Cooperative Learning

Integrating Theory and Practice

Robyn M. Gillies

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781412940481, 9781412940474
• eBook ISBN: 9781452236292
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

"Gilles focuses the majority of the book on the relationship in the classroom between the individual teacher and the students. She gives teachers ammunition to overcome resistance to cooperative learning by presenting well-substantiated research on virtually every page of her book showing the benefits of having students study together." 

                                                                                                          —Ted Wohlfarth, PSYCCRITIQUES

"This text?s greatest strengths are bringing together a range of powerful teaching strategies connected to students taking responsibility for their own learning and the learning of others. The focus on both teacher strategies to encourage effective group talk and student strategies to encourage effective discourse is helpful."

—Nancy L. Markowitz, San Jose State University

Although cooperative learning is widely endorsed as a pedagogical practice that promotes learning and socialization among students, teachers still struggle with how to introduce it into their classrooms. This text highlights the strategies teachers can use to challenge student thinking and scaffold their learning as well as the strategies students can be taught to promote discourse, problem—solving, and learning during cooperative learning.

Key Features

• Presents cooperative learning in conjunction with national standards: The book situates cooperative learning within the context of No Child Left Behind and a climate of high stakes testing.
• Links theory with practice: Numerous case studies and small group exercises highlight how teachers can assess both the process and outcomes of cooperative learning.
• Emphasizes the key role teachers play in establishing cooperative learning: Guidelines are given on how teachers can establish cooperative learning in their classrooms to promote student engagement and learning across various levels and for students of diverse abilities.
• Incorporates the latest research on cooperative learning: An overview is provided of the major research and theoretical perspectives that underpin the development of cooperative learning pedagogy.

Intended Audience

This is an excellent supplementary text for several undergraduate and graduate level K—12 teacher preparation and certification courses regularly offered in schools of education. It can also be used as one of several texts in courses on cooperative learning and as a supplement in K—12 teaching methods courses.

CHAPTER 1

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Cooperative Learning in Schools

INTRODUCTION AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Cooperative learning involves students working together in small groups to accomplish shared goals. It is widely recognized as a teaching strategy that promotes socialization and learning among students from kindergarten through college and across different subject areas (Cohen, 1994). Cooperative learning has been used successfully to promote reading and writing achievements among middle school students (Stevens, 2003), understanding in high school science classes (Foley & O’Donnell, 2002), and problem solving in mathematics (Sahlberg & Berry, 2002), to name just a few. It has been shown to enhance student’s willingness to work cooperatively and productively with others with diverse learning and adjustment needs (McMaster & Fuchs, 2002) and to enhance intergroup relations with those from culturally and ethnically different backgrounds (Slavin & Cooper, 1999). It has also been used successfully as a teaching strategy to help students learn to manage conflict (Stevahn, Johnson, Johnson, Green, & Laginski, 1997) and to help students identified as bullies to learn appropriate interpersonal skills (Cowie & Berdondini, 2001).

The major benefits of cooperative learning that teachers have identified for students with special needs include improved self-esteem, a safe learning environment, and better classroom success rates and products (Jenkins, Antil, Wayne, & Vadasy, 2003). In fact, it has been argued that cooperative learning experiences are crucial to preventing and alleviating many of the social problems related to children, adolescents, and young adults (Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne, 2000). There is no doubt that the benefits attributed to cooperative learning are widespread and numerous. Moreover, it is the apparent success of this approach to learning that led Slavin (1999) to propose that it is one of the greatest educational innovations of recent times.

There is no doubt that when students work cooperatively together, they learn to listen to what others have to say and how they say it, share ideas and perspectives, give and receive help, seek ways of resolving difficulties, and actively work to construct new understandings and learning. The result is that cooperative learning creates a group ethos where students realize that members will work to help and support their endeavors, and it is the sense of group cohesion that develops that enhances students’ motivation to achieve both their own and the group’s goals (Johnson & R. Johnson, 2003).

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the social and academic benefits widely attributed to cooperative learning and how it can be used to promote effective learning in students from K–12. Understanding these benefits is particularly important given the scrutiny schools receive as a consequence of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Executive Summary, 2004) and its emphasis on ensuring that all students, including those who are disadvantaged, achieve academic proficiency. Given these expectations, teachers need to feel confident that if they implement cooperative learning in their classrooms, students will achieve not only the social but also the academic outcomes attributed to this pedagogical practice.

