COOPRATIVE LEARNING

Cooperative learning is a method that is widely used nowadays. This method aims to change the traditional methods in which the teacher has all the authority and responsibility. In order to foster good working  relationship between students and in order not to create a competitive learning environment, Cooperative Learning is used in more and more classes today.

       The teacher should know his/her students

The first and most important step of cooperative learning is forming the groups. Groups shold be formed heterogeneously. However, if a teacher doesn’t know about his/her students (their level, personality, motivation etc.) well, he or she can’t form the groups properly. Consequently, the teacher’s observation about the students plays an important role for cooperative learning.

       An important beginning: forming the groups

The groups must be made of different type of students so that they can affect each other, make balance and share different ideas. The teacher should observe the students, learn the students who are shy and sociable and put them in the same group. In this way, shy students will be more confident to participate in the activities and sociable students will help the other students. They will succeed or fail all together so this will make them feel responsible for the other group mebers as well, which is the main goal in Cooperative Learning.

      Students should know each other

Not only the teacher should know his/her students but also the students know each other. The groups are formed heterogeniously, they probably won’t know each other and have something much in common at the beginning. But the relationship between them also will affect their work and cooperation skills. Individual accountability and positive interdepence is important to be able to learn in cooperation and these two important qualification can be maintained if the group members foster good working relationship and get on well with each other.

      Teacher is not the only person who does all the work in the class

In traditional education system, the teacher always comes to the class, teaches the subject of the course, talks and the students just listen passively. The teacher is the only person who does the work. With cooperative learning, this system starts to change. The students work together and they are active in the class. The teacher’s duty is to observe, help, stimulate and guide the students.

     Teacher as a guide in cooperative learning

The fact that the students are the people who work in the class actively doesn’t mean that the teacher just watch passively. Although it is the students who are active in the class, the role of the teacher plays an important part in cooperative learning. The teacher should observe the students closely, solve the problems, guide the students and be able to catch the attention of the students with colourful materials and enjoyable tasks.

We understand the different tecniques like:

Peer Tutoring

It is a strategy that is tailored to individual differences based on a didactic relationship between the participants. It supports the collaboration between one student that demand or need help and other one who is qualified to give it. In this technique it is udes in pairs and not in small groups.

Jigsaw

It enables each student of a "home" group to specialize in one aspect of a topic (for example, one group studies habitats of rainforest animals, another group studies predators of rainforest animals). Students meet with members from other groups who are assigned the same aspect, and after mastering the material, return to the "home" group and teach the material to their group members.

 

Teams Assisted Individualization

It combines cooperative learning with individual learning. All students work on the same, but each follows a specific, personalized program depending on your needs.

Students should help each other to achieve the personal objectives of each team member.

Teams - Games Tournaments

The TGT has three basic elements: equipment, tournaments and games. The operation of the method is as follows: the teacher explains the subject to the class and then work in teams mentoring relationship explained the material in order to prepare for the various sessions of play within form tournaments where each student students compete against other teams. 

Group-Investigation

The teacher chooses a topic and the different subtopics. In this way, each group choose a subtopic and work with it.

Once that the groups are formed, the teacher became into a helper, a person how take part into the investigation only when the groups are lose, confused, wrong…

Finally they present their work to the rest of the class and all together, teacher and the rest of students, put the mark.