# data[].attributes.headline
Teaching Students to work in a Cooperative Classroom

# data[].attributes.subject
Teaching Students to work in a Cooperative Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 Awesome Cooperative Learning Games - TeachHUB

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Getting students to engage with each other while still engaging with content can be tough. Explore our six awesome cooperative learning games.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Side by side, seven-year-olds Anna and Frances work intently on a storyboard in which they are plotting out a book:

Anna: What will we call it?

Frances: How about The Mean Girls Club? Look, I can draw them with mean faces.

Anna: Why are they mean?

Frances: I don't know. Maybe someone was mean to them.

Anna: Let's make them be nice -- first mean, then nice.

Frances: Then what will happen to the club?

Anna: It will be the Nice Girls Club. Look, on the title page we can put a line through mean and write nice above it!

Just then, their teacher, Mrs. Geni, flicks the light switch, signaling that it is time for students to wrap up their writing projects and gather in a large group. Frances and Anna, knowing they can pick up on their project tomorrow, clip their notes and sketches to the storyboard and put it on the shelf.

Anna, Frances, and the other second graders in Mrs. Geni's classroom, in Evanston, Illinois, are learning not just reading and writing but also essential skills for success in the twenty-first century: collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and innovation.

What were once called "soft" skills in the workplace are now essential, key to the success of the business enterprise and the individual worker: working on teams, taking responsibility for one's piece of a larger project, planning for the future, and completing the plan -- these are the gears that will drive their personal and professional lives. All involve cooperative learning.

In cooperative learning, students are organized into small groups and the teacher announces a common goal.

During the course of the assignment, the children work together for a shared benefit, realizing that all members share that goal and the rewards of achieving it. Cooperative learning goes hand in hand with social and emotional learning (SEL). Briefly, the two approaches help develop a number of skills, including

self-awareness: recognizing feelings and identifying interests, strengths, and weaknesses.

self-management: managing feelings and behavior to control impulses and persevere in achieving important personal and academic goals.

social awareness: understanding the needs and feelings of others, while appreciating similarities and differences among individuals and groups.

relationship skills: maintaining positive relationships with others.

responsible decision making: making good choices and contributing to one's school, one's community, and the world.

Studies of cooperative-learning strategies regularly report an increase in engagement and active participation in the learning process, which in turn increase student motivation, time on task, and retention times and improve cognitive reasoning and the ability to see from others' perspectives.

Some teachers feel uncomfortable with cooperative learning because it requires that they assume more of a facilitative role than a direct instructional one. And students occasionally complain about not being able to work with friends or being unfairly assessed because one student in the pair or group doesn't do his or her share.

So, how do we make cooperative learning work?

Professors David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson, codirectors of the University of Minnesota's Cooperative Learning Center and authors of more than 400 research articles and book chapters and 40 books on cooperative learning, are international leaders in the study of the topic. In a research synthesis of 550 experimental studies on cooperative learning, they identified essential elements of effective cooperative learning. One of these factors is just how the groups are put together: How do you balance skills and roles? Developmental strengths and needs? Gender and ethnicity? How long should a group stay together? What is the right number? Who will be the group leader? Skilled classroom teachers take all these issues into account as they choose and prepare individual children for cooperative-learning groups. (See " Cooperative Education: Making It Work.")

One important point: Groups may be fluid, becoming larger or smaller in relation to the instructional goals. For instance, Anna and Frances are a writing team during one two-week period, but they separate for a later science project. Positions within the group can also change.

Mary Tavegia, principal at Cossitt Avenue School, in LaGrange, Illinois, emphasizes the need to match students and roles: "The teacher must ask 'What, developmentally, do we expect of kids at this age? What can I expect of this particular child?' You don't take a student who has trouble communicating and set him up to fail by making him the group's discussion leader right off the bat."

