Cooperative Learning In The Classroom

Blake LeathermanJune 21, 2005EDUC 354

Cooperative leaning is the idea or the principle that supports diversity as something to be worked with, not negotiated around, and that the richness of the educational experience is improved for all students when they are active participants in a mutually supportive environment. Time and time again, while I was researching for this paper, I found countless examples of

administrators and teachers taking the competition out of the classroom and replacing it with cooperation with much success. Taking the emphasis off competition, and designing tasks that are full of reward and collaborative teamwork seems to bring achievement to everyone.

Outside of the classroom cooperatative learning can take on the role of mentors. A class of say, Fifth grader can buddy up with a class of

Kindergartener and be their “Reading buddy”. Even a struggling Fifth grader is likely to be able to read a book on a kindergarten level, and he will has a sense of worth and pride that he is “smart enough” to help someone else learn to read. This can be a weekly activity that all can look forward to. An outing to the public library could be planned and the buddies could help the younger student pick out books of interest to them. This is a win-win situation

because the younger student will be able to appreciate the gift of time and the love of literature, and the older student learns patience and gets a feeling of a job well done.

In a classroom, the notion of a learning community can be carried out in various ways. Honoring diversity is a high priority. Every student, every teacher is different and has skill to be offered to the group as a whole. The goal is to set up the classroom that has the feeling of a “family setting” will allow for an atmosphere where all students are appreciated for their own uniqueness.

Cooperative learning makes sense in the classroom because it encourages peer support. Every classroom is going to be made up of a variety of students with a variety of strengths and weaknesses. Each room is likely to have a

few children that are labeled “learning disabled”, “gifted”, “ESL”, or even “normal”. Cooperative learning can be of value to all of these children if implemented in the proper way. All students need to learn and work in

environments where their own strengths are recognized and valued, and in an environment that their weaknesses are supported to help them feel safe. In this type of classroom, a child will feel safe enough to jump out on a limb and take risks. I feel that this is real learning will take place.

Some say that cooperative learning does not work. They say that the student who is identified as “gifted” will become the group leader always and will be viewed as tutors for the others. They say that the fast learners will become resentful of the slower learners. Such arguments must be examined critically. We must decide what we want the students to ultimately learn. We want to teach them the fundamentals, yes, but in what way? Why can’t we teach them the curriculum that is required of us and in doing so, also promote social skills. Don’t we want students to be able to be comfortable with and accepting of individual differences? Don’t we want students that are labeled to feel that they are valued and needed? Don’t we want all students to have great social skills that will enable them to work with people that that perceive as different?

One real plus with cooperative learning is that each student becomes the teacher and the learner. Each student gets to experience the feeling of

helping someone else. That is a learned experience that cannot be duplicated in the average classroom.

Whole language, which involved having students read literature and write stories, has could be used very successfully in cooperative groups and many of the practices that are promoted by whole language experts are inherently cooperative. Children can write stories, and then let the group do peer editing on the stories. They can also collaboratively write a story together and share the result with the class. They can assign one student to be the spell checker; one child to be the investigator, one child can be the illustrator, one child to be the punctuation checker, and one child to be the grammar checker. All of these roles are important to the story and gives each student a specific job to complete. Children, who struggle at say, spelling, will learn from the other student that is the spell checker. Every child is able to contribute, and every child id contributing at their own level.

The nature of cooperative learning makes the experience one of imagination and teamwork. Most tasks are taken on collaboratively, with student working in teams to solve problems, create displays, write plays or write stories, for example. This is possible because the curriculum is geared to the

developmental needs of the children. Rather that workbooks and worksheets which require only the ability to use a pencil and copy, the cooperative learning method uses hands-on experiences. Math games, tools for

measuring or counting, costumes for plays, plants and animals could fill the room so that students could touch, feel, and experience as they learn. Such learning does not require memorization of the correct answers; it instills the ability to work together to discover the best way to come up with the answer. Students learn how to help one another find out, how to ask good questions, how to learn. Students learn best in an atmosphere that is low risk, and they learn best from their peers. The teacher is the facilitator of this classroom, but is not the center of the student’s world; rather their peers are the center of the classroom.

