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When it comes to supporting all students in an inclusive classroom, you can never have too many practical tips in your toolbox. Today's post, adapted from by Carolyn Hughes & Erik Carter, gives you 14 helpful suggestions for meeting the needs of all learners-during the school day and at home. Recommended by real teachers, these strategies will help you strengthen inclusive practices and help families provide the best supports for their children.

Teachers surveyed by authors Hughes & Carter recommended the following instructional strategies for supporting students in inclusive classrooms:

Apply proven strategies. Investigate what works by reading about the latest research-based strategies for inclusive classrooms. (We've got a whole bookstore category for that. ) If you haven't already, try strategies like constant and progressive time delay, most-to-least or least-to-most prompting, and other direct instruction strategies backed by strong evidence of effectiveness. Always match the strategies you choose with the individual needs and strengths of your students.

Rethink grading. For students who have extensive support needs, traditional grading systems probably won't be the best way to show what they can do. Consider alternative grading approaches that more meaningfully capture the progress students with disabilities are making toward their academic goals. (For guidance on grading, see this excellent post from Nicole Eredics of the Inclusive Class blog: "10 Tips for Grading Students with Disabilities in the Inclusive Classroom.")

Outside the classroom, kids should have plenty of chances to practice new skills across a variety of settings, tasks, and people. Parents, extended family members, and other adults can keep these teacher-recommended strategies in mind when supporting students at home and in the community.

Use your child's interests as teaching tools. Does your child have a special fascination? Weaving these preferences and interests into skill instruction can help promote learning and engagement. (For specific ideas on using a child's fascinations as powerful learning aids, see by Paula Kluth & Patrick Schwarz.)

As an educator or parent, which of these strategies resonates with you most? Do you have another key principle of inclusion that guides you every day? Share it with us in the comments below!

For more than 500 research-based, teacher-tested strategies that help students with disabilities make a smooth transition to adulthood, check outRead an excerpt, see the reviews, and view the full table of contents.

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14 Ways to Support All Learners at School and Home - Brookes Blog

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When it comes to supporting all students in an inclusive classroom, you can never have too many practical tips in your toolbox. Today's post, adapted from The New Transition Handbook by Carolyn Hughes & Erik Carter, gives you 14 helpful suggestions for meeting the needs of all learners-during the school day and at home.

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Assessment is a necessary part of the teaching and learning process, helping us measure whether our students have really learned what we want them to learn. While exams and quizzes are certainly favorite and useful methods of assessment, out of class assignments (written or otherwise) can offer similar insights into our students' learning. And just as creating a reliable test takes thoughtfulness and skill, so does creating meaningful and effective assignments. Undoubtedly, many instructors have been on the receiving end of disappointing student work, left wondering what went wrong... and often, those problems can be remedied in the future by some simple fine-tuning of the original assignment. This paper will take a look at some important elements to consider when developing assignments, and offer some easy approaches to creating a valuable assessment experience for all involved.
First Things First...
Before assigning any major tasks to students, it is imperative that you first define a few things for yourself as the instructor:

Your goals for the assignment. Why are you assigning this project, and what do you hope your students will gain from completing it? What knowledge, skills, and abilities do you aim to measure with this assignment? Creating assignments is a major part of overall course design, and every project you assign should clearly align with your goals for the course in general. For instance, if you want your students to demonstrate critical thinking, perhaps asking them to simply summarize an article is not the best match for that goal; a more appropriate option might be to ask for an analysis of a controversial issue in the discipline. Ultimately, the connection between the assignment and its purpose should be clear to both you and your students to ensure that it is fulfilling the desired goals and doesn't seem like "busy work." For some ideas about what kinds of assignments match certain learning goals, take a look atthis page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons.

The levels of your students. What do your students already know, and what can they do when they enter your class? Knowing what your students are (or are NOT) bringing to the table can help you tailor the assignment appropriately for their skill levels, for an assignment that is too challenging can frustrate students or cause them to shut down, while an assignment that is not challengingenough can lead to a lack of motivation. Knowing your students' levels will help you determine how much direction to provide for them as well. Some abilities you might want to investigate include:

Have they experienced "socialization" in the culture of your discipline (Flaxman, 2005)? Are they familiar with any conventions you might want them to know? In other words, do they know the "language" of your discipline, generally accepted style guidelines, or research protocols?

Do they know how to conduct research? Do they know the proper style format, documentation style, acceptable resources, etc.? Do they know how to use the library (Fitzpatrick, 1989) or evaluate resources?

What kinds of writing or work have they previously engaged in? For instance, have they completed long, formal writing assignments or research projects before? Have they ever engaged in analysis, reflection, or argumentation? Have they completed group assignments before? Do they know how to write a literature review or scientific report?

In his book Engaging Ideas (1996), John Bean provides a great list of questions to help instructors focus on their main teaching goals when creating an assignment (p.78):

1. What are the main units/modules in my course?

2. What are my main learning objectives for each module and for the course?

3. What thinking skills am I trying to develop within each unit and throughout the course?

4. What are the most difficult aspects of my course for students?

5. If I could change my students' study habits, what would I most like to change?

6. What difference do I want my course to make in my students' lives?
What your students need to know
Once you have determined your own goals for the assignment and the levels of your students, you can begin creating your assignment. However, when introducing your assignment to your students, there are several things you will need to clearly outline for them in order to ensure the most successful assignments possible.

First, you will need to articulate the purpose of the assignment. Even though you know why the assignment is important and what it is meant to accomplish, you cannot assume that your students will intuit that purpose. Your students will appreciate an understanding of how the assignment fits into the larger goals of the course and what they will learn from the process (Hass & Osborn, 2007). Being transparent with your students and explaining why you are asking them to complete a given assignment can ultimately help motivate them to complete the assignment more thoughtfully.

If you are asking your students to complete a writing assignment, you should define for them the "rhetorical or cognitive mode/s" you want them to employ in their writing (Flaxman, 2005). In other words, use precise verbs that communicate whether you are asking them to analyze, argue, describe, inform, etc. (Verbs like "explore" or "comment on" can be too vague and cause confusion.) Provide them with a specific task to complete, such as a problem to solve, a question to answer, or an argument to support. For those who want assignments to lead to top-down, thesis-driven writing, John Bean (1996) suggests presenting a proposition that students must defend or refute, or a problem that demands a thesis answer.

It is also a good idea to define the audience you want your students to address with their assignment, if possible - especially with writing assignments. Otherwise, students will address only the instructor, often assuming little requires explanation or development (Hedengren, 2004; MIT, 1999). Further, asking students to address the instructor, who typically knows more about the topic than the student, places the student in an unnatural rhetorical position. Instead, you might consider asking your students to prepare their assignments for alternative audiences such as other students who missed last week's classes, a group that opposes their position, or people reading a popular magazine or newspaper. In fact, a study by Bean (1996) indicated the students often appreciate and enjoy assignments that vary elements such as audience or rhetorical context, so don't be afraid to get creative!

Obviously, you will also need to articulate clearly the logistics or "business aspects" of the assignment. In other words, be explicit with your students about required elements such as the format, length, documentation style, writing style (formal or informal?), and deadlines. One caveat, however: do not allow the logistics of the paper take precedence over the content in your assignment description; if you spend all of your time describing these things, students might suspect that is all you care about in their execution of the assignment.

Finally, you should clarify your evaluation criteria for the assignment. What elements of content are most important? Will you grade holistically or weight features separately? How much weight will be given to individual elements, etc? Another precaution to take when defining requirements for your students is to take care that your instructions and rubric also do not overshadow the content; prescribing too rigidly each element of an assignment can limit students' freedom to explore and discover. According to Beth Finch Hedengren, "A good assignment provides the purpose and guidelines... without dictating exactly what to say" (2004, p. 27). If you decide to utilize a grading rubric, be sure to provide that to the students along with the assignment description, prior to their completion of the assignment.

A great way to get students engaged with an assignment and build buy-in is to encourage their collaboration on its design and/or on the grading criteria (Hudd, 2003). In his article "Conducting Writing Assignments," Richard Leahy (2002) offers a few ideas for building in said collaboration:

* Ask the students to develop the grading scale themselves from scratch, starting with choosing the categories.

* Set the grading categories yourself, but ask the students to help write the descriptions.

* Draft the complete grading scale yourself, then give it to your students for review and suggestions.
A Few Do's and Don'ts...
Determining your goals for the assignment and its essential logistics is a good start to creating an effective assignment. However, there are a few more simple factors to consider in your final design.
First, here are a few things you should do:

Do provide detail in your assignment description. Research has shown that students frequently prefer some guiding constraints when completing assignments (Bean, 1996), and that more detail (within reason) can lead to more successful student responses. One idea is to provide students with physicalassignment handouts, in addition to or instead of a simple description in a syllabus. This can meet the needs of concrete learners and give them something tangible to refer to. Likewise, it is often beneficial tomake explicit for students the process or steps necessary to complete an assignment, given that students - especially younger ones - might need guidance in planning and time management (MIT, 1999).

Do use open-ended questions. The most effective and challenging assignments focus on questions that lead students to thinking and explaining, rather than simple yes or no answers, whether explicitly part of the assignment description or in the brainstorming heuristics (Gardner, 2005).

Do direct students to appropriate available resources. Giving students pointers about other venues for assistance can help them get started on the right track independently. These kinds of suggestions might include information about campus resources such as the University Writing Center or discipline-specific librarians, suggesting specific journals or books, or even sections of their textbook, or providing them with lists of research ideas or links to acceptable websites.

Do consider providing models- both successful and unsuccessful models (Miller, 2007). These models could be provided by past students, or models you have created yourself. You could even ask students to evaluate the models themselves using the determined evaluation criteria, helping them to visualize the final product, think critically about how to complete the assignment, and ideally, recognize success in their own work.

Do consider including a way for students to make the assignment their own. In their study, Hass and Osborn (2007) confirmed the importance of personal engagement for students when completing an assignment. Indeed, students will be more engaged in an assignment if it is personally meaningful, practical, or purposeful beyond the classroom. You might think of ways to encourage students to tap into their own experiences or curiosities, to solve or explore a real problem, or connect to the larger community. Offering variety in assignment selection can also help students feel more individualized, creative, and in control.

If your assignment is substantial or long, do consider sequencing it. Far too often, assignments are given as one-shot final products that receive grades at the end of the semester, eternally abandoned by the student. By sequencing a large assignment, or essentially breaking it down into a systematic approach consisting of interconnected smaller elements (such as a project proposal, an annotated bibliography, or a rough draft, or a series of mini-assignments related to the longer assignment), you can encourage thoughtfulness, complexity, and thoroughness in your students, as well as emphasize process over final product.
Next are a few elements to avoid in your assignments:

Do not ask too many questions in your assignment. In an effort to challenge students, instructors often err in the other direction, asking more questions than students can reasonably address in a single assignment without losing focus. Offering an overly specific "checklist" prompt often leads to externally organized papers, in which inexperienced students "slavishly follow the checklist instead of integrating their ideas into more organically-discovered structure" (Flaxman, 2005).