Johnson and Johnson say teachers must quickly establish the rules and procedures around working in a group. They point to the importance of each person supporting and encouraging their peers in their roles so that together they are able to achieve something none can do on his or her own. Teachers should also structure the task so that each student's contribution is important to the whole, and so that each has the chance to promote the others' success by helping, encouraging, and praising one another's efforts. No one is dispensable in cooperative learning.

A class debriefing and discussion should follow the group work. Students can then reflect on whether their group's goals were attained, whether they got along during group work, and what other strategies they would use next time. Through this process, students come to understand that the success of their group, and therefore their individual success, depends on each person's full participation. Debriefing is instructional for the teacher as well, providing useful feedback for shaping the next cooperative-learning project.

Tavegia also emphasizes that cooperative learning should be seen as an "instructional and learning opportunity, not a grading opportunity." This perspective, she adds, eliminates the concern that cooperative learning is "unfair because only a few might do all the work, while everyone gets the same grade. Everyone is unhappy when it is used for grading."

Cooperative learning provides opportunities for group learning that, sadly, are declining outside the classroom. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, contends that in light of declining opportunities for free play without adult supervision and meaningful ways to contribute to their communities, American kids are getting worse at cooperation, at being able to work things out and control their impulses. "You can't blow up in a group and get away with it," he says. "The group exerts a pressure, a force for helping a child want to learn to get along with others. It's a wonderful place to learn emotional intelligence."

Getting along with others, being able to see another's point of view, and managing one's own emotions help students stay on task and maintain positive peer relationships to achieve group goals. It also turns out that children who have these capabilities are better at paying attention, taking in information, and remembering what they read and hear. SEL programs teach such skills intentionally and experientially; cooperative learning provides opportunities for practice and reinforcement.

Small Part of a Bigger Picture

Many instructional methods are based on cooperative learning and SEL skills. For example, in the academic-controversy approach, teams of students research and present first one side of an issue and then the other. Then they work with an opposing team to develop a report that combines the best points from both perspectives.

Another example is called the jigsaw, in which each student takes responsibility for preparing and presenting part of a lesson to the others in a group. Even though each child prepares only part of a lesson (a piece of the puzzle), all receive the entire lesson (the entire puzzle) because of the complementary roles of teacher and learner they have assumed.

Cooperative group learning using SEL skills is also central to project-based learning, where a group of students studies a real-world problem using original documents and data. (See "New Skills for a New Century: Students Thrive on Cooperation and Problem Solving.") The group work results in a report, which is often presented to families and the wider community and may include practical recommendations on ways to address the problem. Project-based learning gives students an appreciation of the complexity of real-world problems and the intellectual and SEL skills needed to solve them. This is also a powerful source of feedback and student learning.

Cooperative-learning groups are a key supporting instructional method used in teaching SEL skills. Although the sophistication of the SEL instruction will vary with children's developmental level, the characteristic feature of cooperative learning -- working together to achieve shared goals -- is the same regardless of grade level.

In the early elementary grades, for example, class meetings are a setting for cooperative learning of self-awareness, assimilating perspectives, and group problem solving. Children greet each other by name, share how they feel and perhaps present a favorite object from home, participate with their peers in a noncompetitive activity, and perhaps monitor progress on a classwide project.

In cross-age mentoring, a cooperative-learning method used in the upper elementary school and middle school grades, students of different ages work together over an extended time on academic or service-learning projects in every subject area imaginable -- language arts, social studies, and art assignments, as well as science, math, and technology projects. (Both older and younger children first learn and practice in the classroom the SEL skills they need to work well together.) Such projects offer rich opportunities to use and develop one's strengths, listen to and give feedback on alternative approaches, and resolve interpersonal conflicts.

What about the adults in the building? They, too, can benefit from cooperative learning that builds on their existing SEL competencies. Faculty and staff who participate in joint study, instructional planning, and teaching initiatives are energized, rather than overwhelmed, by all the new information coming their way every day. Changing the school climate as an individual seems herculean; reforming it as part of a cooperative venture becomes not only doable but also gratifying. Moreover, teachers who are engaged with other adults in the building in supportive and respectful ways are more likely to stay on the job and less likely to burn out.

