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Cooperative Learning and

Classroom Management
Classroom Management  Classroom Goal Structures
There is a growing interest in the educational benefits
EST 213 of grouping children for learning
Lecture 19 & 20
Classroom grouping is an important management
function which has implications for effective learning
and classroom management
Typically, classrooms and lessons can be structured in
one of three ways: individualistically, competitively or
cooperatively

Individualistic Competitive
 In individualistic goal structures, the student is  When competitive goal structures are used,
expected to do the very best that he or she can, success and reward structures are
alone.
determined by others’ ‘failure’, by ‘beating’
other students.
 Achieving individually does not interfere with the
achievement of others. For there to be a winner (the scorer of the ‘A’
grade) there must also be a loser, or many
losers.
 Rewards are based on the extent to which a
student’s performance meets specified standards
not on how the student performs in comparison with
others

 Typically, teachers report that cooperative

Cooperative group work is most effective when student
 Currently there is considerable interest in the use of interaction will enhance learning such as
cooperative goal structures in which students work learning a complex conceptual material
together to achieve or complete shared or common
tasks.
 According to Cohen (1994) there is no
advantage for students in using
cooperative learning structures for
 The success of group members depends on the
success of all members of the group: helping each
activities that involve just factual or
other in groups to achieve ensures both individual computational tasks where the fastest
and group rewards worker or the one who knows the
answers will ‘share’ with the rest of the
group

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 According Slavin (1990) this does not mean that

cooperative learning approaches are not effective  Specifically for problems expressed in words,
for lower-level tasks such as recall of factual
information, decoding and motor skills, because
such as discussion and essay questions;
they are. Mathematical problems, figures, mazes and
puzzles; and creative problems requiring imagery
 Probably of greater interest to us as educators is the or novel representations, cooperative groups are
very strong research evidence that cooperative
efforts at higher level tasks such as problem solving better able to find solutions than those who work
are superior to competitive ones for all individuals competitively alone
of all ages (Quin,Johnson& Johnson, 1995)

If the goal is the development of harmonious

interpersonal interpersonal relationships,
especially of an intercultural nature, the  Also, the low expectations held by low-status
research evidence for the use of team-based are dissipated as group members discover
approaches (such as STAD, TGI, Jigsaw and similarities other than academic ones, and
Group Investigation) also shows strong positive also find that the final product of
effects (Slavin, 1990) collaboration is far richer than any one
individual could produce.
In addition low-achieving students find that
their achievement is enhanced because they
must seek to clarify any lack of understanding
in order to contribute to the group goal.

Planning to use cooperative learning in  If you have answered ‘no’, then it is unlikely that
the classroom students will put a great deal of effort into a
group project in which they feel that they would
 If planning to use a cooperative learning ask the do better or enjoy independently (Abrami et al.
following questions first: 1995).
- Can this work be done better in a group than  Group tasks must be carefully planned and
individually? structured by the teacher so that cooperative
- That is will the mix of different abilities, view points interaction between students is required for
and creative talents be an advantage? successful completion:
- Is the task so large or complex that only a group can - Students must understand what the objectives
handle it? are, what their individual responsibilities are,
- If the answers are ‘yes’ then you have a recipe for and how these are interrelated with those of
success other team members.

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 In fact, research has known that the  Implementation of cooperative learning strategies
would be demanding in terms of management until
most effective cooperative learning students become accustomed to the skills required
techniques incorporate both group in collaborative work.
goals and individual accountability  These problems will generally comprise of:
(Abrami et al.1995) - Noise
- Seating arrangements
 Students who are engaged
- Presenting students with direction
productively are unlikely to show - Accessing materials for collaborative use
discipline problems and enable teacher - Dealing with inappropriate behaviours that violate the
to spend more time giving direct norms for cooperation –not helping others, putdowns,
arguments, bullying and loafing.
instruction to specific groups as
needed, as well as to act as a specific
consultant to all groups

Essentials of getting started with cooperative - Designing the activity to require group processes.
learning in the classroom - Using a ‘quiet signal’ or ‘noise meter’ to help
For teachers: students monitor and control noise levels.
- Planning well ahead: set realistic and attainable goals - Reflecting on the outcomes of the group
for the activity and communicate to the students. collaboration in terms of your planning and your
- Beginning with topics or groups with which you are learning objectives. Have the students do the same.
likely to be successful: don’t be too ambitious at the start. - Persisting with a variety of cooperative approaches:
- Using very small groups (pairs) at first and increasing size it takes a lot of practice to master any teaching
to threes or fours later. approach. Students also need to learn how to work
- Restricting the first cooperative activity to less than collaboratively: it will come with time.
- 15 minutes

Establishing cooperative
Benefits of cooperative group learning
learning in the classroom  Improves academic achievement for students of a range
of ability levels at primary and secondary school level,
irrespective of subject area and type of school (Slavin,
 Kagan (1994) recommends that rules for 1991)
cooperative behaviour, described best as ‘class  Particular achievement gains have been shown in
mathematics (Davidson, 1991), verbal skills in social
norms’ should be formed by the students where studies, reading, language arts and English
appropriate rather than presented by teacher. (Winistky,1991), and computer based learning (Rysavy&
Sales, 1991).
 One way of doing this to get students to reflection
 As for non-cognitive abilities it produces positive
how they feel when participating in group work. attitudes towards learning, raises self-concept and self-
- What feels good? esteem, improves relationships between students,
increases feelings of social support, and enhances
- What makes it work? acceptance of ‘difference’ such as minority group
membership, gender or disability.
- What spoils it?

