Cooperative Learning in the Classroom

Putting it into Practice

Wendy Jolliffe

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781446225110
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

?What is cooperative learning? Why should teachers use it in the classroom? What are the benefits? In eight accessible chapters, Wendy Jolliffe, lecturer in primary education at Hull University, outlines the theory and practice of cooperative learning and shows how the "outcomes and aims of Every Child Matters (2004) can be clearly mapped to the advantages of cooperative learning."... A useful resource for teachers, headteachers, trainee teachers and support staff? - Learning and Teaching Update

Cooperative Learning is about structuring lesson activities to encourage pupils to work collaboratively in pairs or small groups to support each other to improve their learning. This inclusive approach to teaching is very much in tune with current initiatives such as Every Child Matters and Excellence and Enjoyment and the focus on learning styles.

This book is an accessible guide to implementing cooperative learning in the classroom. It includes:

"an explanation of the key factors that make cooperative learning work

"a step-by-step approach to implementing cooperative learning in the classroom

"advice on how to measure the effectiveness of cooperative learning

"guidance for using cooperative learning to encourage effective talk

"links to supporting children?s emotional intelligence

"ideas for practical activities

"an action plan and programme for whole school professional development

The book is an invaluable resource for individual teachers using cooperative learning techniques in classrooms, this book will also be of interest to headteachers, trainee teachers and learning support staff.

CHAPTER 1

Learning for All?

This chapter helps analyse the essential ingredients for an inclusive classroom and provides support in auditing inclusive practice. It sets out the key principles of an inclusive curriculum and focuses on effective interactive methods of teaching. It shows, through examples, how cooperative learning is truly inclusive.

Inclusion is a key part of the education agenda. It is clearly related to basic human rights and the entitlement in schools derives from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Education can play a powerful role in ensuring that institutions adapt to meet individuals needs promoting education for all. Debates range from how we effectively meet all children’s needs in mainstream schools, to accounting for a range of learning styles and ability. The issue of boys underperforming is also crucial and, as examination results are published, we see yearly the pattern of girls overtaking boys in a range of academic areas. Of course, these issues are complex and there is no easy solution, but ensuring maximum participation and engagement in the classroom is a start and, used effectively, cooperative learning can do just this.

Read the following ‘Think about this’ and reflect on the extent to which this is a common situation in classrooms.

Think about this 1.1

A typical classroom

A primary Year 6 class in an inner city school sit in rows facing the teacher. It is literacy and the teacher is delivering the whole-class, shared reading part of the lesson. The text is displayed on the interactive whiteboard and the teacher reads it in a variety of ways: with the class, to the class and selecting different pupils to read sections. A few children (usually the same ones) are eager to read, some are very engaged, and many are on automatic pilot: it is 11 a.m. and every morning at school they know the familiar routine. A few are disaffected and display attention-seeking behaviour, flicking rulers, drawing on mini-whiteboards. If one was to investigate further the challenging home circumstances that many had to deal with would reveal that being ready and able to learn was a real difficulty. As the lesson progresses, the teacher tries to engage the class in discussion. Even though she endeavours to ask open-ended questions, a few children put up their hands eager to respond. An observer might notice the children who sit quietly and do not disturb the lesson, hardly saying a word. Do they learn from this type of whole-class teaching? Most teachers would say it is difficult to ascertain, except from the later work they produce. Some teacher will talk of reflecting on the school day and realising there are some children they have not spoken to at all.

In this and most classrooms, the ability differences are wide and children soon accept a pecking order and a self-concept of being clever or not. The concept of failure is soon learned and not so soon unlearned. Is the answer down to the ability of the individual teacher to engage all pupils?

Numerous studies have shown the drawbacks to this type of teaching,¹ particularly for low-achieving students.² So, how can the teacher be truly inclusive and ensure that all children are motivated and engaged in learning? To enable all children to make progress, schools are expected to implement the National Curriculum inclusion statement:

When planning, teachers should set high expectations and provide opportunities for all pupils to achieve, including boys and girls, pupils with special educational needs, pupils with disabilities, pupils from all social and cultural backgrounds, pupils from different ethnic groups including travellers, refugees and asylum seekers, and those from diverse linguistic backgrounds.³

This sets out three principles that are essential to developing a more inclusive curriculum:

1. Setting suitable learning challenges which relate to appropriate learning objectives by acceleration for some and tracking back for others.
2. Responding to pupils’ diverse learning needs through a range of teaching styles such as more open-ended or extended tasks for the more able pupils, modelling and visual aids for English as an additional language (EAL) learners.
3. Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils. This relates to the provision of access strategies such as providing alternatives to written recording or in maths the use of 100 squares or number lines.