Benefits Explored

Johnson and Johnson's research revealed that cooperative learning is consistently more effective than either competitive or individualistic learning in promoting student enhancement of intrinsic motivation and effort to achieve, material retained, the quality of interpersonal relationships, reasoning skills used, psychological health, and academic achievement. These learning outcomes held across various content areas, grade levels, countries, and decades.

Cooperative learning yields benefits whether students work together for only a few minutes in ad hoc groups to summarize and reflect on the key points of a lesson or are members of a yearlong study or a project-based-learning group. Even socially isolated students and emotionally disturbed adolescents learn SEL skills better and are more likely to interact appropriately with others when taught in cooperative-learning situations as opposed to more traditional ones.

Cooperative learning not only supports academic success but also teaches students that their own success is not dependent on opposing that of others. This is healthy preparation for participation in the complex and conflicted world of the early twenty-first century.

John W. Payton, Susan Munro, Mary Utne O'Brien, and Roger P. Weissberg work at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Common Ground: Teaching Kids the Benefits Of Working Together | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Side by side, seven-year-olds Anna and Frances work intently on a storyboard in which they are plotting out a book: Anna: What will we call it? Frances: How about The Mean Girls Club? Look, I can draw them with mean faces. Anna: Why are they mean? Frances: I don't know.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Not Just Group Work -- Productive Group Work!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To ensure productive group work, teachers must communicate expectations, strategically build groups, structure activities, scaffold work with a supportive classroom culture, and stress individual accountability.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Organize a Group (In a work setting)

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Organize a Group (In a work setting)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Roles of Team Members in an Organization

Many companies encourage a team environment. Team members help each other succeed to accomplish the company's goals and provide their expertise on different projects and duties. Each team has specific roles and are typically structured in a functional way. Companies create structural charts that clearly define the types of roles within departments. In a functional structure, it's designed by hierarchy, which is when the roles of each group are ranked one above another based on responsibility. Most organizations consist of the following roles:

Executive officers

Research and development team

Operations and production team

Sales and marketing team

Accounting and finance team

Now that we know about the different teams that make up an organization, let's learn more about their specific responsibilities and characteristics.

Team Member Responsibilities

The company assigns responsibilities that each team must accomplish in order to keep the company running and to produce profits. Let's take a look at what these are.

Executive officers are responsible for keeping the ship afloat. They work with all of the teams to create synergy and hold them accountable.

The research and development team has the responsibility of being innovative and keeping up with the latest trends and developments in whatever field the company is in. For example, tech companies like Apple have to stay innovative and creative for customers to care about their products. Their R&D team is responsible for researching the market and developing new technologies to stay ahead of their competition which explains the constant cell phone battle they have with Android phones makers.

The operations and production team is responsible for bringing the product to life. They receive the product's vision from the research team and then bring the product into its finished stage.

The sales and marketing team is responsible for bringing the product to market. They use several different methods to get the word out about their new invention. They usually do this through advertisements on TV, Internet, radio, and even printed mail to promote the product.

The accounting and finance team is the group that calculates the sales and reports back to everyone in regards to numbers. They bring everything full circle because the sales numbers this will trigger whether or not new developments or improvements need to be made, production needs to increase or decrease, or if sales and marketing teams need to refocus their direction.

Team Member Characteristics

Now, of course, everyone has different personalities and characteristics. However, if we could generalize each team by their personality characteristics, it'd probably look like the following:

Executive officers have dominant and forward-thinking characteristics. They typically have tough skin and determination. In this position, they take on many challenges and, depending on the outcome, can be the team's advocate or worst enemy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
responsibilities & characteristics - video & lesson transcript | study.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Team Members in an Organization: Roles, Responsibilities & Characteristics - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many companies encourage a team environment. Team members help each other succeed to accomplish the company's goals and provide their expertise on different projects and duties. Each team has specific roles and are typically structured in a functional way. Companies create structural charts that clearly define the types of roles within departments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Team Leader

A team leader is someone who provides direction, instructions and guidance to a group of individuals, who can also be known as a team, for the purpose of achieving a certain goal. An effective leader will know her team members' strengths, weaknesses and motivations.

