Cooperative learning and retention
INSTRUCTION
The organizer reads all the instructions out loud and makes sure that everyone understands.
The individual task is to read one resource card and take notes. If there are more resource
cards than group members, the ones who finish reading their own card within the time limit,
also read the extra cards.
The group task has two parts: A and B.
The aim of the A-task is to discuss together the content of the resource cards and hear each
specialists report from the specialist group.
The B-task is different for each group.
RULES
1. Everyone got a specific role within the group but everybody is responsible for the whole
process and the result of the group.
3. The group is responsible for the inclusion of everyone in the working process.
4. The whole group is responsible for the presentation. The entire group comes before the
class. Each group-member is available and should be able to answer the questions of the
public and the trainer.
A
Resource card A
Questions and answers from Spencer Kagan
What are the advantages of adults coming together
into groups to learn? How can the presence of other
learners help, or hinder, our students participants?
We have seen that part of the task of the teacher of adults is to build on the natural learning processes which all
adults engage in, making these processes more conscious and more effective. In our learning episodes, we rely
on the experience of others as much as on our own, experience to engage in critical reflection, using search and
select techniques. Much acquisition learning is done with and from other people Imitation, comparison of
ourselves against others, and feedback are essential elements in our natural learning processes.
Four main values appear to flow from the use of groups in teaching adults:
1. Supportive environment. There is a sense of solidarity in a group in which the student/participant can
undertake the task more easily. The social context is one where all the members of the group are
engaged in the same activity. The individuals will be supported by the group. With many adult students,
it is their vulnerability that is most touched upon in learning and the group can provide the security
needed for personal development. The group rewards success and gives confidence.
2. Challenge. The group provides an additional challenge to the learner. We meet new ranges of views,
prejudices and experiences, all of them calling for learning changes and widening horizons.
3. Building complex structures. The group, drawing upon the increased variety of experience possessed by
its members, can build larger and more complex cognitive structures, can create more satisfying
products, can present a wider range of possible solutions to problems, can bring into play more
evaluative judgments than can any learning environment consisting of teachers and student interaction
only.
4. Dynamic. The group has a life of its own, a momentum that carries the participant along, helps to create
and maintain motivation, and sets a pace of learning that is satisfying to most of its members. Loyalty to
the group will often bring about greater effort at particular times than any demand the teacher can
make. The teacher’s task is these areas greatly eased. (Rogers p. 75)“Teachers have the option of structuring lessons competitively, individualistically, or cooperatively. The decisions
teachers make in structuring lessons can influence students' interactions with others, knowledge, and attitudes. In a
competitively structured classroom, students engage in a win-lose struggle in an effort to determine who is best. In
competitive classrooms students perceive that they can obtain their goals only if the other students in the class fail to
obtain their own goals. Students in independently structured classrooms work by themselves to accomplish goals
unrelated to those of the other students. In a cooperative learning classroom student’s work together to attain common
goals that cannot be obtained by working alone or competitively. In this classroom structure, students discuss subject
matter, help each other learn, and provide encouragement for member of the group.
Cooperative learning, as an instructional methodology provides opportunities for students to develop skills in group
interactions and in working with others that are needed in today's world. In addition, cooperative learning should result in
positive effects on student achievement and retention of information. “(Jim Flowers)
B
Resource card B
Cooperative Learning: Preparing students to take their place in a democratic
society
Cooperative learning is not group work – group work is allowing some students to do most or all of the
work while others do minimal or none of the work. According to Kagan (1999), cooperative learning
activities embody four elements, referred to as PIES: Positive interdependence, Individual accountability,
Equal participation and Simultaneous interaction.
Positive interdependence means a "win-win" condition in which the success of one student is linked to the
success of others in the class in a positive way. In other words, students need each other to succeed, and a
gain for one student is a gain for others. In this kind of relationship, students care about each other and
help each other so that all learn. In the positively interdependent relationship, a loss for one student is a
loss for the whole group; in other words, the failure of one member is not merely an individual failure but a
group failure, if the group did not adequately support the learner. Yet an individual success can be a group
success if the group helped each team member succeed.
Individual Accountability centers on personal responsibility for achievement, participation and listening.
Using team points based on individual participation and color-coding individual contributions are two ways
to hold each student accountable for his contribution.
Equal participation means that all students receive the same chances and incentives to be involved in class.
