For as long as I have been teaching I have been a fan of cooperative learning. I am for any method that allows students to work together achieve a common goal. This type of learning will prepare my students for a career in the business world where team work is must. One of the draw backs of cooperative learning is division of labor. As the instructor, I must make sure that I choose the groups and not allow my students to choose. This always leads to a disaster. I will typically groups my students into small heterogeneous groups of 2-4 students. I always assign each student a job, these makes everyone a part of the process. I also have an evaluation process at the end which al lows the students in the group to evaluate each other. This helps with accountability. I also have to continue to monitor my students to make sure that everyone is staying on task. This keeps me very busy. When all this comes together it is amazing to watch.
When I was taking a class through learning NC we did a few cooperative learning group projects on Wiki. It was really a neat experience. I could also see where Elluminate or any other Web based chat type program would suffice for cooperative learning.
I agree that it can be important for a teacher to initially help guide and/or create cooperative learning groups. It sounds like you have a great organizational system established so that groups can function well, students can share the load, and you can evaluate a group's effectiveness & collaboration.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that once students understand the expectations and have been part of the well-designed structure that you have created, they could then also take part in the group formation aspect as well. It's amazing to see students (even at the elementary level) be able to make choices in assembling a team as they know themselves and the characteristics & work ethic of their friends and classmates. You might be surprised at their ability to choose well (creating groups that don't "always lead to disaster"). :) (Julie Jones)
Kerry,
ReplyDeleteHow does having the students grade each other work? Are they usually pretty honest?
Julie-I used to always let my students choose….. I have had one fight in my room in my entire career as a teacher and it so happened to be during a cooperative activity. (I had let the students choose their groups) I guess now I am a bit leery. The two young ladies started off as friends and ended up in a fight over; you guessed it, a young man! It was ugly and ended up in both young ladies with a long-term suspension to our alternative school. It was actually a few semesters before I would even do group work again. I am probably a bit of a control freak now. I am better. I just might give it a try this year and let them choose!
ReplyDeleteKaren-It actually works really well. I think most of them are very honest. I would agree with 90% of how they critique their peers. I will have a few who are way off base and I adjust that accordingly. I am always watching and observing when when are doing cooperative learning activities. I usually work very hard these days. :-)
ReplyDeleteKerry, it's good to hear you have had success with your own classes and cooperative learning. Also, interesting to hear Learn NC applies the approach with adults using wikis. I like the idea of whatever tool is used leaving some written artifact that can be referred to, be it a wiki or a discussion board. Sometimes the synchronous tools are quick and easy to meet and plan in, but someone has to record sessions or get a transcript, or details could be lost.
ReplyDelete