you won't have to design and present artificial scenarios

"Allow learning to become more profound and durable," according to a 2015 book about the pedagogy

Used selectively, and when there's a connection with curriculum topics, problem-based instruction elements can create a more memorable cooperative learning experience.

2. Informal Cooperative Learning Strategies

This style of cooperative learning involves creating groups that, between a few minutes and an entire class, work to achieve a shared and straightforward learning goal.

Due to inherent time constraints, your role is to give clear instruction and assign the completion of a product, such as a written or spoken answer.
Here are four strategies to try:
a. Ask Divergent Questions

As students with diverse learning styles fill the classroom, you can mold cooperative learning activities to their distinct aptitudes.

An oft-cited paper from Kansas State University indicates you should ask divergent questions. These are questions with multiple answers that encourage creative responses, allowing students to learn from each other's perspectives. For example, "what's the best way to study for a math test?"
Based on each group's preference, the resulting product can be a:
This way, informal cooperative learning becomes a differentiated instruction strategy as well as a way to build collaboration skills.

b. Use the Jigsaw Method

A favourite technique for many teachers, the jigsaw strategy encourages social interaction between groups and gives each student a defined role within his or her team.

The method consists of dividing a task into subtasks, assigning one to each group member. Students then work to become experts about the topics their subtasks cover. They can do so through guided research, or holding discussions with students from other groups handling the same subtask. They then return to their original groups to share new knowledge.

This approach teaches students how important individual contributions are to meeting group goals.

c. Supplement and Expand New Concepts

Launch an informal learning exercise to reinforce key concepts in your lessons.

This tactic works especially well as a way of dividing long presentations, podcasts or movies.

Right after the lesson has introduced a new or interesting idea, divide students into groups. Present them with problems to explore and questions to address that explicitly relate to the idea.

After, hold a class-wide discussion to present and process findings.

d. Hold Three Discussions per Activity

Due to the sometimes-sporadic nature of informal cooperative learning activities, holding three discussions at set points can provide structure and keep students focused.
These discussions are:

Intermittent-focused - For longer activities, designate 15-minute segments for each group member to work alone. For example, they can each read a different primary source. At the end of the segment, they can share their findings with each other and work to answer guiding questions .

Keeping students on track with these three types of discussions, they should have a clear understanding about how to achieve the activity's learning goals.

3. Cooperative Base Group Strategies

These groups last longer than formal cooperative learning teams, as members support each other while striving to reach ambitious learning goals over the academic year.

Your role consists of creating groups of three or four, scheduling consistent meeting times and detailing specific agendas for them. Filling knowledge gaps and helping students smoothly collaborate is also involved.
Here are four strategies to try:
a. Introduce Technology that Streamlines Collaboration

Of the many ways to use technology in the classroom , some solutions bolster group productivity.
To help base groups make the most of their time, consider giving brief tutorials about:

Online brainstorming - There are websites students can use, such as MindMeister , to create clear and detailed mind maps faster than written ones.

- Instead of exchanging documents for edits, students can use online word processing tools - such as Cloud-based word processing Google Docs - to craft collaborative written assignments.

Educational games - There are many games focused on engaging students and addressing their trouble spots. For example, more than 13 million students use - a curriculum-aligned math game.

With digitally-savvy students, introducing these technologies shouldn't be an issue.

b. Designate Roles

Working with students to designate unique roles ensures each group member has a purpose.

Throughout the year, base groups can have members who manage certain aspects of the collaboration process. For example, one student can moderate discussions, one can collect questions to address and another can present research findings.

Similar to the Jigsaw Method, you can also designate roles based on subject matter expertise. When handling math , for example, the math expert will lead discussions and help group members by answering questions and reviewing concepts.

By doing so, you'll ensure each student plays an important role in helping each other reach learning goals throughout the year.

c. Give a Pre- and Post-Task Test

To gauge how well base groups are doing, give a each student a test before and after working together.

For example, students can complete a short quiz focusing on a specific group of math skills . They can then meet with their base groups, focusing on those skills and the overarching topic. After, give a similar quiz of equal difficulty.

Marks should improve. If not, consider spending more time with struggling base groups or rearranging groups altogether.

