Cooperativeve Learning

Definition

      Cooperative learning is a teaching method where students of mixed levels of ability are arranged into groups, and rewarded according to the group's success, not the success of an individual member. Cooperative learning structures have been in and out of favor in American education since the early 1900s, when they were introduced by the American education reformer John Dewey, according to Anita Woolfolk (Educational Psychology, 2004). Cooperative learning is sometimes thought of simply as 'group work,' but groups of students working together might not be working collaboratively.

Types

1.      The jigsaw technique

2.      Assignments that involve group problem solving and decision making

3.      Laboratory or experiment assignments

4.     Peer review work (e.g. editing writing assignment

Principles

1.      Heterogeneous grouping

2.      Collaborating skills

3.      Group autonomy

4.     Maximum peer interaction

5.      Equal opportunity to participate

Tehnique

a.     Circle of speakers

b.     Write pair switch

c.      Question and answer pairs