Do not expect or suggest that there is an "ideal" response to the assignment. A common error for instructors is to dictate content of an assignment too rigidly, or to imply that there is a single correct response or a specific conclusion to reach, either explicitly or implicitly (Flaxman, 2005). Undoubtedly, students do not appreciate feeling as if they must read an instructor's mind to complete an assignment successfully, or that their own ideas have nowhere to go, and can lose motivation as a result. Similarly, avoid assignments that simply ask for regurgitation (Miller, 2007). Again, the best assignments invite students to engage in critical thinking, not just reproduce lectures or readings.

Do not provide vague or confusing commands. Do students know what you mean when they are asked to "examine" or "discuss" a topic? Return to what you determined about your students' experiences and levels to help you decide what directions will make the most sense to them and what will require more explanation or guidance, and avoid verbiage that might confound them.

Do not impose impossible time restraints or require the use of insufficient resources for completion of the assignment. For instance, if you are asking all of your students to use the same resource, ensure that there are enough copies available for all students to access - or at least put one copy on reserve in the library. Likewise, make sure that you are providing your students with ample time to locate resources and effectively complete the assignment (Fitzpatrick, 1989).
The assignments we give to students don't simply have to be research papers or reports. There are many options for effective yet creative ways to assess your students' learning! Here are just a few:
Journals, Posters, Portfolios, Letters, Brochures, Management plans, Editorials, Instruction Manuals, Imitations of a text, Case studies, Debates, News release, Dialogues, Videos, Collages, Plays, Power Point presentations
Conclusion
Ultimately, the success of student responses to an assignment often rests on the instructor's deliberate design of the assignment. By being purposeful and thoughtful from the beginning, you can ensure that your assignments will not only serve as effective assessment methods, but also engage and delight your students. If you would like further help in constructing or revising an assignment, the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center is glad to offer individual consultations. In addition, look into some of the resources provided below.
Online Resources "Creating Effective Assignments"
http://www.unh.edu/teaching-excellence/resources/Assignments.htm"Learner-Centered Assessment"
http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/learner_centered_assessment.html
From the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo, this is a short list of suggestions for the process of designing an assessment with your students' interests in mind.
"Matching Learning Goals to Assignment Types."
http://teachingcommons.depaul.edu/How_to/design_assignments/assignments_learning_goals.html
This is a great page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons, providing a chart that helps instructors match assignments with learning goals.
This site, from the University of New Hampshire's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, provides a brief overview of effective assignment design, with a focus on determining and communicating goals and expectations.
Gardner, T. (2005, June 12). Ten Tips for Designing Writing Assignments. Traci's Lists of Ten. http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/034.shtml
This is a brief yet useful list of tips for assignment design, prepared by a writing teacher and curriculum developer for the National Council of Teachers of English. The website will also link you to several other lists of "ten tips" related to literacy pedagogy.

"How to Create Effective Assignments for College Students."
http:// tilt.colostate.edu/retreat/2011/zimmerman.pdf
This PDF is a simplified bulleted list, prepared by Dr. Toni Zimmerman from Colorado State University, offering some helpful ideas for coming up with creative assignments.

Additional References
Bean, J.C. (1996). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fitzpatrick, R. (1989). Research and writing assignments that reduce fear lead to better papers and more confident students. Writing Across the Curriculum, 3.2, pp. 15 - 24.

Flaxman, R. (2005). Creating meaningful writing assignments. The Teaching Exchange. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008 from http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Sheridan_Center/pubs/teachingExchange/jan2005/01_flaxman.pdf

Hass, M. & Osborn, J. (2007, August 13). An emic view of student writing and the writing process. Across the Disciplines, 4.

Hedengren, B.F. (2004). A TA's guide to teaching writing in all disciplines. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Hudd, S. S. (2003, April). Syllabus under construction: Involving students in the creation of class assignments. Teaching Sociology, 31, pp. 195 - 202.

Leahy, R. (2002). Conducting writing assignments. College Teaching, 50.2, pp. 50 - 54.

Miller, H. (2007). Designing effective writing assignments. Teaching with writing. University of Minnesota Center for Writing. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008, from http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/designing.html

MIT Online Writing and Communication Center (1999). Creating Writing Assignments. Retrieved January 9, 2008 from http://web.mit.edu/writing/Faculty/createeffective.html.

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State of Texas and Texas Tech University

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How Do I Create Meaningful and Effective Assignments? | TLPDC Teaching Resources | Teaching Resources | TLPDC Home | TTU

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Steps to support  All Class Members During Assignments 

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Steps to support  All Class Members During Assignments 

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Fortunately, for much of the time, Brown instructors and students are able to teach and learn as planned in the syllabus. However, whether due to weather, travel, or illnesses like COVID-19, there are times when these plans need to be adjusted. This resource offers approaches to making these adjustments, through both lower and higher-tech means. Recommendations from Brown's Office of Student and Employee Accessibility Services (SEAS) are also offered to address accessibility.

In times of significant disruption, the key goal is to help students get the support they need to meet your most essential course objectives. Teaching in times of disruption may involve thinking creatively about how to build up students' knowledge and skills in different formats to complete the same assignment. An example of this adjustment includes delivering a virtual lecture and then having students complete the original exam using the Quizzes tool in Canvas. Brown's Office of Digital Learning and Design has compiled a Teaching and Learning Continuity Guide that offers online and digital modifications for many teaching and learning practices.

However, instructors may also wish to think creatively about the assignment itself, through an approach that may not be intensively digital. For the purposes of inclusion, it is important to be mindful that some students have limited access to laptops and data plans. An assessment that relies on face-to-face interaction (e.g., discussion, presentations, debates) might be completed in Zoom, or it could be substituted with an assignment in a different format that meets the same course objectives. One example of a "low tech" adjustment includes asking students to write a pro/con issue comparison memo, in lieu of participating in a classroom debate.

Below, we describe the most frequently used assessments in Brown courses and offer low- and higher-tech options for helping students to complete them. If you are using an assignment type that is not detailed below, please contact [email protected] to talk through options specific to your teaching context.

Creative Approaches to Help Students Complete Key Assignments

Discussion/Participation
Brown's office of Digital Learning and Design's Teaching Continuity Guide offers a resource for using the Canvas discussion tool. Other possibilities for creatively maintaining discussions include:

Conducting discussions through a Google course group or through an email thread. In the case of larger classes, an instructor can assign small groups and ask those teams to communicate in their preferred modality, then email the instructor some outcomes of the discussion. Instructors who use email threads should note that sensitive student data can be shared easily and will wish to adjust prompts accordingly.

Holding discussions or office hours via conference call. Instructors can use a Zoom conference call number to procure a new number if they do not wish to share their personal one.

Using Piazza, a question and answer tool, to facilitate student problem-solving and review sessions.​

If discussions are held online (such as through Zoom), record the session to the cloud. The audio will automatically be transcribed with machine-based captions (more information about Zoom transcription is here.) You may edit the transcription after the meeting to correct errors. Having lecture capture or video captioned as soon as possible after production is important for students with hearing concerns. If you have students who require human-based captioning for accessibility reasons, please contact [email protected] for assistance from Media Services.

Writing
In many ways, papers are the ideal assignment during times of disruption because they require fewer adjustments compared to other types of assignments. However, because of the lack of peer or instructor contact to go over drafts or discuss expectations, ideas to creatively support student writing include:

For peer feedback, instructors can set up pairs or triads for students to email drafts to each other. Just as with any peer feedback process, it is most helpful to structure these discussions by sharing a rubric in advance, or asking students to annotate their draft with questions that ask for specific feedback from their reader. Instructors also can ask peer readers to answer specific, descriptive questions like, "What is the biggest unresolved question in this draft? What do you want to read more about in this essay? What are the draft's biggest strengths?" (Gooblar, 2019, p. 93).

Students can use Google Docs or an emailed Word version to share drafts with instructors. The wonderful aspect of this option is that it also allows students to use the comment feature to dialogue with the instructor, e.g., "Here's where I think my thesis statement is" or "Here is a section that I am struggling with" (LaVaque-Manty & Evans, 2013).

To offer guidance to students about helpful writing conventions, online tools such as Purdue OWL offer resources about topics such as writing a thesis statement and discipline-specific writing expectations.

Research papers may be tricky for students to complete, especially if the assignment was originally designed to involve a lot of on-campus interaction, use of the library's physical collections, or data collection. Consider what the key goals for the research paper are. Bean (2011) lists seven, including how to ask discipline-appropriate research questions, how and why to find sources, how to take good notes, and how to write for audience, genre, and purpose. If your most important goal is source-related, an annotated bibliography might also function well as a substitute assignment. If asking and answering questions is most critical, consider if a research proposal -- laying out the key intended aims and approaches of the project -- might meet similar objectives.

The Writing Center offers face-to-face appointments to students who need additional support and, in times of disruption, will offer virtual appointments. In both cases, writers can schedule appointments using the Writing Center's scheduling system.

Labs
To help students complete labs and lab reports, consider:

Whether the key objective of the lab is (or could be) data analysis, rather than data collection. If the latter, instructors can share pre-existing/"dummy" data with students then ask them to analyze and submit via Canvas or email.

Can some aspects of the lab be accomplished if students watch them, rather than do them? For example, the Journal of Visualized Experiments (to which the Brown library subscribes) offers over 9,500 videos demonstrating experiments, mapped to key concepts and student protocols. MERLOT also serves as a repository housing 90+ virtual labs.​

Language Courses
The Center for Language Studies offers the following recommendations:

For highly-interactive classes, the instructor can host a Zoom meeting for the whole class and create breakout rooms within Zoom for smaller groups.

Instructors can organize smaller groups of students to complete speaking assignments outside of Zoom or Canvas using their technology of choice to talk with other members of the group.

Assign discussion prompts using the discussion board feature on Canvas. Consider choosing the option of "User must post before seeing replies."

Canvas allows you to create assignments that allow a media file as an answer. Choose submission type 'online' and 'media recordings' to assign recordings as homework.

Take full advantage of Google Docs to collaboratively write or edit a story. Create groups of no more than four students.

Presentations
For planned in-class student presentations, other options are below:

Ask students to record their presentation using simple technology (such as a cell phone or their computer) and send it to the instructor or full class.

A lower tech option is to ask students to submit a written script of their presentation to assess content knowledge and other skills like persuasive thinking. This substitution is most appropriate if oral communication is less of a core objective for the course.

Group Projects and Design Projects
Projects may be broken down into components -- such as data collection, writing, presentations -- that can be addressed by some of the ideas outlined above. However, other options include:

PhET offers a number of online simulations where students work through core concepts in physics, mathematics, chemistry, earth science, and biology. Students can work through the simulations and design a class activity, physical lab, or homework assignment that incorporates that concept.

For design projects, students can create prototypes at home using objects around the house. The prototypes can then be shared as a photo or video file through email or Canvas.

Students may still have access to computer software off campus to complete group projects. Check the Brown software catalog or contact your IT department to determine what is needed to give students access to specific programming.

Exams
The Teaching Continuity Guide offers a resource for using Canvas's Quizzing tool. However, other possibilities for creatively measuring student understanding of concepts include substitution of an in-class exam with:

A timed or untimed take-home exam. In the case of a timed exam, an instructor might distribute problems or prompts to students by email, then give students a certain amount of time to return their responses. If collecting responses by Google Drive or by email, it is logistically helpful to ask students to use a standard file naming format, such as Lastname_FirstInitial_Exam2.docx.