The quantitative evidence you find will guide your approach to working with different base groups, giving insight as to what successful and unsuccessful teams are doing differently.

d. Limit Scaffolding

Adjust the feedback and scaffolding you provide depending on where a base group is in a given project, allowing for greater student control and responsibility. This approach underpins experiential learning and active learning strategies.
As a facilitator, closely monitor students when they start a project and:

Offer directions

Fill knowledge gaps

Recommend supplementary resources

Make yourself available to answer questions

As students become comfortable with the subject matter and are comfortably working towards their learning goals, your focus should be to:

Encourage them to initiate new ideas

Ensure they are fulfilling their role requirements

Allow them to take on leadership responsibilities, as in peer teaching

This approach will help you fulfill one of cooperative learning's underlying purposes: having students successfully take ownership of their academic development.

Final Thoughts about Using Cooperative Learning in Your Class

The principles and strategies in this guide can inform your approach to each type of cooperative learning and help you manage your classroom. As a result, you should see students build collaboration skills as they work to reach learning benchmarks.
You can anticipate seeing results outside of group scenarios, too.
Refined discussions, increased accountability and improved critical thinking skills are benefits to which you can look forward.
>> Create or log into your teacher account on Prodigy - a free, adaptive math game that adjusts content to accommodate player trouble spots and learning speeds. Aligned to US and Canadian curricula, it's loved by more than 800,000 teachers and 30 million students.

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Cooperative Learning Principles & Strategies | Prodigy

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Despite this, the pedagogy is popular in classrooms across districts and grade levels , creating a need for tips and information that teachers can act upon. Below is a guide that covers general principles and specific strategies to use for each of the three types of cooperative learning.

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Promote Language Learning with Inside-Outs... - VideoLink

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In this month’s 2-Minute Tip, we demonstrate a powerful tool to support the language acquisition and production of your students, engage EVERYONE in the classroom, and provide an opportunity for them to get moving and have fun. Watch and see how you might incorporate the Inside-Outside Circle strategy into your classroom.

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Inside Outside Circle           Secondary (Variation)                   

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Inside Outside Circle           Secondary (Variation)                   

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Teacher Toolkit: Inside Outside Circles (Secondary)

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Classroom structure - learning environment

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Kagan Structure: Jot Thoughts Mrs. Fuller 5th Grade

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Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy classroom teachers use to help their students process information more quickly by having them work in small groups to accomplish a common goal. Each member that is in the group is responsible for learning the information given, and also for helping their fellow group members learn the information as well.

In order for Cooperative learning groups to be successful, the teacher and students must all play their part. The teacher's role is to play the part as facilitator and observer, while the students must work together to complete the task.

Use the following guidelines to achieve Cooperative learning success:

Arrange students heterogeneously in groups as few as two and no more than six.

Assign each member of the group a specific role such as: recorder, observer, book keeper, researcher, time keeper, etc.

Monitor each group's progress and teach skills necessary for task completion.

Evaluate each group based upon how well they worked together and completed the task.

1. Noise Control - Use the talking chips strategy to control noise. Whenever a student needs to speak in the group they must place their chip in the middle of the table.

2. Getting Students Attention - Have a signal to get students attention. For example, clap two times, raise your hand, ring a bell, etc.

3. Answering Questions - Create a policy where if a group member has a question they must ask the group first before asking the teacher.

4. Use a Timer - Give students a predetermined time for completing the task. Use a timer or stop watch.

5. Model Instruction - Before handing out the assignment model the instruction of the task and make sure every student understands what is expected.

Here are six common cooperative learning techniques to try in your classroom.

Students are grouped into five or six and each group member is assigned a specific task then must come back to their group and teach them what they learned.

Each member in a group "thinks" about a question they have from what they just learned, then they "pair-up" with a member in the group to discuss their responses. Finally they "share" what they learned with the rest of the class or group.

Students are placed into a group of four to six people. Then one person is assigned to be the recorder of the group. Next, the group is assigned a question that has multiple answers to it. Each student goes around the table and answers the question while the recorder writes down their answers.

Each group member is given a number (1, 2, 3, 4, etc). The teacher then asks the class a question and each group must come together to find an answer. After the time is up the teacher calls a number and only the student with that number may answer the question.

Students work together in a group to solve a problem. Next they work with a partner to solve a problem, and finally, they work by themselves to solve a problem. This strategy uses the theory that students can solve more problems with help then they can alone. Students then progress to the point that they can solve the problem on their own only after first being in a team and then paired with a partner.