If you use careful task design (e.g. the task has equal sized and equal status roles for all participants in the
activity, rewards, and accountability procedures to encourage equal participation. For example in Timed
Pair Share, each member is given exactly the same amount of time to speak. Without using a structure for
example, just asking two students to talk for four minutes, versus to alternate speaking for two minutes
each; the teacher may find that one student is doing far more or even all of the talking; this could be, for
example the higher status student, the more confident student, or the more extraverted student. However,
a structure such as Timed Pair Share requires that both students speak for the same amount of time,
regardless of individual differences of age, background, personality, or language skill
Simultaneous Interaction involves high levels of student engagement for all students at the same time.
Simultaneous interaction means that all students are actively engaged at the same time during the class. An
example would be 20 pairs of students in a 40-person class all talking/listening simultaneously, as opposed
to one student out of 40 answering a teacher's question, while all the others are or are not listening or
participating.
“It must be emphasized that the success of cooperative learning is, in large parts, determined by the
quality of the activity in which students are asked to participate. If cooperative learning is simply used for
completing repetitions drill and practice worksheets as part of a lock-step, skills-based curriculum, it is
unlikely that students will be motivated to do their best work, to exercise creativity or to employ higher-
order reasoning abilities. ... The greater the input of students themselves in the selection of topics and
themes for cooperative learning, the more motivated and empowered they will be to become self-directed
learners. “ JoAnne W. Putnam
Cooperative learning is an instructional tool that capitalizes on one of the greatest
untapped educational resources available – the students themselves. (Slavin, 1987)
C
Resource card C
There is a lot of pressure to cover the curriculum.
How can I cover the curriculum if I allow time for
student discussions, teambuilding, class building,
and even silly energizers?
If we want to cover as much curriculum as possible, we need to stand in front of our class, talk fast, and
allow no interruptions, student questions, or student discussion. We will cover the most curriculum possible
that way, but students will understand, enjoy, and retain little.
The goal of covering the curriculum is noble only if it includes teaching with understanding and
appreciation. And if we want our students to understand and appreciate our curriculum, we need to stop
talking on a regular basis and let them talk. It is through student discourse and the interaction of different
ideas that students construct meaning. Often it is through peer tutoring and coaching that skills are
cemented. Actually, we retain a great deal more of what we say than what we hear; there is an inverse
relation between teacher talk and student learning!
But there is more to the story. In today’s world, information is fast outdated. It is estimated that the half-life
of knowledge for a graduating engineer or psychologist is less than five years. That is, half the information
they acquire in school will be outdated within five years! The implication of this is profound: If we are to
provide our students with skills for success, we must imbue a love of learning. If they are to be successful,
our students must become lifelong learners. If they get 100% on our tests, but hate the subject matter and
do not leave our class hungry to learn more, we have failed them! The class building, teambuilding, and
energizers create a positive class climate conducive to that fundamental goal: creating a love of learning.
The energizers serve another function. Have you ever been in a lecture and found your mind wandering
while the presenter kept talking? We can only take in so much before we need to process what has been
said. We can only sit so long before we become exhausted from inhibiting our impulses to move. By
inclusion of frequent processing time, brain-breaks, and energizers, a good teacher keeps the energy in the
room high and minds focused. What is better: 1) Presenting the curriculum 100% of the time with little
student energy and enthusiasm and their minds half focused? Or, 2) Presenting the curriculum 80% of the
time with high student energy and focused alertness? Retention for content, as well as a love for learning, is
increased by teambuilding, class building, frequent brain breaks, and energizers.
Role of the teacher
The role of the teacher is very important in cooperative learning. To have an effective cooperative learning
group teachers must know their students well. Grouping of students can be a difficult process and must be
decided with care. Teachers must consider the different learning skills, cultural background, personalities,
and even gender when arranging cooperative groups. Much time is devoted to prepare the lesson for
cooperative learning. However, teachers fade in the background and become a coach, facilitate, or and
sometimes a spectator after the lesson is implemented. Teachers who set up a good cooperative lesson
teach students to teach themselves and each other. Students learn from their peers and become less
dependent on the teacher for help.
D
Resource card D
What about vocational students? How does Cooperative learning
benefit an electrician or hairdresser? Is this not primarily a teaching
approach that benefit the academic subjects?
Cooperative learning is gaining the attention of vocational educators who must prepare
students for employment in a workplace increasingly focused on teamwork. It is a model that
provides opportunities for students to explore concepts and develop interpersonal skills that
enhance their learning. Research shows that cooperative learning promotes higher self-esteem
among students and more positive attitudes toward others. Students who participate in
cooperative learning groups are reported to realize greater achievement and greater levels of
understanding, to have an ability to absorb content that requires higher levels of thinking, and
to be able to retain what they have learned longer.