A final portfolio with revisions and annotations. For classes with significant writing (weekly responses, multiple papers, etc.), students could have the opportunity to revise a certain number of assignments and compile them into a final portfolio. The portfolio should then be annotated, where students explain their writing and revision process for each piece and include a brief introductory statement about the work as a whole--which elements of their growth in the class does the portfolio highlight?

A series of smaller assignments that can be completed remotely in lieu of comprehensive exam.

According to SEAS, if faculty will be doing timed examinationsonline, such as through Canvas, two or more versions of the exam must be made available for students requiring documented accommodations. One version would be established for the standardexam time. Instructors can then create copies available to specific students to allow 50% and 100% additional time accommodations.

General Considerations for Assignment Re-Design

In making any significant adjustment during times of disruption, it is also helpful to consider four overarching questions:

1. Key Objectives: What are my most important course objectives, or the knowledge, skills, and capacities a student in my class should achieve? This resource offers support for identifying course learning goals.

2. Accessibility: How can learning materials provided to students be accessible? SEAS recommends that materials be distributed in an accessible format such as Word or a tagged PDF. Stylessuch as headers should be used so that students who use screen reading technology can navigate the structure of a document. Generally, accessible documents are first produced in Word, converted to PDF and then checked for accessibility. (SEAS notes that, in many classes, TAs can collaborate with faculty to help with this task.) Additionally, faculty should be willing to provideaccessible lecture notes to all students, especially for those courses where a SEAS note provider has not been implemented. Please see this link to accessibility guidelines for more specifics on accessibility standards.

3. Transparency: How can I support students in understanding new assignments or expectations? The Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework offers three core areas that instructors should intentionally communicate to students in any assignment (Winkelmes et al., 2016):

1. Purpose, or goals of the assignment

2. Task, or what you expect students to do and how they should complete the task

3. Criteria, or models of how students can be successful at the assignment, such as a rubric or examples of past student work (which students have given you permission to share)

A template for designing transparent assignments can be found here.

4. Student autonomy: In rethinking key assessments that align with those objectives, what are ways to give students a sense of control to mitigate anxiety about unforeseen disruptive events? This newsletter offers several ideas for heightening students' sense of flexibility and choice, but other options include allowing students to choose formats (e.g., a cell phone-recorded video or a written script of a presentation) or grading proportions (e.g., drop your lowest grade).

Please contact the Sheridan Center ([email protected] ) to talk more about these or other options specific to your teaching context.

To subscribe to the Sheridan newsletter, please click here.

References

Bean, J. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Gooblar, D. (2019). The missing course: Everything they never taught you about college teaching. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

LaVaque-Manty, M., & Evans, E. M. (2013). Implementing metacognitive interventions in disciplinary writing classes. In M. Kaplan, N. Silver, D. LaVaque-Manty, & D. Meizlish (Eds.), Using reflection and metacognition to improve student learning: Across the disciplines, across the academy (122-146). Stylus Publishing.

Winkelmes, M., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K.H. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students' success. Peer Review, 18(1-2). Available: https://www.aacu.org/peerreview/2016/winter-spring/Winkelmes

Updated 3/18/20

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Inclusive Approaches to Support Student Assignments During Times of Disruption

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Fortunately, for much of the time, Brown instructors and students are able to teach and learn as planned in the syllabus. However, whether due to weather, travel, or illnesses like COVID-19, there are times when these plans need to be adjusted. This resource offers approaches to making these adjustments, through both lower and higher-tech means.

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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The idea for sharing this post came from a session I recently conducted at the annual teaching conference organized by my university. A pedagogical conundrum was raised by a colleague whose enthusiasm and question stayed with me and inspired me to write this post. The question posed by this colleague is relevant to all instructors who have ever used group work to assess their students: How should one deal with the issues that arise when members of a group are not picking up their share of the responsibilities during a group work project?

The benefits of group work are well recognized (e.g., http://goo.gl/N8kqhy), as are the reasons students don't like working in groups (Taylor, 2011). We have all had groups that operated magically, when group members brought out each other's strengths and helped each member shine; but we have also had groups that failed miserably when members did not get along or did not pull equal weight in completing a group project.

Although much has been written about group work and its benefits and challenges, as well as variables, features, or components that can contribute to positive learning outcomes (Tomcho, & Foels, 2012), issues of implementation seem to pop up every time instructors get together to talk about their teaching challenges. In this post I focus on the persistent challenge of imbalance when not all group members contribute equally. What follows are a few simple ideas you might wish to consider that have worked well for me during years of trial and error in my teaching, as well as insights from my research.

1. Design a group project in which the students work in phases.

For instance, starting with a project idea, then moving to project development, followed by preliminary project outcomes - and requiring students to "check-in" at each phase before delivering the final project. Not only does this help ensure that the groups won't wait until the final deadline is upon them to work on their project, but it also enables the instructor to touch base with every group and to offer guidance, support, or mediation, if needed, during the process.

2. Develop an element of the project that allows group members to make their own choices.

In my teaching, I usually give students the freedom to choose a topic area that interests them within the scope of the course or that is the most relevant or meaningful to the team members. This decision helps create a sense of ownership and enhances the students' level of engagement, both of which are crucial for working on large group projects, and especially for those requiring students to carry out the work in phases throughout the term (see, for example, Enghag & Niedder, 2007, on the theoretical basis for student ownership of learning).

3. Within a group project, include a component requiring individual students to submit non-onerous individual work.

For example, the project could include a personal reflection piece (e.g., e.g., Huang, 2011a), in which each member individually reflects on the process and product of his or her own portion of the group work. Apart from the pedagogical benefits of learners engaging in individual reflection (Pavlovich, Collins, & Jones, 2009), this task or component will inevitably provide insights about the division-of-labor issue commonly raised by instructors and students alike. Both learners and the instructor can glean a great many insights from those individual reflection pieces, which instructors can take into account when assigning either project or final grades, depending on their individual approach to assessment. This process also enables students to gain greater understanding about what worked well and what could be improved.

One important matter to keep in mind when implementing the reflection component is the need to ensure that we, as instructors, clarify what we mean by "reflection" in order to minimize a potential mismatch between our expectations about reflective learning and our students' understanding of what it entails. What we'd like our students to do is to engage in critical reflection - that is, thinking that involves different levels of reflection, rather than simply restating or describing what they did, or what I have called "non-transformative" reflection.

The goal is to encourage students to move beyond simply recalling what they did either individually or together within the group and instead to reflect on their personal discoveries about their own learning and the process of working collaboratively (i.e., understanding, analyzing, and evaluating the process and the product of their group efforts), and, importantly, to "verbalize" what they would do differently the next time around (i.e., pointing to the future).

This component is an example of what is called "writing/speaking to learn" (Manchón, 2011). For this task, it's important that students not be required to follow any formatting or style guidelines. The reflection should be an informal piece of writing, much like a diary entry, and can be in any modality (e.g., writing, audio recording, video clip) that suits the characteristics or preferences of individual students to allow for their individual expression. For some additional simple guidelines about implementing learner reflection, refer to Huang (2011b).

4. Devote a segment (30 minutes or so) during class before all group projects begin to implement two important steps.

Step 1: Get to know each other. The first 10 minutes can be a period for all students to find and meet with the group members they have either been assigned or have self-selected. They should then spend some time exploring each other's communication styles, which may arise from personal or culture-related differences (Lewis, 2006), to help them better anticipate different communication preferences and approaches to group work. This time can be spent sharing responses to guiding questions or statements, such as "I would describe my communication style/personality as ...," "I tend/prefer to deal with conflict by ...," and "I would appreciate my team members doing/not doing ...." (Huang, 2014). Guiding questions are especially helpful for groups that are culturally and linguistically diverse.

Step 2: Establish group norms. During the next 20 minutes, encourage each group to negotiate its own group norms (derived from Step 1) and ground rules. During this time, members of each team should elucidate, negotiate, and establish roles, responsibilities, and expectations. This process makes explicit the specific contributions and ownership of responsibilities that each team member negotiates and agrees to.

Below is a sample checklist that instructors can modify and use to facilitate this process and help prepare each group project to succeed (Huang, 2014). You can revise the items to suit a project or provide the list as an example for each group to use in creating its own list. The list can also be revisited during each check-point mentioned earlier and adjustments made as needed. Upon completion of the project, instructors can request the checklist(s) to be submitted (but not graded), along with other deliverables that are due.

5. Prepare students to expect the unexpected.

Rather than directing their every concern to you, students should be encouraged to become problem solvers not only by identifying problems, but also by developing solutions and choosing and evaluating the best ones so as to balance personal learning with the group's project goals. At the same time, you'll want to create and maintain a culture of openness that lets your students know you are readily available to provide guidance when groups reach an impasse.

In any group work situation, it is always possible that compatibility issues will arise between or among team members, as well as conflicts or problems with unequal distribution of work. The pre-group-project considerations described above, however, can easily be implemented to help minimize the likelihood that conflicts will develop that could negatively affect learning and outcomes. They may also help instructors and students in dealing with the specific common challenge of students who are not pulling their own weight in group collaborations, while maximizing the benefits of a group project not only in terms of content, but more, if not most, importantly, in learning how to work with others - a valuable life lesson that's best learned through experience.

References:
Enghag, M., & Niedderer, H. (2008). Two dimensions of student ownership of learning during small-group work in physics. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 6(4), 629-653.

Huang, L.-S. (2011a). Language learners as language researchers: The acquisition of English grammar through a corpus-aided discovery learning approach mediated by intra and interpersonal dialogues. In J. Newman, S. Rice, & H. Baayen (Eds.), Corpus-based studies in language documentation, use, and learning (pp. 91-122). Amsterdam: Rodopi Press.

Huang, L.-S. (2011b, Fall). Key concepts and theories in TESL: Learner reflection. TEAL News: The Association of B.C. Teachers of English as an Additional Language, pp. 9-13.

Huang, L.-S. (2014). Lessons learned from team-facilitation in ELT: Strategies for navigating the challenges and making it work. IATEFL ES(O)L Newsletter, pp. 13-17.

Lewis, R. D. (2006). When cultures collide: Leading across cultures (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Manchón, R. M. (Ed.). (2011). Learning-to-write and writing-to-learn in an additional language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Pavlovich, K., Collins, E., Jones, G. (2009). Developing students' skills in reflective practice: Design and assessment. Journal of Management Education, 33(1), 37-58.

Taylor, A. (2011). Top 10 reasons students dislike working in groups...and why I do it anyway. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 39(2), 219-220.

Tomcho, T. J., & Foels, R. (2012). Meta-analysis of group learning activities: Empirically based teaching recommendations. Teaching of Psychology, 39(3), 159-169.
Dr. Li-Shih Huang, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Learning and Teaching Scholar-in-Residence, Learning and Teaching Centre, University of Victoria, BC, Canada.

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Students Riding on Coattails during Group Work? Five Simple Ideas to Try

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How should faculty deal with the issues that arise when some students ride on the coattails of others during a group work project?

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3 Group Work Strategies That Help Hold All Students Accountable

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From delegating roles to involving students in rubric design, here are group work strategies to help hold all students accountable.

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written by: Amanda Smith * edited by: Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch * updated: 7/12/2012

Accountability is one of the most important concepts to teach a child. Teaching students how to respect one another and work together as a team will help them succeed throughout their academic and working career. Here are seven steps to help create an accountability system in the classroom.

