COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Introduction

 Cooperative learning is an educational approach to teaching and learning that involves

groups of learners working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a
product.
 Cooperative learning is based on the idea that learning is a naturally social act in which
the participants talk among themselves.
 Cooperative Learning (CL) is a philosophy. In all situations where people come
together in groups, it suggests a way of dealing with people which respects and
highlights individual group members’ abilities and contributions.
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 Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work
together to maximize their own and each other’s learning (Johnson and Johnson, 1993,
p. 9).
 Further these are principles and techniques for helping students work together more
effectively (Jacobs, Power, & Loh, 2002, p. 1). According to UNESCO 2003:
 Cooperative learning is the process of getting two or more students to work together to
learn. Students often work in small groups composed of participants with differing
ability levels and using a variety of learning activities to master material initially
developed by an instructor, or construct knowledge on substantive issues. Each member
of the team is responsible for learning what is taught and for helping teammates learn
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 Cooperative learning creates the special learning environment that is open for any kind
of beneficial information, exchange of ideas, trust building, sharing of ideas, and
ongoing cooperative process.
 Learners work together, participating in various groups and teams. That is why the
definition “learning community” is so often mixed with such definitions as “learning
teams”, “partnerships”, or “mentorships”.
 A sense of a learning community can only be created within an online course, or
“virtual university”, under the certain circumstances.
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 The cooperative learning is based on constructivist theory that knowledge is socially

produced by communities of inhabitants, and each person could get this awareness if he
would join these communities.
 The inhabitants share their ideas, experiences, way of thinking, information, and
within this practice of exchange of ideas, they come to the consideration of what is
important and acceptable for the other members of the group, and for the group on the
whole.
 The main ability that students get within collaboration is the skill to listen to other
people; to respect their views, understand the substitute points of view, not rejecting the
personality, but at the same time, remaining the associated member of the community.
COOPERATIVE LEARNING PRINCIPLES

 Many principles have been proposed for cooperative learning. Below is one list of eight
such principles. .
 Heterogeneous Grouping. This principle means that the groups in which students do
cooperative learning tasks are mixed on one or more of a number of variables including
sex, ethnicity, social class, religion, personality, age, language proficiency, and
diligence.
 Collaborative Skills. Collaborative skills such as giving reasons are those needed to
work with others. Students may lack these skills, the language involved in using the
skills, or the inclination to apply the skills. Most books and websites on cooperative
learning urge that collaborative skills be explicitly taught one at a time.
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 Group Autonomy. This principle encourages students to look to themselves for

resources rather than relying solely on the teacher. When student groups are having
difficulty, it is very tempting for teachers to intervene either in a particular group or
with the entire class. We may sometimes want to resist this temptation because as
Roger Johnson writes, “Teachers must trust the peer interaction to do many of the
things they have felt responsible for themselves”.
 Simultaneous Interaction (Kagan, 1994). In classrooms in which group activities are
not used, the normal interaction pattern is that of sequential interaction in which one
person at a time – usually the teacher – speaks. In contrast, when group activities are
used, one student per group is speaking. In a class of 40 divided into groups of four, ten
students are speaking simultaneously, i.e., 40 students divided into 4 students per group
= 10 students (1 per group) speaking at the same time.
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 Equal Participation (Kagan, 1994). A frequent problem in groups is that one or two
group members dominate the group and for whatever reason, impede the participation
of others. Cooperative learning offers many ways of promoting more equal
participation among group members.
 Individual Accountability. When we try to encourage individual accountability in
groups, we hope that everyone will try to learn and to share their knowledge and ideas
with others.
 Positive Interdependence. This principle lies at the heart of CL. When positive
interdependence exists among members of a group, they feel that what helps one
member of the group helps the other members and that what hurts one member of the
group hurts the other members. It is this “All for one, one for all” feeling that leads
group members to want to help each other, to see that they share a common goal.
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 Cooperation as a Value. This principle means that rather than cooperation being only
a way to learn, i.e., the how of learning, cooperation also becomes part of the content to
be learned, i.e., the what of learning. This flows naturally from the most crucial
cooperative learning principle, positive interdependence. Cooperation as a value
involves taking the feeling of “All for one, one for all” and expanding it beyond the
small classroom group to encompass the whole class, the whole school, on and on,
bringing in increasingly greater numbers of people and other beings into students’
circle of ones with whom to cooperate.
STRATEGIES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Cooperative learning strategies could be used in the planning, translating and reviewing.
The teachers should encourage the students to participate in good discussions. Different
cooperative strategies included:
 1. Jigsaw: Groups with five students are set up. The faculty member divides an
assignment or topic to the group. Each student is assigned some material to learn and to
teach to his group members. The representative of the students working on the same
topic gets together and discusses the important concepts and the ways to teach it to the
whole class. After the practice in these “expert” groups the original groups get together
and teach each other. Tests and assessments follow.
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 Think-Pair-Share: This is a simple and quick technique; the instructor develops and
poses questions preferable one demanding analysis, gives the students a few minutes to
think about a response, and then asks students to share their ideas with a partner. This
“think-time” can be spent writing, also. Students then turn to a partner and share their
responses. This task gives them opportunity to collect and organize their thoughts.
“Pair” and “share’ components encourage learners to compare and contrast their
understanding with those of another, and to rehearse their response first in a low-risk
situation before going public with the whole class. And then responses can be shared
within a four-person learning team, within a larger group, or with an entire class during
a follow-up discussion. All students have an opportunity to learn by reflection and by
verbalization.
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 Three-Step Interview: Common as an ice-breaker or a team-building exercise, this

