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I explained the
mechanics of the furniture rearrangement and got the students started on a
balancing chemical equation worksheet the day after that
faculty meeting without elaborate instructions other than have them do a
section of questions from their textbook. For the most part, it went well, and
the occasional fifteen-minute collaborations went smoothly in the weeks and
months ahead. The legs of the desks were noisy during the transitions, but
students were busy performing tasks once they settled in volleying between
working alone with moments of sharing, with the technique used a few times per
week with no disciplinary issues. Like so many educational innovations that are
modeled at faculty meetings and in-services, this one dissipated in many of our
classrooms.
Cooperative learning
was apparently another fad in the milieu of other innovations presented at
in-services. The success of interactive exercises was not in
her presentation and the power of the process as noted by PET and fMRI would not be discovered for several years. How
could any of us have known that close-order interactions produced a dopamine rush that sustained
attention coupled with interactions between the prefrontal cortex and midbrain? Would we have understood the ramifications of those
scans? It is neurological dogma today.
One year later a couple
of students rebelled after I used the method on successive days, but it was
smooth sailing otherwise. I did not spell out the rationale for collaborative tasks, and casually
stated: "move your desks together and complete this worksheet" may have been interpreted as a reluctance on my part
to be occupied with their needs or deferring attention. That is the reason for
this chapter – to explain how to implement collaborative learning to derive maximum
benefit from close-order face-to-face work.
Feel free to call it
cooperative learning. I use the words collaborative and cooperative
interchangeably acknowledging that they have the same intent. Here is, however,
a distinction made by Bruffee in 1995:
Whereas the
goal of collaborative learning is to work together in harmony and mutual
support to find the solution, the goal of collaborative learning is to develop
autonomous, articulate, thinking people, even if at times such a goal
encourages dissent and competition that seems to undercut the ideas of
cooperative learning. Cooperative learning is more
appropriate for children but collaborative learning is more appropriate for college students.1
(pp.15-16)
Having a student
facilitate a discussion at the board, particularly to solve physics and
chemistry problems was a mainstay in my lesson agenda, but I eventually found
that cooperative learning fit in exceptionally
well for both short and elaborate tasks in conjunction with lectures, discussions, individual worksheets,
videos, and PowerPoints because the content was facilitated faster and in greater
depth. An online homework service helped also.
It was lesson planning that departed from the comparatively simplistic
teacher-centered chalk-and-talk approach covering the first years of my career.
There was a fair amount of planning to assemble the pieces and maintain
spontaneity, but it delivered handsome dividends and raised achievement across
the board.
Rules of
engagement
Having students work in
groups is a pedagogical departure from the traditional lecture-discussion-worksheet chalk-and-talk mode.
The teacher is not always the focal point and the students arrange their desks
in close, face-to-face, proximity, with the verbalization coming entirely from
the students. That is a paradigm shift for educators in that many of us were
brought up in the chalk-and-talk era and rarely experienced cooperative efforts
in the classroom. However, with the publications by Dave and Roger Johnson from the University of Minnesota in the 1970s,
and an initiative to implement this methodology in schools of education, a
large segment of school-age children began working in group settings.2
Certification programs
train teachers to be school representatives for cooperative learning after attending
week-long seminars such as that offered by Dr. Spencer Kagan [kaganonline.com].
Many educators are having success using cooperative learning in their
classrooms where they witness cognitive and social benefits.
In this context, I felt
it was my responsibility to coordinate cooperative learning in a manner that
would perform a school's highest priority: content area mastery. I formulated five steps toward that
end.
1
|
Explain the rationale
|
I believe that students perform optimally in
well-structured cooperative learning avenues rather than random
group self-selection where they have not been counseled on the basics of
cooperative learning etiquette. I cannot
imagine a teacher saying: "Hey guys, form groups of three of four in
various parts of the room and finish this worksheet." It is an
approach we (as adults) experience at an in-service, but calmly find people in
our proximity to complete the task. The novelty of such a departure
from the lecture-discussion-worksheet process for young people, however, is
going to have mixed results and may lead to chaos as students look around to
see what others are doing. Several may never associate with a group and will
find a location to do the worksheet on their own, and
some might not do it at all out of frustration from the exclusion of peer
acknowledgment. There might be some earnest collaboration but not everyone will
end up benefiting from the experience, and that is one of the goals of 'cooperative'
learning – to maximize the knowledge transfer to everyone while functioning as
a team.
To derive the benefits of a cooperative effort as discussed
in previous chapters, the teacher must have a well-articulated plan in terms of
(a) assignment prompts and directions; (b) the group behaviors expected in such
a configuration.