A recently completed follow-up study of agricultural education graduates at Utah State University
underlined the need to teach students transferable as well as technical skills (Nelson and Long, 1988).
Those students who need this kind of experience the most are often last to volunteer for team practice.
Thus, we fine tune the skills of those who are already better able to think on their feet and to
communicate rather than those who need such practice most. One obvious recourse is to provide more
practice for students in class discussion.
Traditionally our schools focus on competitive and individualistic student interaction. One extremely
useful learning structure often overlooked by vocational educators called "cooperative learning"
provides for student interaction in a way that dramatically increases discussion and critical thinking
without sacrificing achievement.
Competitive learning can increase scholarship, but excessive competition can reduce motivation,
communication, and higher level learning. Schools that evaluate students on the basis of speed and
accuracy and grade on the curve find that students succeed, only if others with whom they compete,
fail. There is little motivation when so few succeed. Cooperative learning allows students to be
successful only if their team members also succeed. They share the same goals and are assigned to small
groups for face-to-face discussion. (Gilbert A. Long, Professor at Utah State University)
Cosmetology – The carpenters John and Dave - Who of the two would you hire?
Vocational school in
The carpenters John and Dave are both equally professional and good in their trade with
Iceland
equally long work experience.
The curriculum says
John is not very good in communication and cooperation skills. He can’t be bothered to
(among other things) „
listen to his co-workers on the side and he never tells them how he intends to proceed.
Students are supposed
He doesn’t communicate with other trades people like plumbers and electricians that are
to train independent
working on the same construction side and gets annoyed when they are in his way.
work and their abilities
Mostly he is annoyed by the costumers! They always have an opinion about how they
to cooperate with
want things to be but he doesn’t listen to them either. He does his job like he knows is
others... Beauticians
the best way and at the most suitable time for him and just ignores the others around
work in close proximity
him (he IS after all a very good carpenter!)
to their customers, it is
therefore very
Dave has very good communication and cooperation skills. He listens to his co-worker,
important to train
discusses with them about the best organization on side so that the work will have the
student’s
best quality and can be finished in the given time. He organizes with other trades people
communication skills
in which order they work so that nobody is in each other’s way and he discusses with the
and their ability to
customers about their wishes. After all its their house they are building!. He tries to put
understand customer
himself in other people’s shoes, makes compromises, is open minded and creates a good
needs”
atmosphere on the construction side.
E
Resource card E
Why drop-out? External reasons or bad school experience?
When 500 dropouts, ages 16-25 in USA, were interviewed, they gave many reasons for leaving
school:
• 47% said classes were not interesting
• 43% missed too many days to catch up
• 45% entered high school poorly prepared by their earlier schooling
• 69% said they were not motivated to work hard
• 35% said they were failing
• 32% said they left to get a job
• 25% left to become parents
• 22% left to take care of a relative
What's in It for My Students?
Based on the experiences of thousands of classroom teachers,
these are the benefits of cooperative learning:
• Student achievement. The effects on student achievement are
positive and long-lasting, regardless of grade level or subject
matter.
Fire Alarm
• Student retention. Students are more apt to stay in school and
not drop out because their contributions are solicited, Ability grouping is when all
respected, and celebrated. the “low-ability” students
are placed in one group, all
• Improved relations. One of the most positive benefits is that the “high-ability” students
students who cooperate with each other also tend to are placed in another group,
and all the “medium-ability”
understand and like each other more. This is particularly true
students are placed in a
for members of different ethnic groups. Relationships between
third group .
students with learning disabilities and other students in the
class improve dramatically as well. Today, we know that such
grouping practices promote
• Improved critical thinking skills. More opportunities for critical inequality and are
thinking skills are provided, and students show a significant counterproductive to the
learning process.
improvement in those thinking skills.
• Oral communication improvement. Students improve in their
oral communication skills with members of their peer group.
• Promoted social skills. Students' social skills are enhanced.
• Heightened self-esteem. When students' work is valued by
team members, their individual self-esteem and respect
escalate dramatically. https://www.teachervision.com/cooperative-learning/teaching-
methods/48448.html
F
Resource card F
I have special education students in my regular classroom.
What do I do with them during cooperative learning?
