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An Overview of Cooperative Learning What the research says about cooperative learning The current debate in education at the start of this century is focused on how we can continue to help students to be successful both academically and socially. This resource is intended to provide the reader with a review of the extensive research on Cooperative Learning. While this model of instruction is the most researched innovation in education many educators are unaware of the potential this strategy has to address the issues raised in the recent Pisa study. |
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| Professional Learning Communities In education circles, the term learning community has become commonplace. It is being used to mean any number of things, such as extending classroom practice into the community; bringing community personnel into the school to enhance the curriculum and learning tasks for students; or engaging students, teachers, and administrators simultaneously in learning - to suggest just a few. Elements of Cooperative learning Individual Accountability/Personal Responsibility The third essential element of cooperative learning is individual accountability, which exists when the performance of individual students is assessed, the results are given back to the individual and the group, and the student is held responsible by group mates for contributing his or her fair share to the group's success. More about Individual Accountability/Personal Responsibility What children can do together today, they can do alone tomorrow. (Let Vygotsky, 1962) Among the early settlers of Massachusetts there was a saying, "If you do not work, you do not eat." Everyone had to do their fair share of the work. The third essential element of cooperative learning is individual accountability, which exists when the performance of individual students is assessed, the results are given back to the individual and the group, and the student is held responsible by group mates for contributing his or her fair share to the group´s success. It is important that the group-knows who needs more assistance, support, and encouragement in completing the assignment. It is also important that group members know they cannot "hitchhike" on the work of others. When it is difficult to identify members' contributions, when members' contributions are redundant, and when members are not responsible for the final group outcome, they may be seeking a free ride (Harkins & Petty, 1982; Ingham, Levinger, Graves, & Peckham, 1974; Kerr & Bruun, 1981; Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979; Moede, 1927; Petty, 1-larkins, Williams, & Latane, 1977; Williams, 1981; Williams, Harkins, & Latane, 1981). This is called social loafing. Types of Positive Interdependence Jigsaw Read your assigned material and determine how to teach your section in an interesting way to your home group. Teaching cooperative learning Classroom strategies that support student success
A little planning at the beginning of school (and during the school year) can really help develop a cooperative caring environment in your school and in your classroom. Such environment help our students to be successful and perhaps more importantly happy and secure. Getting started on the right foot can make all the difference. Here are some things to consider as you plan for the months ahead. Team Building: Getting Students Ready to Work Together. Teambuilding activities increase the ability of students to work together. The process of developing teams involves building relationships so that members of the team feel connected to one another. Just because we put students into teams does not mean that they will work well in teams. Many students have had bad experiences working in teams, and therefore we should not be surprised when students are skeptical when asked to work with others.
Researchers at Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) have identified nine instructional strategies that are most likely to improve student achievement across all content areas and across all grade levels. These strategies are explained in the book, Classroom Instruction That Works, by Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane Pollock. Note the presence of cooperative learning in this list. Learning and teaching the "What" and "How" It is often stated that schools over emphasize the logical/mathematical and verbal /linguistic intelligences. And it is often observed and discovered in the Pisa test; students are really working at low level skills. In teaching for thinking, we are interested in how students produce knowledge rather than how they merely reproduce it. Intelligent behavior is performed in response to questions and problems, the answers to which are NOT immediately known. Thus, we are interested in focusing on student performance under those challenging conditions that demand strategic reasoning, insightfulness, perseverance, creativity, and craftsmanship to resolve complex problems. Shared Pair Circles (Inside Outside Circle) This thought-provoking strategy has several benefits. It allows students to work in pairs within larger groups or even in whole class situations. Students are given the opportunity to work with each member of the group on a one to one basis. Among its advantages are that each student is involved and has to contribute, students have to listen as well as talk and all students have to interact with each other, even those who might not normally choose to work together. The strategy can be used as a lead up to small group work, to develop group roles, cooperation and as a variation to the Thinking Aloud Pair Problem Solving approach. This strategy is not necessarily a lesson in itself, but is more likely to be part of a lesson. In this strategy, children are taught to be conscious of the mental processing they use - to be metacognitive. This simple strategy encourages students to describe how they would solve problems. Provision is made for the teacher or peers to observe the processes students use and to provide feedback about those processes. It leads to students acquiring a wider range of problem solving strategies. A possible method of introduction could be as follows: Possible Uses of Cooperative Learning Activities Inquiry Strategy t o Deal with a Puzzling Problem
In this strategy, a puzzling problem is presented to students. They ask questions to gain more information, but only Yes/No responses are given. This requires children to ask more effective questions. The aim of this strategy is to get students to search out and process data, to apply logic to information and to inquire in a disciplined way. The emphasis is on the inquiry process rather than on finding one particular solution to a problem. Cooperative Conflict Resolution This strategy is a variation of pair problem solving. It encourages students to see both sides of an argument and can be used as a way for students to discuss issues. It promotes communication, cooperative problem solving and critical thinking. Although the teacher may wish to narrow the focus of the student´s discussion to a particular area, e.g. environment, this activity works best when students have a degree of ownership of the problem they are addressing. Listen Think Pair Share Problem Solving One approach to the solving of problems or discussing of issues is the Listen-Think-Pair-Share strategy. Research has shown that allowing students "wait time" for silent thinking after questions are posed, leads students to give more elaborate answers, use more logical arguments to support inferences and give more speculative responses. It also encourages increased discussion and participation as well as leading to improved achievement. The strategy uses a cooperative learning situation in which student´s involvement promotes increased verbal interaction resulting in the development of positive attitudes to learning. Sample Lesson Plans & Academic Activities
The following activities can be modified to use in most subject areas. They can also be ashy put into the lesson plan format. The amount of time necessary for each activity varies depending on the Content, student skill |
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Change management and school development Changing the Context What Can a Principal Do? Everyone would agree that the context is changing; few define reform as changing the context for the better. The leader's job is to help change context - to introduce new elements into the situation that are bound to influence behavior for the better. Principals Who Make a Difference Laura Carson - vivacious, energetic 40-ish - appears most comfortable with her arm around a child. She serves as an elementary principal in a district of 29 schools that has generally hired from within. She was the exception. Laura joined the district with a well-earned reputation as a maverick (doesn't follow accepted practice) from a small neighboring community. Becoming a Community of Learners: Emerging Leadership Practices The following questions will help you reflect on your leadership and practices in your school. This checklist has the benefits and limits of all checklists. While comprehensive, it cannot cover all of the special issues that make up the unique context of your school. This checklist that we offer is not provided with the intention of making you feel guilt or shame at what you're not doing. Rather we have designed this checklist to stimulate your thinking about what you are doing and what you might consider doing in the future. Thus, we view this checklist as a catalyst for flexible action, rather than as a straitjacket to make you conform to an image of the "good principal". |
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