structure can also be used also to share information such as hypotheses or reactions to a
film or article. In it each member of a team chooses another member to be a partner. In
the first step students form dyads (pair of individuals); one student interviews the other.
Then Students switch roles. And at the third step the dyad links with a second dyad.
This four-member learning team then discusses the information or insights gleaned
from the initial paired interviews.
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 Numbered Heads Together: Members of learning teams usually composed of four

individuals, count off: 1, 2, 3, or 4, the instructor poses a question, usually factual in
nature, but requiring some higher order thinking skills. Students discuss the question,
making certain that every group member knows the agreed upon answer. The instructor
calls a specific number and the team members originally designated that number during
the count off respond as group spokespersons. Because no one knows which number
the teacher will call, all team members have a vested interest in understanding the
appropriate response. Again, students benefit from the verbalization, and the peer
coaching helps both the high and the low achievers. Class time is usually better spent
because less time is wasted on inappropriate responses and because all students become
actively involved with the material.
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 Round Robin: It is primarily a brainstorming technique in which students generate

ideas but do not elaborate, explain, evaluate, or question the ideas. Group members
take turns responding to a question with words, phrases, or short answers.
 The order of responses is organized by proceeding from one student to another until all
students have had an opportunity to speak. This technique helps generating many ideas
because all students participate, because it discourages comments that interrupt or
inhibit the flow or ideas. The ideas could be used to develop a piece of good paragraph
on a given topic.
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 Three-minute review: Teacher stops any time during a lecture or discussion on the
various formats of letter writing, report writing, etc and give team members three
minutes to review what has been said, ask clarifying questions or answer questions.

 7. Numbered Heads: A team of four is established. Each member is given number 1,

2, 3 and four. Questions are asked of the group. Groups work together to answer the
questions so that all can verbally answer the questions. Teacher calls out a number
(three) and the number three in each group is asked to give the answer. This could be
used for comprehension exercises.
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 Buzz Groups: Buzz groups are teams of four to six students that are formed quickly
and extemporaneously. They discuss on a particular topic or different topics allotted to
them. The discussion is informal and they exchange the ideas. Buzz Groups serve as a
warm-up to whole-class discussion. They are effective for generating information and
ideas in a short period of time. This technique could be used to write essays on current
issues.
 Talking Chips: In talking chips, students participate in a group discussion,
surrendering a token each time they speak. This technique ensures equitable
participation by regulating how often each group member is allowed to participate. This
technique encourages silent students to participate and solve communication or process
problems, such as dominating or clashing group members.
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 Critical Debate: This activity could be used while drafting argumentative essays. In
this individual students select their side of an issue in contrary to their own views. They
form teams and discuss, present, and argue the issue against the opposing team. It
exposes the class to a focused, in-depth, multiple-perspective analysis of issues. It can
move students beyond simple dualistic thinking, deepen their understanding of an issue,
and help them to recognize the range of perspectives inherent in complex topics. This
technique is suitable for tertiary level students.
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 Write Around: For creative writing or summarizing, teachers could give a sentence
starter (for e.g. If there were no plants on the earth. A man met an alien on the sea
shore) then all students in each team have to finish the sentence. Then, they pass the
paper to the right, read the one they receive, and add sentence to than one. After a few
round, four summaries or stories emerge. Students should be given time to add a
conclusion and/or edit their favorite one to share with the class.
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 Praise-Question-Polish: In this technique the group members take turns to read aloud
their papers as their other group members follow along with copies. First, the
respondents are asked to react to the piece of writing by asking them to identify what
they liked about the work (Praise), then identify what portion of the writing they did
not understand (Question), finally offering specific suggestions for improvement of the
writing (Polish). The students would be able to improve their own writing by critically
evaluating the writing of their peers.
COOPERATIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES

Roundtable
 Roundtable structures can be used to brainstorm ideas and to generate a large number
of responses to a single question or a group of questions.
  Faculty poses question.
  One piece of paper and pen per group.
  First student writes one response, and says it out loud.
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 First student passes paper to the left, second student writes response, etc.
 Continues around group until time elapses.
 Students may say “pass” at any time.
 Group stops when time is called.
Paired Annotations
 Students pair up to review/learn same article, chapter or content area and exchange
double-entry journals (see below) for reading and reflection.
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Focused Listing
 Focused listing can be used as a brainstorming technique or as a technique to generate
descriptions and definitions for concepts. Focused listing asks the students to generate
words to define or describe something. Once students have completed this activity, you
can use these lists to facilitate group and class discussion.
 Example: Ask students to list 5-7 words or phrases that describe or define what a
motivated student does. From there, you might ask students to get together in small
groups to discuss the lists, or to select the one that they can all agree on. Combine this
technique with a number of the other techniques and you can have a powerful
cooperative learning structure.
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Structured Problem-solving
 Structured problem-solving can be used in conjunction with several other cooperative
learning structures.
  Have the participants brainstorm or select a problem for them to consider.
  Assign numbers to members of each group (or use playing cards). Have each
member of the group be a different number or suit.
  Discuss task as group.
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One Minute Papers

 Ask students to comment on the following questions. Give them one minute and time
them. This activity focuses them on the content and can also provide feedback to you as
a teacher.
  What was the most important or useful thing you learned today?
  What two important questions do you still have; what remains unclear?
  What would you like to know more about?
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The Make-up of a Cooperative Learning Session

Members of effective cooperative learning groups have specific roles. Each
member may assume several roles at a given session; in fact, for smaller groups it will be
necessary for each member to have more than one duty.
 Chair or Leader
 Time Keeper
 Room Scheduler
 Resource Arranger
 Group Process Evaluator