George M. Jacobs - The Teachers Sourcebook for Cooperative Learning: Practical Techniques, Basic Principles, and Frequently Asked Questions

Copyright 2002 by Corwin.

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2016.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Michael Dubowe

Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-368-6

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0126-7

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

How can I get my class started using cooperative learning (CL)?

What classroom management techniques might work well with CL?

How might the room be arranged for CL?

How can I form cooperative groups?

How can I help my students work together smoothly?

What are some strategies for teambuilding?

What is positive interdependence?

How can I help my students develop positive interdependence?

How can we encourage a one for all, all for one spirit among students?

How can I encourage all students to participate and learn?

How can I help students learn to take responsibility for their group?

How can I give students lots of opportunities to express their ideas?

Should students report on their group work to the whole class?

How can I encourage students to explain their thinking to their group?

How can I promote equal participation in groups?

How might CL help with differences in student ability levels?

What about the students whose main strengths do not lie in academic skills?

Is it necessary to teach students how to cooperate?

Can students learn collaborative skills while learning content, or does it have to be done separately?

How might cooperative learning help students develop thinking skills?

How can I help groups become more independent of the teacher?

How much should I intervene when students are working in their CL groups?

What is the teachers role when students have become more autonomous?

How can I assess learning in cooperative groups?

What are my options for grading students, and what are the pros and cons of giving all group members the same grade?

How might I involve students in assessing themselves and each other?

What about assessing how cooperative students are?

Introduction

L ynda Baloche (1998) recounts that in her first days as a teacher, she quickly realized that students were much more interested in their classmates than they were in her or in what she was trying to teach. Lynda decided to use her students fascination with their peers as a resource by introducing group activities. However, the success of these activities was hit and miss, and Lynda didnt know what she was doing right on the hit days or wrong on the miss days. Does any of this sound familiar?

A breakthrough came when Lynda started reading books and articles on cooperative learning (CL):

I discovered that cooperative learning was what I had been trying to do. I discovered that there were basic principles that I could apply in my own teaching. I was excited. I was hooked. I was sure I could master it in about 6 weeks. ()

Well, its now more than 25 years later, and Lynda has been using CL successfully all these years, in a wide variety of teaching settings. In fact, a few years ago, she wrote her own book on the topic (Baloche, 1998), and shes still learning!

WHAT IS COOPERATIVE LEARNING?

Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec (1993) define CL as the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each others learning ().

Our definition is similar: Principles and techniques for helping students work together more effectively.

The main difference in our definition is that by not using the term small group , we hope to emphasize that CL has value beyond the small group, a point that Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec most likely agree with.

The purpose of this book is twofold. First, we want to help teachers who are at the stage where Lynda was initiallywho want to improve student learning and engagement and try some different ways to have students work together but arent sure how. We will share eight key principles for facilitating cooperative learning in your classroom along with a variety of CL techniques and examples of how to use them. We call of the book Getting Started With Cooperative Learning.

.

We hope that teachers of all levels, from preschool all the way to university and adult education, and all subject areas, will find this book holds useful ideas on how the power of studentstudent cooperation can enliven their classrooms. Obviously, not every idea in the book will apply exactly as presented in every teachers context, but we sincerely believe that the principles we offer have relevance to all contexts.

Three Windows on Peer Interaction

Deutsch (1949), in work expanded on by Johnson and Johnson (1998), has identified three windows through which students can view their peersindividual, competitive, and cooperative. Lets consider three studentsMaria, Yan, and Ralph.

Maria looks at her peers through the individual window. She feels that whether her peers achieve their goals has no effect on whether she achieves hers, just like noncompetitive swimmers trying to improve their times.

Yan looks at her peers through the competitive window. She feels that what helps her peers achieve their goals hurts her, and what hurts them helps her, just like competitors in a tennis tournament.

Ralph looks at his peers through the cooperative window, believing that what helps them achieve their goals helps him achieve his, and what hurts them hurts him, just like the teammates on a soccer or debate team, or any group that shares the work and the benefits.

CL encourages students to see peers through the cooperative window, as resources, as people to share with, as fellow adventurers in the search for knowledge. Clearly, individual work and competition still have their place, particularly when preparing students for the world outside school. With CL, we attempt to tilt the balance in favor of cooperation, not to eliminate the other two perspectives.

Furthermore, it can be argued that rarely does only one perspective apply. For instance, lets return to our tennis example above. While I may want to win, if my opponent plays much worse than I, its not much fun, but if my opponent plays very well, I get a good challenge. Thus the person Im playing with is both my opponent and my partner.

THE BENEFITS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Research has shown that by participating in CL, students can benefit in the following areas:

Improved academic achievement

More active involvement in learning by students, regardless of past achievement level or individual learning needs