The teacher predetermines groups before a lesson. Then, as the lesson progresses, the teacher stops and gives groups three minutes to review what was taught and ask each other any questions they may have.

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Take Two Minutes to Become an Expert in Cooperative Learning

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Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy classroom teachers use to help their students process information more quickly by having them work in small groups to accomplish a common goal. Each member that is in the group is responsible for learning the information given, and also for helping their fellow group members learn the information as well.

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7 Key Components of Cooperative Learning

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7 Key Components of Cooperative Learning

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Kagan - Problems and Solutions for Cooperative Learning

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Kagan - Problems and Solutions for Cooperative Learning

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30 collaborative Google Apps activities for schools

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G Suite Apps are collaborative, which makes them highly powerful. They offer opportunities for students to engage unlike ever before. Here are 30 ideas

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Brief Intro to the Benefits of Cooperative Learning

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Brief Intro to the Benefits of Cooperative Learning

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The classroom often offers a student's first experiences practicing most life skills. Teachers should deliberately create opportunities for students to cooperate with each other, share responsibilities, solve problems, and control conflict.

These opportunities can be found in cooperative learning, which differs from individualistic or traditional learning where students work independently, sometimes even against each other. Cooperative learning activities require students to work together in small groups to complete a project or activity, operating as a team to help each other succeed.

In his book Student Team Learning: A Practical Guide to Cooperative Learning, author and researcher Robert Slavin reviewed 67 studies regarding cooperative learning. He found that, overall, 61% of cooperative-learning classes achieved significantly higher test scores than traditional classes.

Jigsaw Method

One popular example of cooperative learning instruction is the jigsaw method. The steps of this procedure, modified slightly from their original form, are listed below.

1. Divide a lesson into chunks or segments (totaling approximately the number of students in your class divided by five).

2. Organize students into groups of five. Assign or have students assign a leader. These are "expert groups".

3. Assign one lesson segment to each group. Students in expert groups should be studying the same segment.

4. Decide whether you want them to work together or independently for the next step.

5. Give expert groups plenty of time to become familiar with their segment, about 10 minutes. They should feel very confident with the material.

6. Organize students into different groups of five that include a person from each expert group. These are "jigsaw groups".

7. Provide guidelines for each "expert" to present the information from their lesson segment to the rest of their jigsaw group.

8. Prepare a graphic organizer for each student to use to record expert information from their jigsaw group.

9. Students in jigsaw groups are responsible for learning all material from the lesson through their classmates. Use an exit ticket to assess comprehension.

Circulate while students are doing this to ensure that everyone is on task and clear about directions. Monitor their understanding and intervene if you notice students struggling.

Importance of Cooperative Learning

You may be wondering what benefits students derive from cooperative learning. The answer is many! Cooperative learning, of course, teaches a number of social and emotional skills, but it also gives students the opportunity to learn from each other. Studies show that peer learning in which students explain concepts and ideas to each other has the potential to improve comprehension considerably.

In short, cooperative learning produces critical experiences that other learning structures cannot. The following skills that are developed through regular and effective cooperative learning are just a few of many.

Leadership Skills

In order for a cooperative learning group to succeed, individuals within the group need to show leadership abilities. Without this, the group cannot move forward without a teacher.

Leadership skills that can be taught and practiced through cooperative learning include:

Delegating

Organizing work

Supporting others

Ensuring that goals are being met

Natural leaders become quickly evident in small groups, but most students will not feel naturally inclined to lead. Assign leadership roles of varying prominence to every member of a group to help all individuals practice leading.

Teamwork Skills

Students who work together as a team share a common goal: a successful project. This can only be achieved through the combined efforts of the whole group. The ability to work as a team towards a common goal is an invaluable quality to have in the real world, especially for careers.

All cooperative learning activities help students practice working in teams. As Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, says, "Teams should be able to act with the same unity of purpose and focus as a well-motivated individual." Teamwork-building exercises teach students to trust each other in order to achieve more together than would otherwise be possible.

Communication Skills

Effective teamwork requires good communication and commitment. All members of a cooperative learning group have to learn to speak productively with one another to stay on track.

These skills should be taught and modeled by a teacher before being practiced by students, as they do not always come naturally. By teaching students to share confidently, listen intently, and speak clearly, they learn to value the input of their teammates and the quality of their work soars.