When You Have Finished This Chapter You Will Know:

• The academic and social benefits that accrue to students K–12 from cooperative learning
• Key aspects of successful cooperation
• Practices that promote quality teaching and learning
• The effect the demands of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 has on different pedagogical practices in schools, particularly cooperative learning
• The potential that cooperative learning provides for transforming schools

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Case Study 1.1

The Case of Tom

Tom is in his second year of high school and appears to have adjusted well to his school routine; however, this was not the case when he first arrived. The continual movement from class to class and from building to building was initially very stressful for Tom, who had difficulties reading his school timetable and understanding the school map that showed where the buildings were located. Tom had an intellectual disability, and although he could participate in most activities, he had difficulties organizing his routines, such as locating the books he needed for each class and understanding instructions. It was not long before his teachers realized that unless they acted, he would always be late for lessons and, unfortunately, the butt of peer ridicule and jokes.

Helping Tom by providing him with some additional guidance and prompts to avoid making his difficulties obvious was their first step. This included ensuring that Tom was linked with a “buddy” who accepted responsibility for helping him to arrive at his class on time. Although only one student volunteered for this task initially, it was not long before other students in Tom’s home room accepted responsibility for helping him to organize his routines and arrive promptly for his lessons.

Tom was very sociable and well liked by his peers because of his easy-going mannerisms, so his teachers’ second step was to ensure that he was included in different cooperative learning groups that they established in their classes. This enabled Tom to work in small supportive groups where he could take risks with his learning that he would find too intimidating in a larger class. His peers encouraged his participation and ensured, like others in his group, that he undertook specific roles. These included helping organize resources, act as the media manager for a PowerPoint presentation of a group’s work, present his ideas on a topic through different media, and work with his peers to bring the project or activity they were working on to fruition.

The opportunity to make meaningful contributions enhanced Tom’s self-confidence and increased his status among his peers as they realized he was able to make worthwhile contributions to his group. Tom is now enjoying school, and although his learning difficulties are still apparent, he is well liked and he has strong support from his peers, who willingly include him in their classroom activities.

Tom’s case is not unique. Many other similar cases have been reported that provide evidence of the success of cooperative learning as a pedagogical practice that promotes socialization among students and motivation to learn. In Tom’s case, this was particularly important because if his teachers had not established cooperative learning in their classes, Tom’s peers would never have realized that he was able to make many positive contributions to the groups in which he worked. Through contact with Tom, his peers not only realized his worth as a contributor but also were able to get to know him as a person. They discovered his easygoing personality, which helped them to realize that he was very sociable and that they enjoyed working with him.

Tom was successfully included in his groups because his teachers had made the effort to ensure that they established their cooperative learning groups carefully. Tom worked in different groups in different classes, which ensured he had opportunities to work with a number of different students, and it also enabled him to try out new skills and seek help from others in a supportive small-group environment.

INTRODUCING COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Research indicates that if students are to reap the benefits widely attributed to cooperative learning, then groups need to be established so that

Positive interdependence exists among group members. This involves all members working together to complete the group’s goal. Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec (1990) maintain that when positive interdependence is established, students will understand that each member’s contributions are indispensable, with each member having a unique contribution to make to help the group achieve its goal. In effect, students learn that “they sink or swim together” (p. 11) and that they must complete their assigned work if the group is to attain its goal. In Tom’s case, he was assigned different but complementary tasks that he had to achieve, such as using multimedia to present an aspect of his group’s task. This work, in turn, was augmented by the contributions of others and together represented the group’s total efforts or the group’s goal. The group receives recognition for having attained their group goal when students present a group report or product to the class or demonstrate that the group goal has been attained by showing how the various contributions by members come together as a total whole.

Promotive interaction is encouraged. This involves students’ working in small groups where they can see each other so they can engage in face-to-face discussions about the group’s task. When this occurs, students understand that they must actively encourage each other’s equal participation in the discussions. It provides opportunities to develop personal rapport that encourages students to be more willing to reach out to others, listen to what they have to say, and actively work to include others’ ideas in the group discussions. These personal relationships and the synergy that they can create occur only when students work in close contact with each other, giving them the capacity to read both the verbal and nonverbal body language that are critical to building these personal connections. In Tom’s case, his peers learned about his personal attributes only when they had the opportunity to work with him in their small groups.

Individual accountability is required. This involves students’ understanding that they will be held accountable for their individual contributions to the group, that free-loading will not be tolerated, and that everyone must contribute. Students like to receive recognition from their peers for their contributions, and this occurs only when they carry their share of the workload. When they do contribute and receive acknowledgment for their efforts, their sense of self-efficacy is enhanced and they are motivated to continue to work for the group’s success. Tom was widely accepted by the members of the different groups in which he worked because he was perceived as being a “worker” or someone who was prepared to shoulder his fair share of the load. This appealed to his peers—when debriefing sessions followed the group activities, other students would often remark on how they appreciated the effort he put into “doing his share.”