1. Redefine Group Work

Almost all students have had some experience working in groups. They have most likely worked in groups to complete large projects or worked with partners to complete smaller assignments. As the first step in creating a classroom accountability system, it is important to educate your students about what it really means to work in groups. Teach them how working with others holds them accountable. It is also a good idea to set up standards for group work in your classroom. Encourage students to hold each other accountable by limiting the amount of teacher facilitation. This will help students find ways to solve problems on their own and support one another during the process.

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7 Easy Steps for Creating a Classroom Accountability System

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Check out these seven easy steps to teach your students how to be accountable in the classroom. This is essential in helping students grow and succeed in their future endeavors. It is also a great way to create trust and team building in your classroom and may even cut down on bullying.

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Learning Responsibility with Classroom Jobs

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Active Learning Classrooms: Sharing responsibility for learning

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Author: Denicia Padgett
September 2, 2020

What are the four major learning theories, what is the role they play in education today, and how does it all connect with Leader in Me ? Let's dig in!

Behaviorist Learning Theory (or Behaviorism) utilizes key ideas from the work of B.F. Skinner, who theorized that learning occurs through a series of rewards or punishments. While Skinner believed that all learning could occur this way, Behaviorist Theory is most commonly utilized in classrooms today as a tool for behavior management. However, educators still utilize rote practice and repetition: two practices that are linked to Behaviorist Theory. According to Skinner, rewards increase the likelihood that behaviors will be repeated, while punishments decrease the likelihood of repetition. He also theorized that rewards and punishments could be either positive or negative in nature. This can confuse a lot of people! What he meant was that when we give or add something to the environment, the interaction is positive; when we take something away, the interaction is negative. So, for example, removing an undesirable activity from the agenda might be a negative reward, and adding an undesirable activity to it might be a positive punishment.

Scenes from a Classroom -

In Ms. X's first grade classroom, she is working with one of her students, Sam, to help him with some challenging attention-span issues. She gives him a sticker whenever she sees him on task. (Positive reward)

In Mr. X's third grade classroom, Mr. X quietly reminds a student to keep all four legs of his chair on the floor. (Positive punishment - yes, verbal praise & reminders qualify as adding something to the environment!)

To increase the number of students who turn in their homework each day, Mr. X announces that if the class has 100% completion on today's assignment, they won't have homework on Friday. (Negative reward)

Students in Mrs. X's art class are having trouble sharing the supplies. Mrs. X writes the word ART on the board, and each time students have a disagreement over supplies, she erases a letter. If the word is erased completely, students will have to use pencil to complete their project for the day. (Negative punishment)

What is the link to Leader in Me Teachers in Leader in Me schools know how important it is to engage students when crafting solutions to various behavior issues. They maintain the belief that every child has worth and potential, and see a behavior challenge as an opportunity to teach a skill and educate the whole child. When appropriate, they create Win-Win Agreements, which are solutions that are mutually created in such a way that everyone is happy with the result. Teachers and students might work together to answer the following questions:

What behavior are we noticing? Why is it happening? When is it happening?

Are we looking to increase or decrease the behavior?

Would we like to earn something, or have something taken away? What might that "something" be?

When students and teachers work together to answer these questions, they craft a solution that everyone is excited about. This level of involvement will lead to greater commitment and engagement in the solution.

Cognitive Learning Theory is largely based on the work of Jean Piaget, who rejected the idea that learners are passive and simply react to stimuli in the environment. Instead of focusing solely on observable behavior, Cognitive Theory seeks to explain how the mind works during the learning process. Like a computer, the mind takes in information, processes that information, then uses that informatio n to produce learning outcomes. Piaget's 4 Stages of Development indicate the learner's ability to understand abstract, complex concepts.

Scenes from a Classroom -

Ms. X, a kindergarten teacher, works with students to verbally communicate their feelings. She knows that at this age, they are naturally egocentric and struggle to see things from others' perspectives.

As Mr. X begins his unit on fractions, he incorporates manipulatives in order to provide a concrete learning experience.

To help students memorize the Periodic Table, Mrs. X co-creates various mnemonic devices with her class.

Ms. X uses a graphic organizer in order to help students write paragraphs with appropriate structure.

At the start of every lesson, Mr. X asks questions to activate the prior knowledge of his students. He knows this will help to link the new learning concepts to previously retained ideas, increasing the likelihood that the new learning will be remembered.

What is the link to Leader in Me Teachers in Leader in Me schools teach empathy and encourage students to develop their speaking and listening skills with Habit 5: Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood . They also provide structure and organize learning by using Quality Tools, and students may be taught to make their thinking visible by using hand signals during class discussions. Teachers empower students to learn through the Empowered Learning model, which ignites curiosity and background knowledge, then encourages hands-on investigations with specific learning targets, and ends the lesson by inviting connections.

Constructivist Theory

Constructivists see the learner as a constructor of knowledge. New learning is shaped by schemas, which the learner brings to the learning process. Lev Vygotsky is an important founder of Constructivist Learning Theory. Vygotsky believed that learning is a collaborative process, and that social interaction is fundamental for cognitive development. According to Vygotsky, students learn best when working collaboratively with those whose proficiency level is higher than their own, allowing them to complete tasks they are not yet able to do independently. Vygotsky identified these concepts as the More Knowledgeable Other and the Zone of Proximal Development. Constructivist classrooms are student-centered, with the teacher acting as the facilitator.
Scenes from a Classroom -

Mr. X intentionally pairs students performing on or above grade level with students performing below grade level, inviting them to turn and talk about their learning throughout a lesson.

Mrs. X uses collaborative learning to facilitate engagement with specific learning targets, ensuring heterogeneous student groupings.

Ms. X uses Problem-Based Learning to engage her students in solving real world problems, meeting several learning targets while giving students autonomy to make decisions. She encourages students to work with peers who have different strengths than their own.

What is the link to Leader in Me Teachers in leadership schools begin the year by building high-trust relationships and dedicate time throughout the year to maintaining the social-emotional environment of their classrooms. They aim to incorporate student voice throughout their day, allowing students to take great ownership over their environment and learning. Teachers believe that everyone has genius, and teach their students to acknowledge and utilize the strengths of their classmates, creating synergy. Leadership classrooms buzz with excitement, signaling purposeful student interaction. As teachers aim to empower students, they use teaching strategies that require collaboration and higher order thinking, acting as a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage.

Humanist Learning Theory approaches learning as a way to fulfill an individual's potential rather than meeting specific learning targets. Maslow's research on the Hierarchy of Needs is a major concept within this theory, as it focuses on the whole person, specifically the cognitive and affective needs of the learner. The theory holds that self-actualization is the ultimate goal of each individual. Learners are trusted to determine their own goals, set standards, and evaluate their own work. Thus, students are at the center of the Humanist classroom. Teachers are facilitators and coaches, recognizing the unique needs of each student and supporting their academic and social development.
Scenes from a Classroom -

Ms. X begins each day with a morning meeting to check in on her students' emotional well-being and proactively teach them specific coping skills & strategies.

Mr. X, an 8th grade science teacher, provides his students a menu of assessment options to illustrate their mastery of learning targets for the unit.

Mrs. X, a 2nd grade teacher, invites each student to set their reading goal for the quarter.

Mr. X, the school's counselor, partners with local organizations to fill backpacks with food that students can take home to ensure they have food to eat over the weekend.

Mrs. X, a 5th grade teacher, sets aside an hour of time each week for students to learn about and create anything they want, utilizing the framework she provides.

What is the link to Leader in Me Teachers at Leader in Me schools utilize The 7 Habits to address the social and emotional needs of their students, and actively partner with families to develop the whole child. They recognize that each student has needs within their heart, mind, body, and spirit, and teach students how to take care of themselves in all four dimensions. They empower students to set their own goals and determine their own action steps. At the highest levels, teachers in leadership schools may co-create rubrics with their students and encourage students to evaluate their own work throughout each unit.

As you can see, today's classrooms do not solely utilize one learning theory over another, but instead incorporate multiple theories throughout the learning experience. Each theory has strengths and limitations, especially considering the realities of education in the 21st century. Educators must walk the narrow line between creating a student-centered classroom and meeting rigorous learning standards. Through our world-class workshops and coaching, teachers at Leader in Me schools are well equipped to succeed and utilize the best of each learning theory. Want to learn more?

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Learning Theories: Understanding the 4 Major Ones for the Classroom

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Learning theories and Learning-theory research provide important insights into what makes students effective and efficient learners. While expanding our knowledge of broad theories as a central focus continues to diminish, present-day researchers typically embrace one or more of four foundational learning-theory domains.

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Guinevere Palmer, Rachel Peters, and Rebecca Streetman (The University of Georgia)

Cooperative Learning is a teaching methodology.

Think about the way you prefer to learn. Do you like to bounce ideas off other people and engage in conversation and debate, or do you prefer to learn by yourself and seek help only when needed?

Our students need to be engaged in learning in a variety of ways, but collaborative learning has been identified as a necessary skill for success in the 21st century and also an essential component of deep learning.

Cooperative learning involves students working together to accomplish shared goals, and it is this sense of interdependence that motivate group members to help and support each other. When students work cooperatively they learn to listen to what others have to say, give and receive help, reconcile differences, and resolve problems democratically.

However, placing students in small groups and telling them to work together does not guarantee that they will work cooperatively. Groups need to be structured to ensure that members will work interdependently if they are to reap the academic and social benefits widely attributed to this approach to learning.

The role the teacher plays in establishing cooperative learning in the classroom is critically important for its success. This involves being aware of how to structure cooperative learning in groups, including their size and composition the type of task set; expectations for student behavior; individual and group responsibilities; and the teacher's role in monitoring both the process and the outcomes of the group experience.

(Robyn Gillies, UQx: LEARNx Deep Learning through Transformative Pedagogy (2017). University of Queensland, Australia.
Scenario
To play a narrated PowerPoint presentation that summarizes the content in this page view this video

Cooperative Learning Presentation (13:05 minutes)

If you would like to see a transcript of the audio, click here to download script as a word document. This summary was created by Angie Furney, Allyson Richardson, and Hilary Ritt (2006).

Mrs. Solomon teaches a 9th grade Careers course. The class consists of a mixture of ESOL students with limited English proficiency skills, "average" students, and honors students. There are also several students with special needs including learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders.

Mrs. Solomon is concerned because there are a high number of students currently failing her class. She has noted that, while the high achieving students tend to score well on Multiple/Choice and True/False questions, none of the students do well on application and scenario-type questions. Frequent absences, along with an apparent lack of motivation among students are also abundant in Mrs. Solomon's class. In addition, she has noticed a high number of arguments among the students.

In an attempt to better manage her class, she assigned seats. She has determined that the seating arrangement has only escalated the arguments. Mrs. Solomon would like to find a way to overcome the difficulties within her classroom and also be able to instill these students with the skills necessary to become productive contributors to the workforce.

She has tried a number of teaching methodologies. Her first attempt was to lecture just as her teachers had done when she was in school. She found that the students were bored and often fell asleep. While most students performed average on objective tests, she had no way of measuring whether the students were grasping the concepts well enough to transfer that knowledge to real-world applications.

Any attempts at class discussions during the lecture tended to yield little or no response from the students. Students that did show interest were notably confused. She also found that some of the students were disrespectful to her during the lectures.