Roles

Team leaders serve various roles in an organization. Their job is to get tasks done by using all of the resources available to them, including other employees or team members. Below is a list of some important roles a team leader must often take on:

Develop a strategy the team will use to reach its goal

Provide any training that team members need

Communicate clear instructions to team members

Listen to team members' feedback

Monitor team members' participation to ensure the training they are being provided is being put into use, and also to see if any additional training is needed

Manage the flow of day-to-day operations

Create reports to update the company on the team's progress

Distribute reports to the appropriate personnel

Responsibilities

A team leader is responsible for guiding a group of employees as they complete a project. They are responsible for developing and implementing a timeline their team will use to reach its end goal. Some of the ways team leaders ensure they reach their goals is by delegating tasks to their members, including themselves.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
role &  responsibilities - video & lesson transcript | study.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Is a Team Leader? - Description, Role & Responsibilities - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A team leader is someone who provides direction, instructions and guidance to a group of individuals, who can also be known as a team, for the purpose of achieving a certain goal. An effective leader will know her team members' strengths, weaknesses and motivations. Team leaders serve various roles in an organization.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lev Vygotsky and Social Learning Theories

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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 and communications with others.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cite this guide: Brame, C.J. & Biel, R. (2015). Setting up and facilitating group work:
Using cooperative learning groups effectively. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/setting-up-and-facilitating-group-work-using-cooperative-learning-groups-effectively/.

Many instructors from disciplines across the university use group work to enhance their students' learning. Whether the goal is to increase student understanding of content, to build particular transferable skills, or some combination of the two, instructors often turn to small group work to capitalize on the benefits of peer-to-peer instruction. This type of group work is formally termed cooperative learning, and is defined as the instructional use of small groups to promote students working together to maximize their own and each other's learning (Johnson, et al., 2008).

Cooperative learning is characterized by positive interdependence, where students perceive that better performance by individuals produces better performance by the entire group (Johnson, et al., 2014). It can be formal or informal, but often involves specific instructor intervention to maximize student interaction and learning. It is infinitely adaptable, working in small and large classes and across disciplines, and can be one of the most effective teaching approaches available to college instructors.

What can it look like?

Informal cooperative learning groups
In informal cooperative learning, small, temporary, ad-hoc groups of two to four students work together for brief periods in a class, typically up to one class period, to answer questions or respond to prompts posed by the instructor.

Additional examples of ways to structure informal group work
Think-pair-share
The instructor asks a discussion question. Students are instructed to think or write about an answer to the question before turning to a peer to discuss their responses. Groups then share their responses with the class.
Peer Instruction
This modification of the think-pair-share involves personal responses devices (e.g. clickers). The question posted is typically a conceptually based multiple-choice question. Students think about their answer and vote on a response before turning to a neighbor to discuss. Students can change their answers after discussion, and "sharing" is accomplished by the instructor revealing the graph of student response and using this as a stimulus for large class discussion. This approach is particularly well-adapted for large classes.
Jigsaw
In this approach, groups of students work in a team of four to become experts on one segment of new material, while other "expert teams" in the class work on other segments of new material. The class then rearranges, forming new groups that have one member from each expert team. The members of the new team then take turns teaching each other the material on which they are experts.
Formal cooperative learning groups
In formal cooperative learning students work together for one or more class periods to complete a joint task or assignment (Johnson et al., 2014). There are several features that can help these groups work well:

The instructor defines the learning objectives for the activity and assigns students to groups.

The groups are typically heterogeneous, with particular attention to the skills that are needed for success in the task.

Within the groups, students may be assigned specific roles, with the instructor communicating the criteria for success and the types of social skills that will be needed.

