Dave
and Roger Johnson found that the functionality of a role allows the members to
view teammates as instruments of productivity because their efforts are
required for the group to succeed. That is central to the success of
cooperative efforts because participants on teams, whether in sports, business,
or the classroom, thrive on the emerging collegiality and recognition from
teammates as valued contributors.
Robert
Sylwester, Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Oregon, feels
that role playing benefits individuals in several ways:
1.
They learn to "accept themselves for
who they are and widen their temperamental bias"; (p.41)
2.
The temperamental diversity profits the group's productivity;
3. Stress is reduced because there is a diminishment of
exclusionary, 'power elite', status in this democratic setting, offering enablement
to socially disenfranchised children that are in desperate search for respect
and success. (p. 74)
Johnson,
R., Johnson, D., (2009). An Educational Psychology Success Story: Social
Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning, Educational Researcher 38 (5):
366–367.
Sylwester,
R., (2003). A Biological Brain in a
Cultural Classroom, Corwin Press.
photo: flickr
photo: flickr
