The three articles this week pointed to a plethora of research on cooperative learning. Each of the authors agreed that cooperative learning was beneficial. Johnson, Johnson and Smith even provided several quotes and examples of cooperative learning accomplishments.
With all this positive support it is interesting to me that each of the authors felt it was necessary to make recommendations on cooperative learning. It seems as if the authors go out of their way to convince the reader that this can really work!
So do we are educators and learners need convincing that this will work? I think we do. It is hard to break through what Johnson, Johnson and Smith called the “myth of individual genius”.
I still remember clearly in sixth grade when a long-term substitute teacher put us in groups of four. We thought of this as cheating and actively fought the process. This patient expert walked us through many of the steps the authors recommended in these articles.
I’d like to hope that we don’t need the “structure, structure, structure” that Millis calls for. I like to think that we are moving away from an individual society to a more collaborative society.
I think the authors point out some wonderful examples of groups that have effectively used collaborative learning. These vary from agriculture, engineering and the military. I think the keys to using cooperative learning are; teacher feedback and helping students identify the collective goal.
I still work on using this model in my own life. I was surprised how much I identified with some of the problems between groups the authors illustrated. It is easy to see how teachers and students give up on this model. However, I agree that is might just be worth all that effort.
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Hi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteYou are so right, educators do need convincing that cooperative learning will work. Individualism... the "individual genius"... definitely gets in the way. I also think many educators have a bad taste for cooperative learning because of problems they have personally experienced or have heard about. I'm with you that it will probably be worth the effort. We as educators that believe in cooperative learning must do everything we can to work with and help our colleagues believe in it as well. Sharing ideas about what does and doesn't work may help some teachers overcome their fears of using these models.
Mary Ellen
Here, here, Rachel! I also identified with some of the struggles that the authors wrote about. (I can see where I struggle with group members - and where other members struggle with me!)
ReplyDeleteI think they provided so many examples to prove the theory and provide evidence for those who most often read these articles... professors and scholars who are skeptical of CL.
There was a comment made in one of the articles that made it sound like colleges first discovered CL. I wondered if that was true. You'd think a classroom teacher first came up with CL. Just no one ever thought to write it down. ;)
I remember working in groups in grade school. I also remember it didn't happen often. It takes time that teachers just do not feel they have time for. In math, I had to stay on a strict schedule. I think it would make it more accessable to grade school if a method were developed to make it less time consuming and add a bit of structure they could follow. This would make a get thesis project for a doctoral degree.
ReplyDeletePrevious comment was made by Rebecca Kirstein.
ReplyDeleteI identified with some of the student complaints, too. When I was an undergraduate in college, I sometimes felt that I did most of the work on group projects. Of course, when I played soccer in high school, the shoe was on the other foot. I wasn't able to attend many out-of-school group meetings, and I often ended up doing less work than the other people. While assigning a unique role to each group member doesn't necessarily solve this problem, it certainly helps!
ReplyDeleteHi Rachael, I liked your comment about you and your classmates resisting against the 6th-grade substitute that tried to put you into groups. You stated that you felt like you were cheating...what type of assignment was it and how did you deal with the substitute? I (somewhat) remember being in groups when I was in elementary school and I remember having a love-hate relationship with them. I loved them because it was basically was permission for us to talk and have a valid excuse (party time!!) but I hated them for the reason that I didn't want anyone else to affect my grade. If I am going to get a lower grade, it would be due to my own errors not from a classmate's participation (or lack of).
ReplyDeleteCandy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. The group work in the 6th grade was for everything. We weren't graded on a group basis. However, we were expected to work together to learn the material.