Importantly, the instructor continues to play an active role during the groups' work, monitoring the work and evaluating group and individual performance.

Instructors also encourage groups to reflect on their interactions to identify potential improvements for future group work.

This video shows an example of formal cooperative learning groups in David Matthes' class at the University of Minnesota:

There are many more specific types of group work that fall under the general descriptions given here, including team-based learning, problem-based learning, and process-oriented guided inquiry learning.

What's the theoretical underpinning?

The use of cooperative learning groups in instruction is based on the principle of constructivism, with particular attention to the contribution that social interaction can make. In essence, constructivism rests on the idea that individuals learn through building their own knowledge, connecting new ideas and experiences to existing knowledge and experiences to form new or enhanced understanding (Bransford, et al., 1999). The consideration of the role that groups can play in this process is based in social interdependence theory, which grew out of Kurt Koffka's and Kurt Lewin's identification of groups as dynamic entities that could exhibit varied interdependence among members, with group members motivated to achieve common goals. Morton Deutsch conceptualized varied types of interdependence, with positive correlation among group members' goal achievements promoting cooperation.

Lev Vygotsky extended this work by examining the relationship between cognitive processes and social activities, developing the sociocultural theory of development. The sociocultural theory of development suggests that learning takes place when students solve problems beyond their current developmental level with the support of their instructor or their peers. Thus both the idea of a zone of proximal development, supported by positive group interdependence, is the basis of cooperative learning (Davidson and Major, 2014; Johnson, et al., 2014).

Cooperative learning follows this idea as groups work together to learn or solve a problem, with each individual responsible for understanding all aspects. The small groups are essential to this process because students are able to both be heard and to hear their peers, while in a traditional classroom setting students may spend more time listening to what the instructor says.

Cooperative learning uses both goal interdependence and resource interdependence to ensure interaction and communication among group members. Changing the role of the instructor from lecturing to facilitating the groups helps foster this social environment for students to learn through interaction.

Is there evidence that it works?

David Johnson, Roger Johnson, and Karl Smith performed a meta-analysis of 168 studies comparing cooperative learning to competitive learning and individualistic learning in college students (Johnson et al., 2006). They found that cooperative learning produced greater academic achievement than both competitive learning and individualistic learning across the studies, exhibiting a mean weighted effect size of 0.54 when comparing cooperation and competition and 0.51 when comparing cooperation and individualistic learning. In essence, these results indicate that cooperative learning increases student academic performance by approximately one-half of a standard deviation when compared to non-cooperative learning models, an effect that is considered moderate. Importantly, the academic achievement measures were defined in each study, and ranged from lower-level cognitive tasks (e.g., knowledge acquisition and retention) to higher level cognitive activity (e.g., creative problem solving), and from verbal tasks to mathematical tasks to procedural tasks. The meta-analysis also showed substantial effects on other metrics, including self-esteem and positive attitudes about learning. George Kuh and colleagues also conclude that cooperative group learning promotes student engagement and academic performance (Kuh et al., 2007).

Springer, Stanne, and Donovan (1999) confirmed these results in their meta-analysis of 39 studies in university STEM classrooms. They found that students who participated in various types of small-group learning, ranging from extended formal interactions to brief informal interactions, had greater academic achievement, exhibited more favorable attitudes towards learning, and had increased persistence through STEM courses than students who did not participate in STEM small-group learning.

The box below summarizes three individual studies examining the effects of cooperative learning groups.

What are approaches that can help make group work effective?
Preparation Articulate your goals for the group work, including both the academic objectives you want the students to achieve and the social skills you want them to develop. Determine the group conformation that will help meet your goals.
In informal group learning, groups often form ad hoc from near neighbors in a class.

In formal group learning, it is helpful for the instructor to form groups that are heterogeneous with regard to particular skills or abilities relevant to group tasks. For example, groups may be heterogeneous with regard to academic skill in the discipline or with regard to other skills related to the group task (e.g., design capabilities, programming skills, writing skills, organizational skills) (Johnson et al, 2006).