She also decided to try to make her classroom more student-centered by turning to a computer-based curriculum. She read that students tend to retain more information when a computer is incorporated into the lessons, so she thought it would be worth a try. She found an interactive CD to supplement the textbook and allowed students time during each unit to work from the CD. Although the computer managed to pique the interest of more students than the lecture did, she found that a large number of students were off task.

They would rush through the assignment, if they did it at all, so that they could play games and/or go on the internet. She also felt that the use of the computer without any other forms of instruction prevented students from interacting with one another; thus, the computer-based learning activities were not promoting the interpersonal skills needed for successful employment.

As a last resort, Mrs. Solomon decided to try group work. Because of the already escalating tension due to class dynamics, she was reluctant to assign a monumental task on the first try. Instead, she opted for a basic assignment and allowed the students to pick their own groups. She wanted to test their problem-solving and communication skills without interference from an authority figure, so Mrs. Solomon gave the students their assignment and waited at her desk for the students to come to her with questions.

When she became alarmed at the noise level in the classroom, she finally decided to walk around the room to observe the groups. She was disturbed to find a number of students off-task. Several groups did not even attempt the project, and spent their time initiating conflict with the other groups. As the social problems among the students escalated, the students' test grades continued to be below average. The high-achieving students grouped together while the ESOL and special education students were left together with no leadership in the group.

Mrs. Solomon was devastated because she felt that she had lost control of her classroom. Feeling frustrated and defeated, she finally decided to seek help from another teacher in her department that was known for her outstanding teaching abilities. The other teacher suggested she try cooperative learning.
Definition and Background

Cooperative learning is defined as students working together to "attain group goals that cannot be obtained by working alone or competitively" (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1986).

The main purpose of cooperative learning is to actively involve students in the learning process; a level of student empowerment which is not possible in a lecture format. The underlying premise is founded in constructivist epistemology.

It is a process which requires knowledge to be discovered by students and transformed into concepts to which the students can relate. The knowledge is then reconstructed and expanded through new learning experiences.

Learning takes place through dialog among students in a social setting.

Cooperative learning is a methodology that employs a variety of learning activities to improve students' understanding of a subject by using a structured approach which involves a series of steps, requiring students to create, analyze and apply concepts (Kagan, 1990). Cooperative learning utilizes ideas of Vygotsky, Piaget, and Kohlberg in that both the individual and the social setting are active dynamics in the learning process as students attempt to imitate real-life learning.

By combining teamwork and individual accountability, students work toward acquiring both knowledge and social skills. It is a teaching strategy which allows students to work together in small groups with individuals of various talents, abilities and backgrounds to accomplish a common goal. Each individual team member is responsible for learning the material and also for helping the other members of the team learn.

Students work until each group member successfully understands and completes the assignment, thus creating an "atmosphere of achievement" (Panitz, 1996). As a result, they frame new concepts by basing their conclusions on prior knowledge. This process results in a deeper understanding of the material and more potential to retain the material.
Theoretical Framework for Cooperative Learning
There are two major theoretical perspectives associated with cooperative learning: motivational and cognitive (Swortzel, 1997). First, because students perceive that their success or failure is dependent upon their ability to work together as a group, students are likely to encourage each other to do whatever helps the group succeed. They are also more likely to help each other with the task(s) at hand. Therefore, cooperative learning increases student motivation to do academic work (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1986).

The other theory is that cooperative learning helps students acquire critical thinking skills. Because cooperative learning creates a situation in which students must explain and discuss various perspectives, a greater understanding of the material is obtained. Elaborative thinking is promoted because students give and receive explanations more often (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1986).

The use of cooperative learning (CL) also helps students clarify concepts and ideas through discussion and debate. Because the level of discussion within groups is significantly greater than in instructor led discussions, students receive immediate feedback, thus advancing the level of discussion. It is through this process of interacting with students of differing viewpoints that cognitive growth is stimulated. Emphasis is placed on learning how to cooperate in order to find the best possible solution to a problem. According to the constructivist approach, when students formulate their own solutions in this manner, they are truly thinking critically (Davis, Mahler & Noddings, 1990).
Collaborative vs. Cooperative Learning
Collaborative and cooperative learning are so closely related that the two terms are often used interchangeably. However, let's take a moment to address the similarities and differences in the two. Both learning theories assign specific tasks, both use groups, and both require the students to share and compare their findings. In both cases, discovery approaches are used to teach interpersonal skills and student talks are stressed as a means for working things out.

Collaborative learning has British roots and is based on the findings of English instructors who explored ways to help students take a more active role in their learning. It is a teaching methodology in which "students team together to explore a significant question or a meaningful project" (Disney).

Cooperative learning, which will be the focus of this chapter, was first used in America and can be traced back to John Dewey's philosophy of the social nature of learning. It is a "specific kind of collaborative learning" (Disney). In this setting, not only is the group assessed as a whole, but students are also individually accountable for their work.

A climate such as that created by cooperative learning will help Mrs. Solomon to better manage her classroom and help to keep the students on task. By following the guidelines presented in this chapter, Mrs. Solomon will be able to help her students use cooperative learning to acquire the knowledge necessary to reach the objectives of the course.
Implementation of Cooperative Learning There are three phases of the implementation of cooperative learning.

1. The first phase is the pre-implementation phase, which includes: specifying instructional objectives, determining group sizes and assigning students to groups, arranging room, planning instructional materials to promote interdependence, assigning group roles, assigning tasks, explaining the criteria for success, structuring positive interdependence and accountability, and specifying desired behaviors.

2. The second phase is implementation which includes: monitoring behavior, intervening if needed, assisting with needs, and praise.

3. The third phase is post-implementation which includes: providing closure through summarization, evaluating students' learning, and reflecting on what happened.

After deciding to implement cooperative learning, the biggest challenge will be planning and readying the classroom and students for CL. According to Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991), there are several tasks that an instructor must accomplish before implementing cooperative learning in the classroom. This section will detail those responsibilities.

Specify Instructional Objectives (academic and social) of CL - The instructor must explain why she is using CL, describe its benefits, and the results typically found from using CL. To aid in this explanation, the instructor might produce and distribute a handout that describes collaborative learning.

Determine Group Size and Assign Students to Groups - Group size can range from two to four students, depending on the CL task. These groups can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. Groups can be formed by putting students together who share common strengths, interests, etc, or they can be randomly assigned. Once the groups are assigned, though, they should not be changed too often; students need time to develop a cohesive group and work together for a while before moving to a different group.

Arrange room - Instructors should optimize the space in their classroom so that students/groups can interact and move about the room easily. It is essential that a group's seats face one another. Further, research tools should be made easily available either in the classroom or in another room near the classroom (see, Resource-based Learning chapter for a more detailed discussion of this).

Plan instructional materials to promote interdependence - The instructional methods and materials that an instructor chooses must allow each individual to contribute to the group's success in a unique and meaningful way. Without these unique contributions, a group's structure and cohesion will be put in jeopardy.

Assign group roles - There is some debate about whether or not the instructor should play a role in this decision. Whether or not an instructor chooses to assign roles within a group, they should make sure there is a distinct role for each student. Also, the instructor should choose or assist the students in choosing roles that use their strengths and improve their areas of weakness. Instructors should also oversee that students don't choose the same role over and over again. Some of the roles that could be chosen or assigned include facilitator, timekeeper, recorder, checker (for understanding), summarizer, elaborator (on prior knowledge or discussion points), research-runner (gets materials), and wild card (does anything else that needs to be done).

Assign task - When picking an assessment task (product to be produced), the instructor should choose one standard to address and match it to the learning approach. The cooperative learning group's task should be interesting, challenging, and motivating. It should also be a performance driven and authentic task. The instructor should clearly explain procedures for the task, provide structure (especially useful for inexperienced CL students), and set a specific time frame for each part and the whole task. Finally, the instructor should question the students to check for understanding of the task and its procedures.

Explain Criteria for Success - The instructor should communicate the group-work skills that will be evaluated. A rubric should also be created, possibly with the students' assistance, which will be used to evaluate the group-work skills as well as the assessment task.

Structure positive interdependence and accountability - Group size should be kept small so that each member participates and contributes uniquely to the group. Instructors should also "test" groups and individuals by asking questions of both. A group should be asked to collectively explain its results and individuals should be able to defend their own position as well as the group's as a whole.

Specify desired behaviors - An essential part of cooperative learning's success is teaching students how to work in a group. To accomplish this, the instructor can conduct mini-lessons on ways to respect others (i.e. praise, taking turns, and shared decision making). Students also need to be trained in conflict-resolution. Finally, it would be wise to use icebreaker activities before beginning so that students find that they have something in common.

Before the actual implementation of cooperative learning, students also have several tasks. First, they can help the instructor generate an evaluation rubric, and they could possibly help design the assessment task if the instructor is willing to let the students participate in this capacity. By playing a part in the production of these items, students will have a greater motivation to participate in the group work (see Six C's of Motivation chapter about choice and control as methods to increase motivation).

Finally, the students' most important role at this point in CL is to question the instructor if anything is unclear to them. Without students' complete understanding of the goals, objectives, and procedures, cooperative learning will not be a success.

As illustrated in the scenario at the beginning of the chapter, the students in Mrs. Solomon's classroom are very diverse and appear not to get along. Before implementing CL, it will be vitally important that Mrs. Solomon spend some time teaching respect, conflict-resolution, and other group work skills. It is probably a good idea to use some icebreaker activities so that the students learn that they have some commonalities with other class members.

In addition, because of the tension among them, Mrs. Solomon will want to assign students to cooperative learning groups; she may even want to assign each individual their role. As Mrs. Solomon designs and assigns the task to the students, it will be imperative that she chooses a structured, authentic assignment. This will assist the students in remaining on-task, and it will help with transferring their knowledge to real-world applications.

After all the preparations, it is time to begin working. During the implementation phase of cooperative learning, the students play the most important role. Some of their tasks at this stage include:

Working together

Listening to one another

Questioning one another

Keeping records of their work and progress

Producing the assessment task (product)

Assuming personal responsibility/ being involved in the group

The instructor also has responsibilities during this stage as well. Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991) list several roles that an instructor has during the implementation of cooperative learning.

Monitor behavior - During the implementation of cooperative learning, the instructor should circulate throughout the classroom, visiting each group.

Intervene if needed - While circulating, if the instructor notices any group conflict or off-task behavior, she should intervene. Small-group conflict should be resolved as soon as possible, and students should be shown how to prevent problems in the future. The instructor might use a conflict resolution checklist to resolve the group's conflict. This checklist includes items such as explaining the importance of listening to everyone in the group, defining responsibilities, valuing each person's gifts, modeling excellence, and promoting humor. Having these listed on a handout for each group could prevent group discord and off-task behavior.

Assist with needs - While monitoring the groups' work, the instructor should assist groups with their needs. This might involve pointing out additional resources and/or points-of-view, and it also includes helping the students reflect on the work they have completed and their progress.

Praise - Students need to know if they are completing the assignment in a satisfactory manner, especially if they are inexperienced at working in cooperative groups. For this reason, the instructor should let individual students and groups know when they do something right or well.

