Cooperative learning

Cooperative
Learning
Ms. Beverly Grace C. Oblina –MA-TESL
Asian International School
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
June 8, 2020

Talking Points
What is cooperative
learning?
What are the strategies
of cooperative learning
and when to use them?
How do we get started
using cooperative
groups?
What are the
challenges we might
face and how to
address them?
What are the benefits
of cooperative
learning?

What is cooperative Learning?
Cooperative learning
involves more than
students working
together on a lab, field
project or classroom
It is the process of
breaking a classroom
of students into small
groups, so they can
discover a new concept
together and help each
other learn.
Students perform
more than just
working in groups.
It requires teachers
to structure cooperative
interdependence among
the students.

These structures involve five key
elements which can be implemented in
a variety of ways.
These five key elements differentiate
cooperative learning from simply
putting students into groups to learn
(Johnson et al., 2006).

The five key
elements of
cooperative
learning
Positive
Interdependence
Face-to-face
Interactions
Individual
Accountability
Interpersonal and
Small Group Social
Skills
Group Processing

The 5 key elements needed to
make cooperative learning work
1. Positive interdependence is an element
of cooperative learning where members
of a group who share common goals
perceive that working together is
individually and collectively beneficial,
and success depends on the participation
of all the members.
o Students work as cohesive groups to
achieve the shared learning objectives.
o Students feel responsible for their own
and the group's effort.

2. Face-to-face interactions
o Students promote each other's success by sharing
resources. Both academic and personal support are
part of this mutual goal.
o Students help, encourage, support one another, and
praise each other’s effort to learn; the environment
encourages discussion and eye contact.
o Students asssist and interact with each other to
solve problems.

3. Individual accountability
o Each student is accountable for her/his
performance and learning.
o Students do their best work, share ideas, and
help group functions effectively.
o Students learn together but perform alone.
o Each student is responsible for doing her/his
part; the group is accountable for meeting its
goal.

4. Interpersonal and small group social skills
o Students work together, trust each
oher, and resolve conflicts
constructively to achieve a common
goal.
o Group members gain direct instruction
in the interpersonal, social, and
collaborative skills needed to work with
others.

5. Group processing:
o By reflecting on the learning process, the
effectiveness of contribution of the
members of the group improves.
o Group members analyze their own and the
group's ability to work together.

What are the strategies of
cooperative learning and
when to use them?

The 7 Strategies
of Cooperative
Learning
Think-Pair-Share
Jigsaw
Numbered Heads Together
Tea Party
Round Robin
Write Around
Carousel

Think-Pair Share
How to do it Why it is useful
Also called turn & talk. Teacher poses a
question to the group, and each student
has a minute or two to think about the
question. Then, they turn and discuss with
someone sitting next to them, and then
share with the whole class (Teed,
McDarvis, Roseth, n.d.).
This is a useful cooperative learning
strategy because it engages all students in
their learning and it can be done quickly
during almost any lesson.

Jigsaw
Students are placed into "home groups" and
"expert groups" and are each assigned a different
topic within the same general topic. Students work
on researching their topics with others who have
the same topic (their expert group) and then return
back to their home group to teach them about their
topic. Together, all the pieces come together to
form a complete product (Reading Rockets, 2015).
This is useful in that it helps to get students engage
with one another and hold them accountable for
their learning. It is truly cooperative in that every
student needs to put work in so that all group
members become informed on the topics. This can
be used across content areas and with a variety of
topics, allowing students to become the teachers.

Numbered Heads Together
HOW TO DO IT WHY IT IS USEFUL
Students are placed into groups and given a number in
their group. Students are asked a question and discuss
it with their group members. When time is up, the
teacher calls a number and all students with that
number stand up and take turns sharing what they
discussed in their groups. The students are able to build
on and connect similar ideas among the groups and
broaden the conversation. (Colorado, 2015).
This strategy is useful because it allows students to
discuss in small groups before going into a whole class
discussion. Additionally, it makes it so all students have
to contribute and listen to the conversation, so they have
something to share if their number gets called. It helps
to get each student engaged and involved in their
learning.

Tea Party
Students form two circles facing each other (one inner
circle and one outer circle). The students are given a
question and they are to discuss the the question with
the student they are facing. The students on the outer
circle moves in one direction, so they have a new
partner to discuss with. Another question is asked, and
more discussion is created with a new partner
(Colorado, 2015).
This strategy is useful because not only does it allow for
all students to get a chance and share with another
student, but additionally, it allows for students to work
together to come up with a solution. If a student isn't
talking, sharing, or discussing, then they are losing
valuable learning time. It is important for the teacher to
be circulating to ensure that engaging conversations are
occurring, and prompting those who need extra
support.