Groups from 2-6 are generally recommended, with groups that consist of three members exhibiting the best performance in some problem-solving tasks (Johnson et al., 2006; Heller and Hollabaugh, 1992).

To avoid common problems in group work, such as dominance by a single student or conflict avoidance, it can be useful to assign roles to group members (e.g., manager, skeptic, educator, conciliator) and to rotate them on a regular basis (Heller and Hollabaugh, 1992). Assigning these roles is not necessary in well-functioning groups, but can be useful for students who are unfamiliar with or unskilled at group work.
Choose an assessment method that will promote positive group interdependence as well as individual accountability.
In team-based learning, two approaches promote positive interdependence and individual accountability. First, students take an individual readiness assessment test, and then immediately take the same test again as a group. Their grade is a composite of the two scores. Second, students complete a group project together, and receive a group score on the project. They also, however, distribute points among their group partners, allowing student assessment of members' contributions to contribute to the final score.

Heller and Hollabaugh (1992) describe an approach in which they incorporated group problem-solving into a class. Students regularly solved problems in small groups, turning in a single solution. In addition, tests were structured such that 25% of the points derived from a group problem, where only those individuals who attended the group problem-solving sessions could participate in the group test problem. This approach can help prevent the "free rider" problem that can plague group work.

The University of New South Wales describes a variety of ways to assess group work, ranging from shared group grades, to grades that are averages of individual grades, to strictly individual grades, to a combination of these. They also suggest ways to assess not only the product of the group work but also the process. Again, having a portion of a grade that derives from individual contribution helps combat the free rider problem.
Helping groups get started Explain the group's task, including your goals for their academic achievement and social interaction. Explain how the task involves both positive interdependence and individual accountability, and how you will be assessing each.
Assign group roles or give groups prompts to help them articulate effective ways for interaction. The University of New South Wales provides a valuable set of tools to help groups establish good practices when first meeting. The site also provides some exercises for building group dynamics; these may be particularly valuable for groups that will be working on larger projects.

Regularly observe group interactions and progress, either by circulating during group work, collecting in-process documents, or both. When you observe problems, intervene to help students move forward on the task and work together effectively. The University of New South Wales provides handouts that instructors can use to promote effective group interactions, such as a handout to help students listen reflectively or give constructive feedback, or to help groups identify particular problems that they may be encountering.

Assessing and reflecting

In addition to providing feedback on group and individual performance (link to preparation section above), it is also useful to provide a structure for groups to reflect on what worked well in their group and what could be improved. Graham Gibbs (1994) suggests using the checklists shown below.

The University of New South Wales provides other reflective activities that may help students identify effective group practices and avoid ineffective practices in future cooperative learning experiences.

References

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., and Cocking, R.R. (Eds.) (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Bruffee, K. A. (1993). Collaborative learning: Higher education, interdependence, and the authority of knowledge. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Cabrera, A. F., Crissman, J. L., Bernal, E. M., Nora, A., Terenzini, P. T., & Pascarella, E. T. (2002). Collaborative learning: Its impact on college students' development and diversity. Journal of College Student Development, 43(1), 20-34.

Davidson, N., & Major, C. H. (2014). Boundary crossing: Cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25 (3&4), 7-55.

Dees, R. L. (1991). The role of cooperative leaning in increasing problem-solving ability in a college remedial course. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 22(5), 409-21.

Gokhale, A. A. (1995). Collaborative Learning enhances critical thinking. Journal of Technology Education, 7(1).

Heller, P., and Hollabaugh, M. (1992) Teaching problem solving through cooperative grouping. Part 2: Designing problems and structuring groups. American Journal of Physics 60, 637-644.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. (2006). Active learning: Cooperation in the university classroom (3 rd edition). Edina, MN: Interaction.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Holubec, E.J. (2008). Cooperation in the classroom (8 th edition). Edina, MN: Interaction.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. (2014). Cooperative learning: Improving university instruction by basing practice on validated theory. Journl on Excellence in College Teaching 25, 85-118.