Interpersonal and small-group skills are employed. Students need to be taught how to communicate effectively with each other so they know how to express their ideas, acknowledge the contributions of others, deal with disagreements, and manage conflicts. In addition, they need to know how to share resources fairly, take turns, and engage in democratic decision making. These are not easy skills to master, particularly when many students still work in classes where they are rarely given opportunities to interact with their peers and are expected to be passive recipients of the teaching that occurs. Tom’s teachers spent time discussing the importance of these skills for successful group work with their classes, which undoubtedly helped Tom and his classmates understand what they were expected to do and how they were expected to behave. One of the most common reasons for students to be excluded by their groups is inappropriate interpersonal or small-group behaviors. Helping students realize the importance of using appropriate social skills helps to ensure that this will not happen to them.

Group processing is practiced. This is a type of formative assessment that involves students’ reflecting on how they are managing the processes of learning, including what they may still need to do to accomplish their goal. It involves students asking such metacognitive questions as: How are we doing? Is there anything else that we should be doing? What could we do differently? In addition, group processing encourages students to reflect on the role of group members to determine if there are any decisions they need to make to streamline the group’s functioning and enhance how members contribute to the group. Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec (1990) maintain that when groups learn to engage in such processing, it enables them to validate students’ contributions and focus on maintaining positive working relationships and provides opportunities to celebrate the success of the group.

When groups have been established so the above five key components of cooperative learning are evident, the groups are generally referred to as being structured, whereas when these components are not evident or have been only partially implemented, the groups are regarded as being unstructured (Gillies & Ashman, 1998). This distinction is very important because research has consistently shown that students who work in structured cooperative groups work more productively and attain higher learning outcomes than students who work in unstructured groups (Johnson & Johnson, 2002).

Group Task

The type of task assigned to the group is also very important for determining how group members interact and work together. For example, Cohen (1994) argued that when the procedure for completing the task is fairly straightforward so that students are only required to exchange information, request assistance, or provide an explanation, such as occurs when students work on well-structured mathematical tasks, there is little need to discuss how to proceed as a group or negotiate problem scenarios. Cohen referred to this type of task as one that promotes low-level cooperation among students because students need to engage in only minimal interactions with each other as they work on solving the problem.

In contrast, when students work on tasks that are open and discovery based and where there are no clear answers, they must discuss how to proceed as well as the substantive content of the task if they are to resolve the problem at hand. Cohen refers to this type of task as one that promotes high-level cooperation because interaction is vital to productivity. Interestingly, Cohen has consistently found that the frequency of task-related student interactions is related to learning gains on tests of computational and mathematical concepts and applications as well as content-referenced tests in both mathematics and science. In short, students learn from task-related talk.

Grouping Practices

Teachers often make personal judgments about how well students will work together when they are deciding how to group students for cooperative learning. While this may be appropriate for individual classroom situations, the research is quite informative about the types of grouping practices that appear to be effective. In a meta-analysis (an analysis of the findings of a number of smaller studies) of grouping arrangements within classes, Lou et al. (1996) were able to provide some insight into how to group students for cooperative learning.

The dilemma of how to construct groups so that there is a mix of students of different abilities is one that regularly confronts teachers. There is no doubt that students benefit from working with others, as the research on such grouping practices as reciprocal teaching (Palincsar, 1999), peer tutoring (Topping, 2005), and cooperative learning (Gillies, 2003b) demonstrates, but there is concern as to whether these benefits apply to all students regardless of ability and whether certain ability compositions are likely to be of greater benefit than others.

Certainly, there is evidence that low-ability students benefit from being included in mixed-ability groups because they are able to take advantage of the additional insights and often the extra tuition their more able peers provide. In contrast, high-ability students appear to perform equally well in either mixed- or same-ability groups. The group composition appears to have no effect on their ability to achieve. On the other hand, there is some evidence that medium-ability students appear to learn better when they work with students of similar ability, possibly because they are not the bystanders they appear to be in mixed-ability groups where high- and low-ability students often work together in...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Cooperative Learning in Schools
• 2. Key Components in Establishing Successful Cooperative Groups
• 3. Teachers’ Discourse to Promote Student Thinking and Learning
• 4. Strategies to Promote Student Discourse
• 5. Group Composition
• 6. Assessing Small-Group Learning
• 7. Teachers’ Responsibilities in Establishing Cooperative Learning
• 8. Future Developments in Using Small Groups
• Glossary
• References
• Index
• About the Author