The Primary National Strategy talks about ‘interactive whole-class teaching’. This has not been well understood by teachers and one study⁴ found ‘interactive’ consisted of superficial ‘gimmicks’ such as ‘show me activities’ and so on, rather than ‘deep features’ which encourage pupils to reflect on their thinking and support the joint construction of meaning. The use of extended questioning which supports higher-order thinking can be a powerful method of stimulating and evaluating pupils’ thinking. One method which builds on this is ‘dialogic teaching’⁵ which consists of the following five elements:

1. It is collective – children work together on tasks, as a group or class.
2. It is reciprocal – teachers and children listen to each other and comment/share ideas.
3. It is supportive – children are supported to discuss their views freely.
4. It is cumulative – teachers and children build on each other’s ideas to create coherent lines of thinking.
5. It is purposeful – teachers plan and steer classroom talk with specific purposes.

Dialogic teaching shares many of the purposes and methods of cooperative learning. In particular, strategic cooperative learning⁶ brings together cooperative learning with cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies for learning. Here the use of a range of thinking skill approaches such as graphic organisers, and ‘think aloud’ strategies, together with the powerful combination of pupils working together cooperatively, makes for a very effective learning programme. This is explored further in Chapter 4.

The Primary National Strategy’s approach has, more recently, through the professional development materials for Excellence and Enjoyment, attempted to clarify more discursive or interactive teaching, key elements of which are described as ‘active listening’ and ‘involving children’. Strategies are offered for both, such as using visual aids and class discussion of what constitutes ‘good listening’ and a range of multi-sensory techniques by which to involve children. In addition, inclusion of all learners is recommended by techniques such as differentiated questioning, support and providing a range of tasks. All these go some way to supporting learning for all. However, teachers need support with the mechanism to carry it out. This mechanism needs to take the emphasis away from the teacher as the fountain of all knowledge and instead view the teacher as a co-learner or a co-constructor of knowledge with the pupils. The mechanism needs structures and tasks that can only be completed through valuing and supporting each other, working together through talk and active construction of meaning. It needs cooperative learning. As one research study amongst many shows, ‘Cooperative learning has potential as a powerful teaching strategy in inclusive classrooms impacting both academic and social skills’.

Let us now look at a very different ‘Think about this’ to that of Think about this 1.1. Let us take the same class and subject and look at it cooperatively. Reflect as you read on the elements of inclusion: of ability, of gender and of background.

Think about this 1.2

A cooperative learning classroom

A primary Year 6 class in an inner-city school sit in groups of four or five facing each other. These groups are formed of mixed ability and gender and they have all spent some time over previous weeks creating a team identity by devising, amongst other things, team names and team raps. It is literacy and the teacher is delivering the whole-class, shared reading part of the lesson. She begins by introducing the lesson objective and then the focus for working cooperatively for the week (for example, ‘helping and encouraging each other’). She then makes a link to the previous lesson and asks the children to think about what they remember. After allowing time for this she asks them to share with their partner first, and then asks pairs to talk to the rest of their group. She checks that they are all ready to provide a response and each group has agreed on what key aspects of the previous lesson they learned. Then she asks one member of each group to report the findings of the group using a numbered heads strategy, which ensures that everyone is ready to answer. Different groups report back and then the teacher begins to look at today’s text. Some children move their chairs to ensure they can see the text, and a passage is read together. At key points the teacher stops and asks questions to check understanding. Pupils are always given time to think and to talk about answers either in pairs or groups.

Those disaffected pupils with challenging home circumstances know that their teams need them, or they cannot succeed. In addition, they have had support in interpersonal skills or the affective elements of learning that would otherwise prevent them from being ready and able to learn. They feel wanted and included. Group members are often given roles such as the scribe, time manager, participation checker or materia...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• How to Use this Book
• Introduction: Cooperative Learning: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?
• 1 Learning for All?
• 2 Using Diversity as a Strength
• 3 Talk, Talk, Talk
• 4 Cooperative Learning and How It Can Help
• 5 A Step-by-Step Approach
• 6 Putting Cooperative Learning into Practice
• 7 Developing a Whole-School Vision
• Appendices:
• Notes
• Index