It can be used to accomplish a variety of concerns ranging from the
introduction of content, evaluating ideas, or assembling a research project.
Collaboration in a classroom context is not an instinctive process and it is
incumbent on the teacher to provide maximum guidance in the early going to
assure its success.
For one, the teacher
must demonstrate organization and leadership from the start of the
school year. The students must be affirmed that their teacher has mastery of
content, establishes a safe and focused environment, and delivers lessons in a
well-articulated and meaningful manner.
Children are used to
playing at recess and outside of
school in clusters, but typically in gender-selecting, rough-and-tumble, and game-oriented ways. They benefit from such
interaction both physically and emotionally but are not performing academic
tasks, which have distinct content assimilation goals and integrate various
parts of the brain. The teacher MUST
explain the rules for group learning, that is, the nature of the desired
information flow during exercises. Failure to deliver clear expectations about
team assignments will likely result in an unproductive environment. The
explicit instructions below are critical elements in establishing the
assertiveness training needed for
successful collaboration so that all parties are tolerant and attentive during
task completion. In several cases,
the students may have been exposed to cooperative learning in another classroom
and only require fine tuning of the acceptable interactive behaviors.
Explicit
instructions
Here is a list of
comments they should hear from you:
1) To
facilitate the material of this lesson, you will be doing an assignment in
groups of 4. It is called cooperative learning and is used successfully
in many schools.
2) You are
to cooperate to determine the best answer for each question.
3) Talking
is good. Everyone's opinion matters and there should be an equal amount of
participation. If there is a disagreement, clearly and tactfully state your
point of view. Come to a consensus that everyone can live with. Nobody is to
get angry or impatient. Each member of the group is important. Along with your
writing, face each other, and have eye contact along the way. Ask
the teacher to intervene if the problem cannot be resolved.
4) Everyone
is to have the same answer in the spaces provided but document your perspective
in the margin if it differs from the group.
5) You are
all in this together and your team is to be successful in two principle areas:
(a) communicators and (b) assimilators of information.
2
|
Assign roles to team members
|
I recommend that
everyone have a role in the process
because their function automatically gives them value as team members as per
your instructional needs giving some students two roles if necessary:
The roles
Leader
|
Leads
the discussion and facilitates the member roles listed below. Provides
feedback about the team’s progress. Makes comments to
individuals that make them feel valued. Follows the script of behavioral
objectives specified by the teacher. Encourages participation. The leader assures that tasks are carried out successfully.
|
Desks/
Folders
|
Moves the desks to
positions used for collaborative work. Puts the desks back to original
position when specified by the teacher. Passes out materials and notebooks,
collects at the end, and places in a teacher-designated location.
|
Recorder
|
Takes
attendance and keeps a record of the frequency of responses from members (if
required). Keeps a record of the progress of the discussion from a teacher
developed or published rubric. Communicates the information to the leader.
|
Summarizer/
Clarifier
|
Gives the group a
summary of what occurred and clarifies when a member asks. The leader is to call on this individual from time to
time.
|
Checker
|
Asks
members of the group to give brief updates on progress. Checks to see that
everyone understands what is going on. The leader is to call on this individual from time to
time.
|
Reader
|
Reads summaries,
group notes, or information from texts.
|
Wildcard
|
Assumes
the role of any missing member or fills in as needed.
|
I usually had teams of
three for quizzes and four for more extended assignments and projects, however,
having students work in pairs can be effective. The rosters were different for
the three and four units because they had different objectives. I found the
roles particularly important in the larger group settings.
3
|
Student proximity
|
Simply having the
students shove the furniture into a haphazard, quasi-quadrant configuration
defeats the purpose and minimizes potential camaraderie. As noted from the
institutional studies discussed earlier the best proximity is close-order
face-to-face and this is achieved
by turning individual desks into a symmetrical cluster. Moving
chairs may be all that is needed to maximize the face-to-face arrangement
should your room be furnished with tables. The team modules, though, should be
separated as far apart as possible to minimize distraction and allow you to
navigate between groups. Do not confuse the double-sized desk since students
are not facing one other. The transition should be smooth when you shift your
lesson
from the row
arrangement to the clusters and back again. Keep the desks/tables in the close
order configuration if
that is how the next class will begin the lesson. Designate monitors for
furniture movement. In time, however, as
they become trusting and competent in this mode, allow students flexibility at
two levels: movement in the room and managing the learning of your content area.
