1. Putting cooperative learning into practice
A DU Center for Teaching & Learning Workshop
August 10 and 16, 2005

2. Cooperative learning
“happens” - when a group of students work together on an assignment that is purposely structured so that all members of the group participate & cooperate to learn the material
not all “group work” is cooperative learning
not all “active learning” is cooperative learning

3. Essential components of a cooperative learning experience (Johnson & Johnson)
When the activity facilitates:
Positive interdependence
Individual accountability
Face-to-face promotive interaction
Development of interpersonal skills
Self-assessment of group functioning
The student perception is:
We sink or swim together
I am responsible to the group, my participation is important, I must learn the material
Listening is important, my group members are important and worthy of respect
I am learning because my group is successful!

4. Types of cooperative learning
Informal cooperative learning
Students work together in temporary ad hoc groups which stay together for a few minutes or more
Formal cooperative learning
Students learn a body of material together which requires that they stay together for at least one class period
Students “bond” with each other over time – improves the learning experience
Informal cooperative learning: during lecture/demonstration groups used to focus student attention, get students actively involved, help set expectations, allow students to process information, bring an instructional session to closure.
Formal cooperative learning – students learn a body of material together (eg. Cover a curriculum unit, write a report, conduct a survey or experiment, etc) that requires that they stay together for at least one class period, usually longer.
Cooperative base groups –group of students that stays together for more than one term – provide support, encouragement, help to each other

5. Getting Started – Developing the content
Select topic
Summarize essential material
Articulate learning objectives
Decide what type of activity will allow the students, working in their group, to achieve these objectives

6. Getting Started – Developing the activity
Include a clear set of specific student learning objectives
Include a clear set of task-completion instructions
Make must-learn information obvious & accessible
Give students sufficient time to complete the exercise
from “The Essential Elements of Cooperative Learning in the Classroom”, Robert J. Stahl, ERIC Digest (

7. Getting Started – Groups
Groups of three are optimum
Larger groups have more trouble keeping everyone engaged
Heterogeneous by GPA, ethnicity, gender
Mixing students provides an equal opportunity for success
Should stay together for an extended period of time (eg, all of the CL activities in your class)
Students “bond” - learn how to work together effectively (interpersonal skills, positive interdependence)
Provide opportunities for peer evaluation
Provides incentive for individual responsibility
Provide opportunities for group evaluation
Provides a time for group to reflect on how well it is doing

8. Roles & successful groups
Task roles – help group achieve its goals
Positive maintenance roles – help group members build & maintain relationships
Examples:
Checker
Scout
Timekeeper
Active listener
Questioner
Summarizer/scribe
Encourager
Materials manager
Reader
From “The Cooperative Learning Classroom: Empowering Learning” by Lynda A. Baloche

9. Getting Started - Implementation
Include CL exercises in the syllabus, explain CL to students
Select groups
Interact with groups
Ask and answer questions
Explore individual understanding
Be sensitive to group interactions
Show enthusiasm for creative thinking!!!
It is highly recommended that you tell the students what you are doing and why. Otherwise they will assume the worst! They need to know that this is a proven method, that it has been used successfully in higher education, lab settings, classroom settings, etc.
Formal cooperative learning is different from active learning. For an active learning exercise, you might pose a question to the class, and tell them to discuss it with the individuals sitting next to them. You don’t worry about the composition of the groups. This is a good way to break up a lecture and get the students engaged, but it is not CL. In CL, the instructor sets up the groups, trying to achieve as much diversity as possible. Many instructors have said that three students per group is optimum, but this could depend on the specific activity. Some think that two student groups are too small with not enough diversity of ideas and no third person to help resolve conflicts. There are also potential issues with groups of five students – it is easy for one student to not fully participate without the others worrying too much about it.

10. Common problems & solutions
failure to get along
noise
absences
ineffective use of group time
too wide a range of performance levels
FAILURE TO GET ALONG: Common in the first week or so – students may not be used to working with different people and the groups may be made up of very unlikely combinations,
PRIMARY SOLUTION: Time – Also: Emphasize cooperation, collegial behavior, expectations of adults, the importance of being able to work productively with people who are not like us, successful people are those that are able to do this (in life!).
NOISE: – depending on your teaching space, this may or may not be a problem. If it is, stop the class when the level gets too high, remind people to talk at normal levels.
ABSENCES: since students depend on each other, this can be a problem.
SOLUTION: Depends on the specific activity – If the absent person misses a day of lecture that will be important content for the groups to do their CL, make group members be responsible for catching absent person up to date. If a student is absent on the day of a group activity, allow the absent person to do an assignment alone
INEFFECTIVE USE OF GROUP TIME: In class time is precious – if there is a lack of progress, impose some structure (everyone do an assignment that they bring to class completed – use as the kick off for the CL activity) – if students are working individually instead of as a group, give them only one sheet of instructions – require the “scribe” duty to rotate
PERFORMANCE LEVEL ISSUES: What did you do before??? Identify cause of low performance (lack of interest, missing too many classes, not doing prerequisite work, not prepared for the course, etc.) and act on that.
From “Cooperative Learning Methods” 2nd Edition, Robert E. Slavin

11. Solutions Peer/group review systems
Make sure that individual success is also rewarded (individual testing over material in the group exercise).
Stick to your guns!! It works!!

12. A few comments:
The CL activity needs to be structured. Don’t just send the students off with instructions like “work together ”, “study together”, “form a group to do a presentation”……
Students need to understand that this activity is THE way in which they will learn the content (except for reading assignments). In other words, it is very important that the instructor NOT give an organized lecture over the material first. This requires that you have a lot of confidence in the students. They can learn on their own if the activity is structured well.
The CL activities need to “count” or students will not take them seriously.
Instructor intervention is important. Listen to students in the group as they work together, ask the students questions, answer their questions. If many of the groups are confused about the same thing, get everyone’s attention and give a short explanation.