Conflict Management Skills

Conflicts are bound to arise in any group setting. Sometimes these are minor and easily handled, other times they can rip a team apart if improperly managed. Give students space to try and work out their issues for themselves before stepping in.

With that said, always monitor your class during cooperative learning. Students quickly learn to come to resolutions on their own but sometimes excessive friction gets the best of them before they can do that. Teach students how to work things out with each other when disagreements present themselves.

Decision-Making Skills

There are many decisions to be made in a cooperative environment. Encourage students to think as a team to make joint decisions by first having them come up with a team name. From there, have them decide who will complete what tasks.

Make sure that each student has their own responsibilities in cooperative learning groups. Much like leadership skills, decision-making skills cannot be developed if students are not regularly practicing them.

Often, leaders of the group are also the ones that make most of the decisions. If needed, have students record the decisions that they propose to their group and limit the number that one student may make.

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Why Is Cooperative Learning so Important?

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Find out all the ways that students grow in their interpersonal and individual skills through cooperative learning activities.

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Pedagogy in Action - Cooperative Learning

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Pedagogy in Action - Cooperative Learning

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Original module developed by Rebecca Teed, John McDaris, and Cary Roseth

Enhanced by KimMarie McGoldrick with assistance from Jim Cooper, Dan Marburger, Jennifer Rhoads, Karl Smith

What is Cooperative Learning?

Cooperative Learning involves structuring classes around small groups that work together in such a way that each group member's success is dependent on the group's success. There are different kinds of groups for different situations, but they all balance some key elements that distinguish cooperative learning from competitive or individualistic learning.

Cooperative learning can also be contrasted with what it is not. Cooperation is not having students sit side-by-side at the same table to talk with each other as they do their individual assignments. Cooperation is not assigning a report to a group of students where one student does all the work and the others put their names on the product as well. Cooperation involves much more than being physically near other students, discussing material, helping, or sharing material with other students. There is a crucial difference between simply putting students into groups to learn and in structuring cooperative interdependence among students. Learn more about cooperative learning

Why Use Cooperative Learning?

Extensive research has compared cooperative learning with traditional classroom instruction using the same teachers, curriculum, and assessments. On the average:

Students who engage in cooperative learning learn significantly more, remember it longer, and develop better critical-thinking skills than their counterparts in traditional lecture classes.

Students enjoy cooperative learning more than traditional lecture classes, so they are more likely to attend classes and finish the course.

Students are going to go on to jobs that require teamwork. Cooperative learning helps students develop the skills necessary to work on projects too difficult and complex for any one person to do in a reasonable amount of time.

Cooperative learning processes prepare students to assess outcomes linked to accreditation.

Learn more about reasons to use cooperative learning
How to Use Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning exercises can be as simple as a five minute in class exercise or as complex as a project which crosses class periods. These can be described more generally in terms of low, medium, and high faculty/student time investment.

Cooperative learning can be used across a wide range of classroom settings ranging from small to large lecture, as well as in online classes. No matter what the setting is, properly designing and implementing cooperative learning involves five key steps. Following these steps is critical to ensuring that the five key elements that differentiate cooperative learning from simply putting students into groups are met.

Learn more about how to use cooperative learning

Cooperative Learning Techniques

Cooperative learning techniques can be loosely categorized by the skill that each enhances (Barkley, Cross and Major, 2005), although it is important to recognize that many cooperative learning exercises can be developed to fit within multiple categories. Categories include: discussion, reciprocal teaching, graphic organizers, writing and problem solving. Each category includes a number of potential structures to guide the development of a cooperative learning exercise. For example, the category of problem-solving helps to develop strategic and analytical skills and includes exercises such as the send-a-problem, three-stay one-stray, structured problem solving, and analytical teams.

Learn more about cooperative learning techniques

Testimonials and Videos

Testimonials about successful cooperative learning exercises and videos that demonstrate key aspects of cooperative learning exercises are available.

Resources

Bibliography of useful books and articles about cooperative learning.

Web Resources which provide additional information on cooperative learning.

Examples of ways to use cooperative learning in your classroom.

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pedagogic methods other cooperative learning

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Cooperative Learning involves structuring classes around small groups that work together in such a way that each group member's success is dependent on the group's success.

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Save the Last Word for Me. (Detailed Explanation and Student Demo)

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Save the Last Word for Me. (Detailed Explanation and Student Demo)

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Save the Last Word For Me Reading Strategy

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