Round Robin
Students are sitting with groups (3-4 students),
and they teacher asks them a question or gives
them a problem to solve. The questions or
problems are deliberating chosen, in that there
are multiple ways to solve the problem and
multiple points for discussion. Students in their
groups take turns answer and sharing their
ideas with each other, working together to
come up with an answer that they all agree on
(Colorado, 2015).
This strategy is important because it gives
students the opportunity to work together to
solve a goal or come to a joint understanding. It
requires the participation of each student in the
group, and ensures that students are sharing
their ideas. During this activity, students work
on taking turns, supporting one another, and
sharing their ideas.

Write Around
Students are placed in groups with 3-4 students and the teacher
gives each group a topic or idea. Once again, it is important for
the topic/idea to have multiple answers or understandings.
Students take turns writing their response to the question or
idea on a piece of paper, shared by the group. After a certain
amount of time, the teacher tells the students to pass the paper
to the next group member, who then takes the time to read over
what the other group member wrote and add to it, explain it
further, or clarify what was written. The process repeats
throughout the group (Colorado, 2015).
This strategy is useful in that it allows for all students to
demonstrate their contribution and knowledge surrounding an
area or a topic. It necessitates that students are paying attention
to what their group members are writing, and helping one
another by adding on or clarifying their ideas. This helps to
ensure that each student is learning and contributing to the
group's ideas to come to a complete understanding.

Carousel
n this activity, students are broken into groups of 3-4 and the teacher places chart
paper around the room with different questions on them, related to a certain
topic. This lesson can be done before starting a new unit to activate prior
knowledge, during the unit, or at the end of review. Each group starts at a different
poster and is given a different color marker to write with. The marker travels with
the groups around the rooms, and each group has 1-2 minutes to answer the
question on the chart paper. They then rotate around the room to the next poster
and repeat the process. You may want to try to get each group member to write
their ideas down on the paper so that each student's ideas are evident on the
paper. When every group has written on each piece of paper, the class comes
together for a whole class discussion and shares what is written on the posters
(Gray, 2016).
This strategy is useful because it causes students to
work together in their groups but also within the whole
class. Students have to ensure they are reading what
other students wrote and coming up with new ideas,
rather than copying what is already there. It helps to
hold all students accountable because they have to
write their ideas down, and help their group members
who are struggling to come up with something to write
down.

How do we get started
using cooperative groups?

The five steps to
guide using
cooperative
groups
1. Form a question. Excellent questions form the
bedrock for motivating small groups. A good
question motivates students to ask, wonder, and
discover in order to know.
A quick checklist for small-group questions:
 Work from the known to the unknown. When
teams connect new ideas to their past
knowledge and experiences, they draw from
personal understanding for a deeper response.
 Allow for distinctive roles for each student. For
example, one student may record, another
ensures that all students participate, another
organizes Internet searches, another gathers
creative responses from all participants.

Step 1 Form a
question.
 Encourage additional queries. We teach students to ask each
other follow-up questions about each topic in order to tap
into deeper responses. Students can learn to probe each
other through sets of questions they compile. Ask them to
hand in lists of questions they create and add your own
queries to their lists.
 Vary the techniques used for moving toward answers. These
might include humor, group competition, or mock interviews
to respond to real world problems.
 Allow students to create visuals such as charts, boards,
overheads, and diagrams that students can use for presenting
their ideas.
 Avoid jargon. The questions that motivate small-group inquiry
will adequately cover content, address real-life problems, and
range from lower-level facts and comprehension to higher-
level application and critical thinking.

Step 2 Identify
goals.
 The second phase for successful group formation
relates to creating goals for each group assignment.
Foggy goals mean wasted time and poor motivation
to learn.
 Goals, or objectives, are performance-based. Group
objectives, clearly stated, motivate students and
offer precise directions on the lesson content.
 Effective group objectives could be:
 Students will list and illustrate on a poster three
foods that bears typically enjoy.
 Students will demonstrate __________through a
survey that determines ___________.
 Students will describe a business proposal for a
bear conservation plan in state parks.
 Students will compare bear lifestyles in three
countries.