Designate groups by
name. Many use sports icons such as Eagles, Lakers, or Orioles. Having
bobble-head representatives may improve the experience. Depending on your level
of organization, have students maintain pocket folders or three-ring dividers
for handouts, quizzes, and papers since maintaining a portfolio is a popular method
used by many teachers, a convenient organizational component since you will be
examining the work in these folders and can have them incorporate dividers, as
well. Allow the students to tape pictures of family trips, happy moments, and
pets on these notebooks.
4
|
Where is the teacher?
|
Though the teacher has
a different position in the classroom during the cooperative sessions, you
nevertheless can intervene in various ways, opting to stand off to the side or
sit at your desk. In other words, the students are engaged in what they are
doing following the directions of the well-planned assignment, functioning
autonomously from the teacher.
Directions for the
assignment must be explicit. Unless there is a mistake on the handout, the
students function as teams, discuss their mission, and clear up ambiguities
independent of teacher comments.
However, the teacher
can intervene in meaningful ways. One is to move from group to group to monitor
progress and entertain questions. For a few classes, I would position my chair
(mine had rollers) near a cluster, maintain proximity with the students,
discuss their progress, and then roll to the next group.
I was perched in
another location in the room most of the time, though. From that venue, I would
call a member from a team to my desk to check on the group's progress and make
corrections on the paper that would be dispensed to cohorts. The one on one
encounter is a very important element in the school life of a student because
the same elements discussed earlier when peers interact apply here as well:
there is eye contact and proximity,
building trust along the way. You
are conversing: "how are things working out for your group?",
"how did your volleyball team do yesterday?".
5
|
Assessment
|
It is common to use
assessment instruments that you
and your students complete and highly recommend using one or more of these
devices because it will help students gauge what behaviors are desired,
reinforcing your initial comments about the value and purpose of cooperative
learning. This is important because the students must recognize
their value as self-assured and tolerant contributors while performing tasks,
and the teacher observation report form will help you develop an objective
perspective on the effort of the students during group sessions.
Team Assessment
Team Name____________________ Members___________________________________________________
Our team is cohesive and respectful.
1 2 3 4 5
 Low High
Our team has a common mission to learn
the information to the fullest.
1 2 3 4 5
 Low High
Everyone is involved in the process and
contributing to the knowledge bank.
1 2 3 4 5
 Low High
Every moment is used during the lesson
deriving the answers.
1 2 3 4 5
 Low High
Each member performs their tasks appropriately.
1 2 3 4 5
 Low High
List your strengths as a team that you
have observed during this first week of Team-Based Learning. How have you
adapted to the process to make it work effectively?
In what areas has your group improved
this week to increase the knowledge assimilation?
|
This online site has several of these forms:
http://www.dailyteachingtools.com/cooperative-learning-evaluate.html
A complete set of assessments can be found on a search engine using:
'Cooperative learning teacher evaluation form'
In addition, you can verify the inclusiveness of the session by giving a brief
individual quiz. A few teachers use the assessment to derive a team score from the average of the members.
Team-Based Participation
Evaluator
_____________________________
This
evaluation is interested in finding out how the members of your group worked
to derive productive and meaningful sessions.
Use numbers 0 through 5 with 5 being the highest. Evaluate the members
of your group.
|
Conclusion
This chapter shows
instructors how to implement cooperative work. Several publications on this
subject are available.1,2,3,4
Previous chapters
discussed the enhanced productivity when people embark on face-to-face encounters from both
neurological and observational research studies. This chapter helps a teacher
get started with the cooperative learning process, working
best when the rationale is explicitly enunciated and followed with feedback analysis for both
the student participants and the instructor. To maximize eye contact and group intimacy,
students should be symmetrically arranged in quadrants but can be varied by the
students as they understand the significance of team-based work to complete
tasks. From the structure created by the teacher a wide range of assignments
can be expedited that maximize engagement, effectively nurture assimilation and
reinforcement of subject matter, along with higher order processing. The interactions are rewarding and stimulate the brain to
reinforce the prefrontal cortex and midbrain areas through
dopamine secretion, often
evolving to a spirited and collegial environment as the face-to-face encounters
validate the members during
the content facilitation. With practice, you inspire students to be good
decision-makers, extending flexibility in room position and time management
goals.
*******
References
1. Bruffee, K.,
(1995). Sharing our toys: Cooperative Learning versus Collaborative Learning. Change, 27(1), 12-18.
2. Johnson, D.,
Johnson, R., (1998). Learning together
and alone, cooperation, competition, and individualization. 5th ed., San
Francisco, CA, Pearson Education
3. Sylwester,
R., (2003). A Biological Brain in a
Cultural Classroom, Corwin Press.
4. Barkley, E.,
Cross, K., (2004). Collaborative Learning
Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty Paperback, Jossey-Bass.