“Gains for special education students in cooperative learning have been well documented. Students not only
improve academically, often quite dramatically, they also improve in self-esteem. Another outcome is that
the attitudes of other students toward students with special needs improve as well. Special needs students
are better liked when they are included as part of a team than when they are just another individual in the
class. It is dramatically different for a student to be integrated into a classroom than to be integrated into a
team—especially if the teammates have been coached in what to say and do to help the student feel
welcomed and to meet special needs.” Spencer Kagan
“Diversity among individuals creates the potential for either positive or negative outcomes. The major factor
determining whether positive or negative outcomes will result is the way social interdependence is
structured within the classroom and school (i.e. whether student-student interaction within learning
situations is structured competitively, individualistically or cooperatively).” Johnson and Johnson
Second language Acquisition For cooperative learning groups to be successful for
“Researchers of second language acquisition students with learning and behavioural difficulties in
recognize that social environmental factors are general classrooms, several things must be in place:
crucial in second language acquisition. They
agree that second language learners must be 1. Care must be taken in creating the small groups. Groups
exposed to peers who speak the language and should be academically heterogeneous, taking care to ensure
that this exposure can influence the kind of that conflicting personalities don't cause unnecessary
language acquired and the speed with which it is problems.
acquired. Experts recognize that language
2. The tasks assigned to the groups must be cooperative in
acquisition occurs when language is used for
nature and lend themselves well to group completion.
what it was designed: communication. “
(H.Andrea Neves) 3. Positive interdependence must exist, meaning that tasks and
assessments should be designed in such a way that everyone
has to contribute something for the group as a whole to
Small-group instruction is also thought to
succeed.
improve social relations among heterogeneous
4. Group members must have individual accountability; each
peers. Gordon Allport's contact theory of
student should be held responsible for learning the content.
intergroup relations holds that when individuals
of different backgrounds work together on an 5. The teacher must provide equal opportunities for success,
equal footing to achieve common goals and get meaning that students with mild disabilities should be able to
to know one another as individuals, they shed contribute to the group's success in a way that does not cause
their prejudices and friendships may evolve. them undue hardship.
Although not all forms of small group instruction
6. Scheduling must be considered to ensure that students,
provide a platform for students to work toward
especially those with disabilities, do not miss blocks of time
a common goal with equal opportunities for
that has been allocated for group work. Reaping the benefits
success, those that do certainly meet the
of cooperative learning is difficult when a student is not
requirements for promoting positive relations
present or when his or her participation is fragmented.
under Allport's theory.
Create a positive and inclusive learning environment!
Migrant students often find themselves in new and unfamiliar classrooms. The challenge of adjusting to
strange, new living and learning environments often contributes to feelings of isolation and loneliness.
Teachers can help students overcome these feelings by modeling respect and eliminating any form of threat
or ridicule.
G
Resource card G
From Traditional to Cooperative Learning
From... To...
“A good class is a quiet class.” “Learning involves healthy noise.”
“Keep your eyes on your paper.” “Help your partner solve it.”
“Sit quietly.” “Get up and look what others did.”
“Verbalize to learn.”
“Talking is cheating.”
Don’t group projects really mean extra
work for some and a free ride for others?
Group projects are a prescription for an inequitable distribution of the workload. Cooperative projects are
not. With group projects, the teacher assigns a task to a group and leaves it to the group to determine how to
structure how they will work together. In many groups, some take over, and others contribute little or even
nothing. In contrast, cooperative projects are carefully structured. Cooperative projects limit the resources,
assign roles, and distribute jobs so everyone is held responsible and accountable for their own contribution
Students must be prepared for cooperation so that they know how to behave in the group work situation
without direct supervision. It is necessary to introduce new cooperative behaviors in a training program. The
goal of the training program is the construction of new norms or rules for how one ought to behave.
Sometimes norms are written rules, and sometimes they are unspoken expectations for behavior.
Preparing students for cooperative groups requires you to decide which norms and which skills will be
needed for the group work setting you have in mind. These norms and skills are best taught through exercises
and games, referred to as „skillbuilders“. People rarely learn new behaviors or convictions about how one
ought to behave through lectures or general group discussion alone. (E.Cohen)
The norms can for example be:
Learn to work together
• Pay attention to the needs of each member of the group.
• Nobody has finished until everybody has finished.
• Everyone contributes information.
• Play your part in the group. Learn to help, ask questions,
• Make a plan, organize your work. explain without doing things
• Explain by telling how something is done, not by
Learn to discuss
doing it;
• Be concise.
• Everybody helps;
• Listen.
• Discuss and decide;
• Develop arguments.
• You have the right to ask someone for help;
• Give reasons for your suggestions.
• You have the duty to assist when asked for help;
• Everybody makes their contribution.
• You are responsible for your own work and
behaviour.
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