As the class begins to work on their CL assignment, Mrs. Solomon will need to circulate around the room. It is likely, especially at the beginning of implementation, that her class will still have difficulty focusing on the task and getting along with one another. By moving around the class while the students are working, she will be able to assist any group that is facing these problems, and she can help them resolve the issues. At the same time, Mrs. Solomon must remember to praise the students and teams who are making an effort to cooperate and who are progressing nicely with the group assignment.

After many hours are spent planning for cooperative learning groups, the plan is then put into action. Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991) give three jobs for the instructor to complete after the students have worked together to complete and submit the task.

Provide closure through summarization - The instructor should reconvene the entire group of students. At this point, the instructor can summarize the important points of the lesson/unit. Another suggestion is to have each group summarize their work and points that they think were important. This helps the instructor to know exactly in which knowledge level the groups are working. This is also very much in line with the idea of articulation and reflection in the Cognitive Apprenticeships chapter.

Evaluate students' learning - The instructor should use a rubric to grade/ evaluate each group's assessment task. They should also be evaluated on their group work using a rubric. These rubrics should have been created during the pre-implementation phase of cooperative learning, and the students might have had input into their content. After the instructor has completed the evaluations, it is important that they provide feedback to the students about their product and their group performance. Without this information, the students will not be able to improve their cooperative learning skills.

Reflect on what happened - Instructors should keep a record of what worked and why it worked each time they undertake a CL lesson or unit. This information can and should be shared with their cooperative learning support group. The instructor should also adjust their lessons based on the reflection and feedback of the students. This will prevent the stagnation of a CL unit; it will grow and change with each group of students.

After completing the group work and assessment task, the student's job is to reflect on the work that was accomplished in their group. What worked and what did not work? What would they change or keep next time they work together? The students should also give feedback to their instructor. They should be able to tell the instructor what worked or what was good about this unit, and they should point out what did not work well. This information can be written down or informally discussed in class.

At the conclusion of Mrs. Solomon's first cooperative learning lesson, it will be important for her to get feedback from the students about how they thought the lesson went. In turn, she will also have to provide feedback to the students about their group work skills and their assignment. This may involve teaching or re-teaching group work skills and/or adjusting the procedures for the next cooperative learning lesson.

Helpful Hints for Cooperative Learning Lessons

Begin trying cooperative learning with a homework assignment. Students could check their homework in groups, going over each problem and clarifying if there were any questions. The groups could then work each problem on the board.

When beginning to use cooperative learning, start each class with a short lecture and then transition to a CL activity. As the instructor and students gain experience with using CL, begin the class with a CL activity and then conclude with a short lecture to highlight important points.

Begin implementation by only using pairs for CL groups. Students who are inexperienced in using CL groups will be more likely to participate with just one other person in the group. Having only two students in a group is also an ideal way to teach key group work skills.

When beginning CL implementation, only use the technique in one class period. Once you and the students have become more adept at using CL, you can increase it to involve more students/classes.

Begin with worksheets as a form of group accountability. Students who are inexperienced with CL often have a difficult time getting started or reaching their goals. Having a worksheet to guide them will help the groups set their priorities, work towards their goal, and produce the assessment task.

Frequently Asked Questions about Cooperative Learning
When is the best time to begin implementing cooperative learning?
The best time to begin using CL in the classroom is at the start of a new term or school year. This way, the students will not be exposed to individual work and then have to "switch gears" and learn to work in a group in the middle of the year.
Do you have to use cooperative learning all the time?
No, it is not necessary to use CL in your classroom at all times. It is often advised to use CL for a unit or two, use another teaching method for a while, and then revisit CL at a later time.
Should you include parents in cooperative learning?
Yes, parents and the community should be included in all school activities, including CL. This can be done through newsletters and/or special programs when parents and the community, visit the classroom and view the groups' assessment tasks.
What happens if one group finishes early?
If one group finishes early, the instructor can provide extension activities/tasks for that group. As more groups finish, pairs of groups can team up and share/comment on each other's work.

Other Forms of Cooperative Learning Groups [2]

3-step interview - Members of a group choose one partner from the group. The individuals interview their partners by asking questions. Then, they reverse roles and share their responses with the rest of the group.

3-review - The instructor gives the teams 3 minutes to review/clarify what has been said.

Numbered Heads - Group members are assigned a number. The group discusses as one, and then the instructor calls one number. The person with that number answers for the group.

Team-pair-solo - Students do the problem(s) first as a team, then in a pair, and finally, solo.

Circle the sage - The instructor polls the students looking for special knowledge on a certain topic. Those with the knowledge spread out around the room. (They are the sages.) The other students (no two from the same team) circle the sage, take notes on the information they are presenting, and question them. Then, the group reforms and each explains what they have learned. If there is a disagreement, it is aired as a group with the whole class, and it is resolved there.

Structured problem solving - Groups are given a problem to solve within a specified time. All members must agree and all must be able to explain the solution.

Send-a-problem - Several groups generate solutions to problems. The problem is clipped to the outside of a folder, and all solutions from that group are written down and placed inside the folder. The folder is passed to a different group who reads the problem, but not the solutions. They write their solutions and put them inside the folder. A third group selects the two best solutions and amends them as necessary.

Drill review pairs - Groups of four split into pairs. The pairs are given two problems. One member is the explainer and one is the accuracy checker. After one problem is complete, they switch roles. When both problems are complete, the group of four reforms. If they are in agreement to the solution, they repeat the process with more problems. If there is disagreement, the problem is reviewed and a consensus is reached.
Benefits of Cooperative Learning
Ted Panitz (1996) lists over 50 benefits provided by cooperative learning. These benefits can be summarized into four major categories: social, psychological, academic and assessment.

Cooperative learning promotes social interactions; thus students benefit in a number of ways from the social perspective. By having the students explain their reasoning and conclusions, cooperative learning helps develop oral communication skills. Because of the social interaction among students, cooperative learning can be used to model the appropriate social behaviors necessary for employment situations.

By following the appropriate structuring for cooperative learning, students are able to develop and practice skills that will be needed to function in society and the workplace. These skills include: leadership, decision-making, trust building, communication and conflict-management.

The cooperative environment also develops a social support system for students. Other students, the instructor, administrators, other school staff, and potentially parents become integral parts of the learning process, thus supplying multiple opportunities for support to the students (Kessler and McCleod, 1985).

Students also benefit psychologically from cooperative learning. Johnson and Johnson (1989) claim, "cooperative learning experiences promote more positive attitudes" toward learning and instruction than other teaching methodologies. Because students play an active role in the learning process in cooperative learning, student satisfaction with the learning experience is enhanced.

Cooperative learning also helps to develop interpersonal relationships among students. The opportunity to discuss their ideas in smaller groups and receive constructive feedback on those ideas helps to build student self-esteem. In a lecture format, individual students are called upon to respond to a question in front of the entire class without having much time to think about his/her answer.

Cooperative learning creates a safe, nurturing environment because solutions come from the group rather than from the individual. Errors in conclusions and thought processes are corrected within the group before they are presented to the class.

Students also tend to be inspired by instructors who take the time to plan activities which promote an encouraging environment (Janke, 1980). Receiving encouragement in a cooperative setting from both the instructor and peers helps to develop higher self-efficacy (see the Motivation chapter). As a result of higher self-efficacy, student grades tend to increase; thus, cooperative learning methods provide several academic benefits for students.

Research indicates that students who were taught by cooperative methods learned and retained significantly more information than students being taught by other methods. Requiring students to verbalize their ideas to the group helps them to develop more clear concepts; thus, the thought process becomes fully embedded in the students' memory. Vygotsky supports this concept in his research on egocentric speech by claiming that verbalization plays a significant role in task solution (Bershon, 1992).

Discussions within the groups lead to more frequent summarization because the students are constantly explaining and elaborating, which in turn validates and strengthens thoughts. Students also benefit from cooperative learning academically in the sense that there is more of a potential for success when students work in groups. Individuals tend to give up when they get stuck, whereas a group of students is more likely to find a way to keep going (Johnson & Johnson, 1990).

Cooperative learning calls for self-management from students because they must come prepared with completed assignments and they must understand the material which they have compiled. As a result, a more complete understanding of the material is developed.

There are also many benefits of cooperative learning from the aspect of assessment. It provides instant feedback to the students and instructor because the effectiveness of each class can be observed. As instructors move around the room and observe each group of students interacting and explaining their theories, they are able to detect misconceptions early enough to correct them. Only a few minutes of observation during each class session can provide helpful insight into students' abilities and growth.

Cooperative teaching methods also utilize a variety of assessments. Grades are not dependent solely on tests and individual assignments which only allow for right or wrong responses, leaving little or no room for reflection and discussion of error or misconceptions. With cooperative learning, instructors can use more authentic assessments such as observation, peer assessment and writing reflections.
Cooperative Learning Benefits in Mrs. Solomon's Classroom
As Mrs. Solomon learns all of the benefits gained from the use of cooperative learning, her curiosity is piqued; however, she still finds herself questioning whether her complex class could overcome all of the barriers that are hindering the learning environment. There is evidence, though, that most of the problems experienced in her class could be solved by using cooperative learning.

Poor Attendance - In addition to the four major categories of benefits detailed above, schools utilizing this strategy report an increase in student attendance because students feel that they are a valuable and necessary part of their groups (McBrien & Brandt, 1997).

Classroom Disruptions - Students are less likely to act out in a cooperative setting. Students act out to get attention; however, the "stage" is removed in a cooperative environment because it is very difficult to gain the attention of the entire class when students are divided up into smaller groups (Stahl & Van Sickle, 1992). As a result, students are more likely to stay on task and are less likely to be disruptive. Cooperative learning also helps reduce classroom disruptions because students are allowed to socialize during the learning process. Students need peer interaction, and without the integration of interaction among students, the need for social contact emerges in a negative context.

Violence - According to Johnson and Johnson (1990), cooperative learning also helps to reduce violence. If enforced correctly, cooperative activities model non-violent resolutions to problems. Because group consensus is promoted, blame is eliminated and honor, friendliness and quality are promoted.

Diversity among students - Research shows that cooperative learning also builds diversity awareness among students. It encourages students to use their differences to help each other. Because students are placed in a situation where they are able to interact with peers that they otherwise may never socialize with, behaviors which might appear odd in other settings become understandable when students are given the opportunity to explain and defend their reasoning.

In a traditional classroom, there is very little opportunity for students to defend their perspectives. As students observe each other's reasoning processes, there is more room to understand and appreciate their differences (Johnson and Johnson, 1990). As a result, a much deeper understanding of cultural and individual difference is developed (Yager, 1985).

In addition, because students are placed in a supportive environment where group-processing skills are essential, they are more likely to accept these differences than they would in a competitive, non-interactive environment. This greater understanding of their differences also helps students learn to resolve social problems which might arise (Johnson and Johnson, 1990).

Students with special needs - Cooperative methods are flexible and can easily be adapted for students with special needs. Because of the reasons mentioned above, this type of learning environment allows for improved social acceptance of mainstreamed students with learning disabilities (Slavin, 1990).

ESL students - Cooperative learning is especially useful in courses where interactions involving the use of language are important, such as ESL courses. It is an ideal way to "facilitate the acquisition of language and to practice the customs of debate and discussion which occur within the classroom" (Brufee, 1993). Research conducted using cooperative learning in classes with ESL students shows significant development in acquiring English-language skills.