Step 3 Create
rubrics.
Rubrics provide another tool to guide
students' expression of knowledge as
they solve problems. They also help
students and teachers to assess the
group work accurately.
Armed with a probing question, clear
objectives, and specific rubrics, you can
then assign diverse tasks that enable
students to express their unique
methods of solving a real-world problem.
You may want to do this by challenging
more of their brains' capacity to respond
through multiple intelligence
applications.

Step 4 Assign a
specific
assessment task.
The fourth phase of group work is the assignment of performances
that:
• Match related learning approaches. So, if group members conducted an
interview, they might be expected to provide a transcript of dialogue,
compare two different perspectives, and so on. You would not expect
multiple-choice tests to accurately assess knowledge obtained in original
interviews, for instance.
• Cover content. The task should illustrate students' active engagement with
the text and other learning materials used.
• Enable students to develop their interests and abilities. Students might
complete interest inventories to discover their interests and then check to
determine how they used their unique interests and abilities to explore
questions.
• Involve authentic events. Authentic tasks are those relevant to your
students' lives and usually represent solutions to real-life problems.
• Create meaningful challenges for students. Students often use their
stronger abilities or intelligences to develop weaker areas. Cooperative
groups can use multiple approaches to solve any problem so that students
broker their gifts and abilities to explore topics at a deeper level.

Step 5 Reflect to adjust.
Finally, the fifth phase of cooperative-group
design ensures that teachers and students
regularly reflect on group progress and
make adjustment to improve outcomes.
Reflection questions about process might
include:
• How much time did each member spend
talking?
• Who talked most? Why?
• Did members question each other and
wait for responses?
• How do members motivate each one to
participate?
• Did motivation efforts work? Why or why
not?

What are some challenges we might
face and how to address them?

Group Conflict
How to address this challenge?
 Students need to learn to work together. It is not always something that comes naturally.
 You can teach skills like praising others, taking turns for equal participation, and shared
decision making.
 Each week, you could emphasize one of these techniques to help develop group work.

Noise
 Noise is part of the cooperative learning.
 Teachers who have not previously used cooperative or collaborative learning
might also need to get used to the noise level in the classroom, which is raised
during these activities.

Inability to work together
 But what do you do when one or two students
complain about their group's inability to work
together?
 You could remove unhappy participants. But if
you remove students, the group learns that
conflict should be avoided rather than resolved.
 Students sometimes require assistance and may
need to be reassured that they can positively
interact with others. A more effective approach
is using simple conflict-resolution checklists.

Conflict
resolution
checklist
Listen to every member
Define responsibilities
Value each person's gifts
Model excellence
Promote humor

What are the benefits
of cooperative learning?

The five benefits from
small-group learning in
a collaborative
environment:
1. Celebration of diversity
 Students learn to work with all types of people.
 During small-group interactions, they find many
opportunities to reflect upon and reply to the diverse
responses fellow learners bring to the questions raised.
 Small groups also allow students to add their perspectives
to an issue based on their cultural differences.
 This exchange inevitably helps students to better
understand other cultures and points of view.

Benefits from small-
group learning in a
collaborative
environment
2. Acknowledgment of individual differences
 When questions are raised, different students will have a
variety of responses.
 Each of these can help the group create a product that
reflects a wide range of perspectives and is thus more
complete and comprehensive.
3. Interpersonal development
 Students learn to relate to their peers and other learners
as they work together in group enterprises.
 This can be especially helpful for students who have
difficulty with social skills. They can benefit from
structured interactions with others.

Benefits from small-
group learning in a
collaborative
environment
4. Actively involving students in learning
 Each member has opportunities to contribute in
small groups.
 Students are apt to take more ownership of their
material and to think critically about related issues
when they work as a team.
5. More opportunities for personal feedback
 Because there are more exchanges among students
in small groups, your students receive more personal
feedback about their ideas and responses.
 This feedback is often not possible in large-group
instruction, in which one or two students exchange
ideas and the rest of the class listens.

Wrap up
We have just learned the five key points
about cooperative learning, as follows:
1. The key elements of cooperative
learning
2. The strategies of cooperative learning
and when to use them
3. The steps of using cooperative
learning
4. The challenges of using cooperative
groups and how to address them
5. The benefits of cooperative learning

Thank you!
Special thanks to my mom, Anita C. Oblina for being my
mentor from day 1. I love you nay 

Cooperative learning

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