Of course, cooperative learning can work in any classroom, but the self-contained, inclusive classroom works best. Teachers can work this teaching skill into all subjects that they teach. Math could also be done on the same framework. Jobs could be assigned to each student so that all children would be needed for the group to succeed.

In order for cooperative learning to be successful in an inclusive classroom, teachers who have traditionally worked in isolation will need to find new ways of collaborating and sharing their expertise, in other words, they will need to exercise the same principles as they are asking the students to do. This kind of collaboration can be challenging because it involves sharing responsibilities and communicating with others, but it can also be rewarding. It also can be challenging because of teachers reluctance to “change their ways”.

However, a general education teacher and a special education teacher planning together often find out that they have unique skills and ideas to contribute to the process. The general education teacher may have a broader perspective on the curriculum, whereas the special education teacher may have great ideas how to modify instruction and adapt the curriculum that would benefit many of the children in the classroom. General education teachers who are used to working with larger numbers of students can often

contribute important classroom management and organizational strategies to balance some of the individualized approaches proposed by the special education teacher.

Teachers working together may experience struggles over turf, expertise, ownership, and responsibility. These may be difficult at first. Teachers need to support each other as they learn to be cooperative, inclusive educators at the same time that they are asking their students to do the same thing.

Cooperative learning techniques can benefit students, but it can also benefit teachers as well, by improving their own teaching skills. Supportive

administrators have found creative ways of providing teachers with adequate planning and preparation time so that inclusion becomes an opportunity for better teaching rather that an imposed burden.

Once teachers have decided that they will begin to implement formal

cooperation groups in their classrooms, there are many decisions that must be made. Teachers must decide how they will incorporate learning lessons

within their classroom structure, how they will decide the content to be taught using cooperative learning, how they will form groups, how they will ensure active participation for all students, and how they will evaluate students’ learning.

A feeling of cooperation, community, and connection should be a part of everything that happens in the classroom, everyday. Having a bulletin board labeled: Proud Papers Of The Week”, and letting the student decide what paper they want to put on the board, is much better than only putting “A’s” on the board. Celebrating ethnic diversity around holidays is one way a teacher can be inclusive with the children in the class. Teachers must be encouraged to think about all the aspects of their classroom as to whether it will detract from a sense of classroom community.

One case that I read about was in Johnson City, New York. Students and teachers employ a collaborative problem-solving process in which they

identify issues, generate possible solution, screen solution feasibility, choose a solution to implement, and then evaluate it. Teachers have used this system to evaluate barriers to inclusion at multiple levels. The example given was: Physical (How can Marie be involved in the play if she is not able to stand and talk at the same time?), Social (What might Taylor be trying to

communicate when he pulls hair?), and instructional (What are some ways we can help Luis, who is hearing impaired, learn to count?). Including

children in identifying problems and generating and implementing solutions sends a clear message that we can talk about what is happening in the classroom, and, as a group. We can figure out ways to do things so that everyone is included.

When a child in the classroom is displaying behavioral problems, other children are aware of the disturbance. Not talking about the situation and exploring various solutions with the students may leave wondering why something so obvious is not being discussed and what their role in the classroom might be. Teachers need to be thoughtful how to handle such disturbances, and to not single a child out, but state clearly what is expected of the group and what will happen if the behavior is continued. Ignoring such problems, hoping that they will somehow work themselves out has a way of escalating the problem, and soon you will have a classroom that is not

learning. Student need to feel empowered enough to talk about the problem, and together generating a set of standards that everyone can live by. There also need to be a clear set of consequences that will be enforced to those who chose to not follow the set of standards.

Two definite set of values need to be introduced to the class and the class needs to be reminded of them on a daily basis until everyone believes them. They are that 1) Everyone is good at something and can help others, and 2) Everyone is entitled to and can benefit from support from others. Teachers may want to help students structure a class poster in which student identify their own strengths and skills and name these “Help Offered” and can

identify their needs and learning goals and name these “Help Wanted”. It is important to create a classroom space for students to proudly claim what they are good at and safely ask for the help and support they need without the fear or humiliation that they have experienced in the past.

Cooperative learning is not the “easy way out”. As a teacher it will take more planning and cooperation, but it does seem to embed learning at its greatest. It is definitely a technique that I will implement into my classroom one day and I hope that I will experience the success that I have read about.