Cooperative learning helps students learn language better than the drill and practice of traditional language training. It would appear that peer interaction in natural settings is the ideal use of language that is necessary for successfully acquiring second language skills (Neves, 1983). In addition, most educational psychology textbooks now contain "extended discussions of cooperative pedagogics and their effectiveness with regard to improved racial relations, self-esteem, and internal locus of control" (Sherman, 1991).

Arguments among students - Marzano (1992) asserts that in a cooperative setting, students can analyze the effects of the groups and "suggest activities which will promote positive interactions or deal with conflicts or personality problems within each group." It provides a supportive environment within which to manage conflict resolution (Johnson & Johnson, 1990).

Disrespect toward instructor - In the cooperative classroom, instructors have more opportunities to explain policies and procedures. When instructor expectations are clear, there seems to be less room for personal interpretations, which often leads to a negative attitude toward the instructor. The class could also, potentially, be empowered to contribute to the development and implementation of classroom rules and procedures. This classroom management technique, when intertwined with cooperative activities, could help students overcome resentments which were created as a result of the teacher-centered classroom.

Differences in learning abilities - Performance is improved among weaker students when they are grouped with higher achieving students because the stronger students model successful reasoning processes. Students who usually struggle in academics are able to learn to prepare for tests, check and correct homework, and see alternative solutions to problems. Vygotsky (1978) hypothesizes that the social interaction among students extends the students' zone of proximal development (the difference between a student's understanding and their potential to understand).

When students work cooperatively in groups the more knowledgeable students are able to help the less knowledgeable students understand new concepts. High achieving students also benefit because they are verbalizing their ideas and actually teaching others. As mentioned earlier, the process of verbalizing thoughts helps to further promote understanding of material.

Cooperative learning also accommodates learning style differences among students because they are utilizing each of the three main learning styles: kinesthetic, auditory and visual. Material presented by the instructor is both auditory and visual, and students working together use kinesthetic abilities by working with hands-on activities. Discussing issues within the groups further enhances verbal skills, and class presentation of group findings helps to reinforce visual and auditory skills (Midkiff & Thomasson, 1993).

Drawbacks of Cooperative Learning

Instructors who are unfamiliar with cooperative learning may not initially accept this style of learning because they may feel they will lose control of their classroom, or they may be unsure of the techniques used or possibly even think that it is too time consuming. In this next section, we will discuss some of the possible drawbacks to cooperative learning.

Loss of Control - Cooperative learning is a structured approach that requires instructor support and guidance. In order for cooperative learning to be utilized in the classroom, instructors must receive training to be proficient in implementing the techniques. Maximum learning will only emerge if proper training is received by the instructor and then transferred to the student.

Instructors may resist using cooperative learning techniques in their classroom because they are afraid they may lose control of their teaching routine. Cooperative learning takes time to implement; therefore, initial lessons may take longer. Once students and the instructor are comfortable with the process, then the amount of time for each lesson decreases.

Instructors may have a difficult time giving up their control of the content that is being covered (Panitz). They are accustomed to presenting the curriculum to the students and are unable to give students the freedom to learn on their own. Students learning only one part of the curriculum in their group may make an instructor anxious about what their students know.

Showing their expertise in a subject area is important for some instructors. Giving up the opportunity to show off this expertise may deter instructors from using cooperative learning in their classrooms. Also, if students are expected to explore on their own, then they may have questions that the instructor cannot answer. Both of these possibilities may cause an instructor to lose confidence in her teaching abilities. Instructors can still be experts, but they will be using their knowledge as a facilitator rather than a giver of information.

Group Work - Depending on the age level, students may resist using cooperative learning in their classrooms. Lecture does not require much interaction and participation from the students; therefore, they can get as much or as little from the class as they like. Being required to work in a group may ruffle a few feathers with the students because now they are being asked to participate and contribute to their learning. In addition, they are also asked to learn new concepts and taught how to work in a group. They may not be accustomed to working in a group, and therefore, may be unsure of the dynamics involved in group work.

Since cooperative learning is centered on group work, students may be concerned that other members of their group are going to bring their grades down. This is especially true if students are grouped by mixed ability, requiring higher ability students to guide lower ability students.

Deciding how groups should be formed is an important part of the cooperative learning planning process. There has been some debate as to how groups should be formed in order for students to effectively work together and reach their maximum potential.

Mixed ability grouping allows for all group members to be involved, though the type of involvement differs. Advanced students can teach struggling students, but concerns arise about advanced students doing all the work and struggling students not being motivated to be involved at all. There are also concerns that gifted students are held back by the lower ability students in their group.

If students are grouped with others of the same ability level, then the lower ability group may feel frustrated and unmotivated to try. This is also true of those who are grouped by gender or race because it may support stereotypes that certain subject areas are dominated by certain groups.

There are also varying opinions about the optimal number of people for small group formation. The consensus seems to agree that no more than 4 people in a group produces higher achievement (Slavin, 1987). Fixed seating and large class sizes may make group arrangement difficult though. Still, even if the room is easily arranged into small groups, instructors may have a difficult time accessing all of the numerous small groups.

Most students are not accustomed to group work, especially in high school classrooms. Students will have to be taught to work effectively in a group setting. Resolving group conflict can be a major challenge for instructors. Groups will need to make sure that every member listens to and appreciates each group member's contribution. Identifying responsibilities within the group and encouraging each to do their best work needs to be addressed before group work begins. Also, students that work better alone may struggle to succeed in a group atmosphere.

Since the classroom will be made up of several small groups, the noise level will escalate. This can be very uncomfortable for some instructors, especially if they are accustomed to a lecture and seatwork classroom. This can also cause problems for those students who have attention difficulties.

Cooperative learning is based on social interaction; thus, grouping students together to work independently even for a short period of time may encourage behavior that is off task. While the instructor is circling the room to observe and interact with the groups, it is difficult to make sure every group is productively working on their assignment. Self-management skills will have to be introduced before students break out into groups and be reinforced as they progress through their work.

Time Requirements - With cooperative learning, the textbook is used only as an instructional supplement, so it is necessary for instructors to create additional materials for the students. Usually these materials are made from scratch because many instructors' manuals offer limited suggestions for group activities. Creating these new materials can be very time consuming. So, not only are instructors spending a large amount of time implementing this new way of learning, but they also have to create the materials to go along with it.

Since students have to generate an answer or information within their group, work time may take longer than the traditional lecture. Because of this additional time, instructors may be unable to cover the same amount of curriculum as before when they used teacher directed class discussions. Many times, in a traditional classroom, the quality of the work is compromised in order to teach the entire curriculum.

Other Drawbacks - Since students are working together on a group assignment, it is difficult to assess students with a paper and pencil test. Instructors will have to find another way to assess student work and progress. Since students are used to concrete assessments, it may be difficult for students to adjust to authentic assessments.

Vague objectives, avoidance of teaching, and lack of critical thinking activities are other problems associated with cooperative learning. With the focus on managing groups, it is possible for instructors to overlook the students' objectives and tasks. Therefore, students are not receiving the needed guidance to effectively learn the task at hand. Some critics say that instructors who rely on small group work are avoiding their teaching responsibilities. Students are left on their own to teach themselves the curriculum. In addition, since students are working in small groups that require additional time, instructors may be more apt to assign tasks that do not demand higher level thinking skills. The quality is overlooked in order to increase the quantity of assignments.

Conclusion

Mrs. Solomon decided to implement cooperative learning in her Careers course. As mentioned earlier, there was some initial resistance from the students. But she kept a positive attitude about the benefits of cooperative learning and encouraged the students to give it a try.

She also started with a fun activity to help boost student morale. She carefully grouped students together, making sure that each group consisted of a diversity of student abilities and backgrounds. She continued to follow the strategies mentioned in this chapter for successful implementation. She was impressed with the results. She found that, once the students had some experience with CL, the higher-achieving students did not resent being paired with lower-ability students.

In fact, it helped to build their self-esteem to know that they were able to help their peers. They also found that the students with learning disabilities were actually very creative and could offer new perspectives on how to solve the given problem. The students also began to realize that students from different cultures may struggle to communicate in the English language, but they were very dedicated students who had a desire to do well on given assignments. Interestingly enough, Mrs. Solomon also found that absences began to decrease.

In the reflection papers that she had students complete at the end of the project, she discovered that students felt valued as part of the group and that they attended her class so that they would not disappoint their peers. After training the students on conflict resolution, cultural diversity, and respect for others, Mrs. Solomon noticed that students appeared to get along better while doing the cooperative exercises. But most importantly, student grades actually improved over time.

Students of all ability levels took pride in their accomplishments and felt a sense of involvement by being allowed to have input into the activities and classroom expectations. They also seemed to have a more complete understanding of the material and were able to score higher on all types of tests, including application questions. Overall, she saw a dramatic difference in her classroom atmosphere.

Both Mrs. Solomon and her students were more motivated and enthusiastic about each new chapter. Mrs. Solomon realized that there were still situations which would arise periodically within her classroom, and that cooperative learning would be a teaching strategy that she would have to improve on over time. But after learning more about cooperative learning, she believed that she had a whole new perspective on classroom strategies.

Additional Reading

McMaser, K and Fuchs, D. (2005). A Focus on Cooperative Learning for Students with Disabilities. Current Practice Alerts. TeachingLD.org

References

Palmer, G., Peters R.,& Streetman, R. (2010) Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology, Global Text, Michael Orey. (Chapter 29).Retrieved from https://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf

UQx: LEARNx Deep Learning through Transformative Pedagogy, (2017). University of Queensland, Australia. (an Open edX MOOC)

Graphics from Pixabay

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Instructional Methods, Strategies and Technologies to Meet the Needs of All Learners

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Cooperative Learning is a teaching methodology. Think about the way you prefer to learn. Do you like to bounce ideas off other people and engage in conversation and debate, or do you prefer to learn by yourself and seek help only when needed?

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Theories and Methodologies  on working in a group

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Theories and Methodologies  on working in a group

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Lev Vygotsky and Social Learning Theories

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Social learning theories help us to understand how people learn in social contexts (learn from each other) and informs us on how we, as teachers, construct active learning communities. Lev Vygotsky (1962), a Russian teacher and psychologist, first stated that we learn through our interactions a…

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Encourage small-group effectiveness by clarifying the task, focusing on production, modeling successful behavior, monitoring progress, time, and noise, and building community.

Photo credit: VirginMoney via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

When teachers ask students to work on a task in groups, they issue an invitation for engagement and, potentially, for chaos! Here are five tips that can help encourage productivity and keep mayhem at bay.

1. Be clear and specific about the task.

There's nothing more frustrating than launching group work and seeing ten hands in the air or (worse) hearing students complain to one another, "What are we supposed to do?" If possible, limit initial verbal explanations to a general overview of the task and process. Then, provide crystal clear, detailed electronic or paper-based directions to each student in the group. Anticipate potential questions and areas of confusion by using a checklist format, providing visuals, or recording instructions for groups to listen to on iPads (this is particularly helpful if you have English learners in your class). Consider instituting a "1-2-3, Then Me" format in which students get one minute to read the directions silently, two minutes to discuss the directions with one another or with other groups, and three minutes to plan their approach to the task before they can ask you for assistance.