Jones, D. J., & Brickner, D. (1996). Implementation of cooperative learning in a large-enrollment basic mechanics course. American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference Proceedings.

Kuh, G.D., Kinzie, J., Buckley, J., Bridges, B., and Hayek, J.C. (2007). Piecing together the student success puzzle: Research, propositions, and recommendations (ASHE Higher Education Report, No. 32). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Love, A. G., Dietrich, A., Fitzgerald, J., & Gordon, D. (2014). Integrating collaborative learning inside and outside the classroom. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25(3&4), 177-196.

Smith, M. E., Hinckley, C. C., & Volk, G. L. (1991). Cooperative learning in the undergraduate laboratory. Journal of Chemical Education 68(5), 413-415.

Springer, L., Stanne, M. E., & Donovan, S. S. (1999). Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 96(1), 21-51.

Uribe, D., Klein, J. D., & Sullivan, H. (2003). The effect of computer-mediated collaborative learning on solving ill-defined problems. Educational Technology Research and Development, 51(1), 5-19.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Group work: Using cooperative learning groups effectively

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Cynthia J. Brame and Rachel Biel Print Version Cite this guide: Brame, C.J. & Biel, R. (2015). Setting up and facilitating group work: Using cooperative learning groups effectively. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/setting-up-and-facilitating-group-work-using-cooperative-learning-groups-effectively/. Many instructors from disciplines across the university use group work to enhance their students' learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What are the benefits of group work? - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Implement Group Work in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Implement Group Work in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Implementing Group Work in the Classroom | Centre for Teaching Excellence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making sk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Keeping a classroom environment stimulating will help stimulate a student's mind, and make them better thinkers and learners.

So says Rod Pitcher, education expert, who looks at a stimulating classroom environment and how it can benefit students in an article on EducationHQ.com. The classroom, Pitcher said, "should include lots of books, visual materials and activities. All these requirement should be aimed at attracting and keeping the child's interest and promoting questioning and discussion. It is obvious, I think, that these facilities must be suited to the child's age and level of education."

"Expecting children, particularly young ones, to sit at a desk all day and learn is not the way to go," he said. "Children, particularly young ones, need to move around and do different activities. However, for the best results these activities must be related to their learning. Thus the children will be stimulated to learn, particularly if they are rewarded for doing well by being given access to facilities that have to be earned by correct responses and actions."

Pitcher said having a stimulating environment "will stimulate the students to do well and strive to do better."

"Anything that stimulates their minds will encourage them to take an interest and thus learn about the subject," he said. "Activities that promote thinking and attempting to answer questions will encourage the child to strive for answers, providing it is done properly and in such a way that it stimulates the child's interest."

Pitcher said "if the student is not interested in the topic being taught and nothing is done to stimulate and build an interest then learning will not take place."

"A major factor in providing a stimulating and creative environment in the classroom is the attitude of the teacher," he said. "A teacher who is interested in the topic being taught and the student's development will naturally provide stimulus to the students and they will respond in turn by learning and being interested in the topic. A teacher who is bored and uninterested will only pass that attitude onto the students who will then, in turn, not be interested in the topic being taught and so will not learn anything."

Pitcher said a stimulating classroom environment will also motivate the teacher to do better.

"If his/her students are interested in the work and learning about it then the teacher will in turn be stimulated to make the lessons more interesting," he said. "Thus a stimulating, creative classroom environment is to everyone's benefit. It will feed back onto itself and become more and more stimulating and creative to the benefit of teacher and students."

Read the full story.

Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Opinion: Stimulating Classroom Environments Help Students, Teachers | Education World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Keeping a classroom environment stimulating will help stimulate a student's mind, and make them better thinkers and learners. So says Rod Pitcher, education expert, who looks at a stimulating classroom environment and how it can benefit students in an article on EducationHQ.com. The classroom, Pitcher said, "should include lots of books, visual materials and activities.