2. Make production the outcome.

Putting students in groups to simply "discuss" is a recipe for disaster. If students have to work toward producing something to turn in, present, or share with another group, they are less likely to linger in off-task conversations. Products should require all group members' participation or contributions. This might involve a graffiti-like poster in the middle of the table on which everyone records ideas, or a graphic organizer that every student completes. If each student is doing his or her own version of the task, announce that you'll be collecting one paper per group, to be revealed at the end of the activity. When time is up, use random criteria, such as "person in the group with the shortest hair" or "person with the birthday closest to the teacher's" to determine whose paper it will be.

3. Model successful transitions and interactions.

Show (don't just tell) students the basic mechanics that are critical to success in your classroom. Maybe it's how to move between stations, the process for using a discussion strategy, or how to talk during a "think-pair-share." Devote the first few weeks of class to conducting dry runs (i.e., students moving from place to place, students retrieving and returning materials, students using technology appropriately, etc.). Use volunteers to act out example and non-example conversations with "elbow partners." Post or provide sentence frames as scaffolds for group dialogue. This kind of up-front investment will pay off when students are able to move, transition, and converse efficiently.

4. Monitor progress, time, and noise.

Make students partners, if not primary agents, in keeping tabs on their progress, the time, and the noise level. If groups are producing something tangible, they (and you) can see what they have left to do. Use a decibel reader app (e.g., Decibel 10th, a free app by SkyPaw Co. Ltd), or launch a site like Bouncy Balls (from Google Chrome) for visually appealing ways to gauge the volume of the room. Track time with an online digital stopwatch or another easy-to-see timer. (Try this fun five-minute countdown timer from YouTube.) Make sure to give students less time than you think they need in order to build a sense of urgency. Check in when time is running low to see if groups require more. ("Fist to five -- how many more minutes do you need?") If some groups finish before others, have a next-step question or task ready for students to tackle.

5. Incorporate community builders.

Sometimes group work falters simply because students don't know, like, or respect one another -- yet. Full-class community-building activities are critical; but smaller, deliberately planted, group-level bonding moments also reap rich rewards in helping groups gel, release tension, and exercise courtesy. This might involve using an opening prompt like, "Before you start, share your favorite ice cream flavors," or asking students to fist bump each other as they complete each step of the task. Consider displaying fun anchor questions for students to discuss once they are finished. Anchor questions keep students from drifting into uncharted work or conversations, while providing a structure that lets students stretch beyond the content to discover connections with one another. They can be related to the content or task (e.g., "Where have you seen this topic portrayed in real life or in the media?") or appeal to general interests (e.g., "If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?").

Teachers are more likely to design and implement meaningful group activities when they have the management strategies to do so. Taking the proactive steps like those we've described can enhance engagement while curbing the chaos.

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Encourage small-group effectiveness by clarifying the task, focusing on production, modeling successful behavior, monitoring progress, time, and noise, and building community. Photo credit: VirginMoney via flickr (CC BY 2.0) When teachers ask students to work on a task in groups, they issue an invitation for engagement and, potentially, for chaos!

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Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation

"More hands make for lighter work." "Two heads are better than one." "The more the merrier."

These adages speak to the potential groups have to be more productive, creative, and motivated than individuals on their own.

Benefits for students

Group projects can help students develop a host of skills that are increasingly important in the professional world (Caruso & Woolley, 2008; Mannix & Neale, 2005). Positive group experiences, moreover, have been shown to contribute to student learning, retention and overall college success (Astin, 1997; Tinto, 1998; National Survey of Student Engagement, 2006).

Properly structured, group projects can reinforce skills that are relevant to both group and individual work, including the ability to:

Break complex tasks into parts and steps

Plan and manage time

Refine understanding through discussion and explanation

Give and receive feedback on performance

Challenge assumptions

Develop stronger communication skills.

Group projects can also help students develop skills specific to collaborative efforts, allowing students to...

Tackle more complex problems than they could on their own.

Delegate roles and responsibilities.

Share diverse perspectives.

Pool knowledge and skills.

Hold one another (and be held) accountable.

Receive social support and encouragement to take risks.

Develop new approaches to resolving differences.

Establish a shared identity with other group members.

Find effective peers to emulate.

Develop their own voice and perspectives in relation to peers.

While the potential learning benefits of group work are significant, simply assigning group work is no guarantee that these goals will be achieved. In fact, group projects can - and often do - backfire badly when they are not designed, supervised, and assessed in a way that promotes meaningful teamwork and deep collaboration.

Benefits for instructors

Faculty can often assign more complex, authentic problems to groups of students than they could to individuals. Group work also introduces more unpredictability in teaching, since groups may approach tasks and solve problems in novel, interesting ways. This can be refreshing for instructors. Additionally, group assignments can be useful when there are a limited number of viable project topics to distribute among students. And they can reduce the number of final products instructors have to grade.

Whatever the benefits in terms of teaching, instructors should take care only to assign as group work tasks that truly fulfill the learning objectives of the course and lend themselves to collaboration. Instructors should also be aware that group projects can add work for faculty at different points in the semester and introduce its own grading complexities.

References

Astin, A. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Caruso, H.M., & Wooley, A.W. (2008). Harnessing the power of emergent interdependence to promote diverse team collaboration. Diversity and Groups. 11, 245-266.

Mannix, E., & Neale, M.A. (2005). What differences make a difference? The promise and reality of diverse teams in organizations. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 6(2), 31-55.

National Survey of Student Engagement Report. (2006). http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2006_Annual_Report/docs/NSSE_2006_Annual_Report.pdf.

Tinto, V. (1987). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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What are the benefits of group work? - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University

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Two widely accepted principles about learning-learners construct their own knowledge and learning is an inherently social phenomenon-support the use of group learning. Working in small groups provides learners with opportunities to articulate ideas and understandings, uncover assumptions and misconceptions, and negotiate with others to create products or reach consensus. Group activities enable students to discover deeper meaning in the content and improve thinking skills. The most effective use of group work is that which engages students with higher-level content that is thought-provoking, difficult to understand, or has multiple interpretations.

The terms collaborative learning and cooperative learning are often used interchangeably, but a distinction is helpful. Collaborative learning highlights the contributions of individual group members, stresses the sharing of authority, and leads to dialog and consensus building on topics without a clear right and wrong answer. Group governance and group processing remain in the hands of the students (Panitz, 1997). Cooperative learning is often thought of as a subset of collaborative learning that involves more teacher intervention. The instructor designs the task and a group structure for accomplishing the task, including the assignment of roles to group members. Students then interact under specific conditions set up by the teacher: positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual account ability, collaborative skills, and group processing (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 1998). Both collaborative and cooperative learning can take place with informal and formal groups, however both settings will require that the instructor plans carefully how the assignment is designed, monitored, and assessed.
Short-term groups
These are temporary groups, with little or no time spent on assigning people to groups, getting into groups, or assigning roles. They last one session or less and are used to ensure cognitive processing and engagement in learning. Some informal short-term group activities include the following:

Think-Pair-Share: Students are given a prompt (a question, problem, visual, etc.), and asked to think about the prompt individually and jot down ideas. Students then form pairs, talk about their responses, and formulate a joint response. Some pairs are called on to summarize their discussion for the class.

Think-Pair-Square: Same as above, but two pairs of students join together to share and compare the results, rather than moving to a whole group discussion.

Turn-To-Your-Neighbor Discussions: Students "turn to a neighbor" and brainstorm answers to a question or discuss a solution to a problem. Call on students for answers. Ask the class for a show of hands of who agrees or disagrees with an answer.

Pair-And-Compare: During a two to three minute break in lecture, students form pairs and compare notes, rewriting the notes by adding information or correcting as needed.

Small-Group Homework Check: Have students do their homework individually outside of class. During class on the day the assignment is due, have students form groups and then compare their answers to the assignment. The students in each group must agree on answers and turn in a group solution along with their individual work.

Some short-term group activities require a bit more structure and planning. These include the following:

Jigsaw: This structure is useful when a topic or problem is complex and involves multiple perspectives. Each group member takes responsibility for one part of the problem, meets with students from other groups who have the same responsibility (expert group), and then teaches his or her part to the members of the original group.

Roundtable: After the group is given a prompt, the group members take turns recording a response to the prompt on a single page that is quickly passed from one member to the next for a specified amount of time.

Send-A-Problem: Problems or issues are identified by the groups or by the instructor. Each group proposes solutions to these problems or issues.

Dyadic Essay Confrontation: In response to an assigned reading, each student writes an essay question and model response to that question. During class, students pair off, exchange essay questions, and each writes a spontaneous response to the question he or she receives. The pairs compare the spontaneous responses with the model responses for the two questions.

Long-term groups or teams
These groups are formed by the instructor and may stay together for an extended period of time (weeks or even the entire semester) to work on a broader task or project. One type of formal group is the student team-a stable group that works on major course projects and often involves peer evaluation. Some specific suggestions for getting started with organizing long-term group projects include the following:

Develop a clear description of the project and what you expect.

Decide what kinds of team compositions are critical for the project.

Break the project down into smaller pieces, establishing a timeline, and having the teams submit progress reports on their learning and how they are working as a team.

Provide students with a rationale for the team project. Include an explanation of the value and purpose of working as a team, and establish guidelines for how the teams should work together.

Establish clear and fair guidelines for how the team project will be graded.

This depends on your purpose for using groups. Teams usually have three to five students who are assigned to the group randomly or purposefully by you. Capstone projects may require a larger number of students. Student-selected groups are not generally recommended.
Random selection
You can form random teams by any of the following methods:

Simply having students "turn-to-your-neighbor" or "form teams of three."

Counting off-24 students would form groups of four by counting off from one to six. All of the ones would become a group and so on.

Using color-coded cards or playing cards-students pick up cards as they enter class and all students with the same color (or same number) work together.

Instructor-selected teams
For longer or more complex projects, instructors may want to create heterogeneous teams that distribute students into different groups based on ability, strengths, experience, gender, ethnicity, or some other characteristic. Instructors first learn about the students and then form teams according to the plan. You can learn about your students in one or more of the following ways:

Collect student data sheets that include the following:

Course-related information: Major, courses taken in the discipline

Experience: Work, travel

Personal information: Where they live, phone number, e-mail address, interests

Administer questionnaires with questions relevant to the project:

Strengths: Self-rating on ability with computers, writing, organization

Learning styles

Have students prepare a resume. Doing this may be most appropriate when the students are likely to have a resume already prepared.

Cooper, J. (2003). Group formation in cooperative learning: What the experts say. In J. L. Cooper, P. Robinson, & D. Ball (Eds.), Small group instruction in higher education: Lessons from the past, visions of the future (pp. 207-210). Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.

Cuseo, J. B. (2002) Igniting student involvement, peer interaction, and teamwork: A taxonomy of specific cooperative learning structures and collaborative learning strategies Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. A. (1998). Cooperative learning returns to college: What evidence is there that it works. Change, 30(4), 27-35.

Millis, B. J., & Cottell, P. G., Jr. (1998). Cooperative learning for higher education faculty. Phoenix: Oryx Press.

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Two widely accepted principles about learning-learners construct their own knowledge and learning is an inherently social phenomenon-support the use of group learning. Working in small groups provides learners with opportunities to articulate ideas and understandings, uncover assumptions and misconceptions, and negotiate with others to create products or reach consensus.