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Four General Approaches to

Why does cooperative learning work?
 There are two broad theoretical perspectives on why
Learning in Cooperative Groups
cooperative learning works:
- - Cognitive and motivational
Johnson and Johnson (1992, 1994) gives the  1) Learning together (Johnson & Johnson);
following reasons:
 2) Student team learning (Slavin);
- Rehearsal
- Mixed Groups  3) Structures (Kagan);
- Varied perspectives  4) Group Investigation (Sharan&Sharan).
- Feedback
- Conflict

 Learning together (Johnson & Johnson)  Positive interdependence means that student
 According to Johnson and Johnson for a must function as a group with a shared goal; one
lesson to be described as truly ‘cooperative’, that ‘sinks or swims together’. No individual (more
there are certain criteria that apply. able or assertive) should dominate the group.
 positive interdependence;
 Such interdependence maybe expressed in a
 Face-to-face interaction; face
variety of ways: a common product or goal;
 Individual accountability; assignment of unique roles (task specializations) interaction
 Collaborative skills; that combine to form a whole; shared resources;
 Group processing. and shared rewards for a group effort (the
motivational perspective) which provide incentives
for all members to help each other.

 It is important that tasks be set that require group  Collaborative Skills are crucial to effective
members to have face-to face interaction rather than cooperative learning. Students need to develop the
allowing for independent completion of discrete
components which are merely combined as separate skills required for working cooperatively.
pieces at the end. The must encourage and support each
other’s efforts to learn.
 Not all students know how to work and to learn
collaboratively. Increasingly employers are looking
 Cooperative learning strategies vary in the extent to
for individuals who can work as a team.
which they use rewards based on group performance.

 In some group rewards are given only when all members  Students need to be trained in the necessary social
of the group achieve their individual learning goals. In skills of listening, asking and answering questions,
other methods, rewards are given on the basis of a giving and receiving explanations, sharing, helping
single group product.
and treating all group members with respect.

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Group processing
Student team Learning (Slavin)
 Groups need to evaluate how well they are
achieving their goals, how their group is performing,  Research focus of Robert Slavin has been in the
and how best to maintain productive working use of cooperative learning strategies for the
relationships between all members of the group. acquisition of basic skills. The following three types
 Time must be available for group processing or
of activity are characteristics of this approach.
reflection to occur and assistance should be given 1) In the Teams-Games-Tournament (TGT) the
by the teacher, initially, in suggesting ways of giving teacher presents first to the whole class material
constructive feedback to group members on their which heterogenous teams of four to five members
participation. then proceed to help each other master during the
 Individual students should also evaluate their
rest of the week, until they compete against other
personal achievement and contribution. teams on the last day of the week.

 These competitions take the form of ‘tournaments’ at Student Teams-Achievement Divisions

which three students of similar previous (STAD)
performance sit at tables and attempt to gain the
most points for their group by answering as many  STAD is a simpler version of TGT that replaces the
questions as they can from the teacher prepared tournaments between students with individual
handout. quizzes.
 Each tournament winner brings the same number of  Individual quiz scores are compared with previous
averages and points are given based on how much a
points (six) back to his or her team irrespective of
student meets or improves on past performance.
initial level of ability.
 Thus, this method de-emphasizes competition
 Thus, each members have equal chance of success between classmates and focuses instead on self-
and of a boost in self-esteem when they contribute improvement.
to the group total.  The sum of individual points is the team score, and
teams compete to gain the highest total, for which
they are rewarded by the teacher .

Jigsaw
 One of the earliest approaches to cooperative
 Jigsaw II has been modified by Slavin, so that all
learning was Jigsaw, developed by Aronson and his
colleagues (1978). In this method, students are students read the entire assignment and are then
assigned to six-member teams of mixed ability, allocated particular topics on which to become
gender and ethnicity. ‘experts’.
 The material to be learnt is divided between the
members of the team. Each team has the same  As with STAD, grades are awarded on the basis of
material to learn. Individuals with the same section
individual quizzes to assess individual improvement,
combine to form ‘expert’ groups who study their part
together. They then return to their original groups to and then combined to give a team score.
teach these parts in turns to other team members.
 Finally, all students are tested on the complete
material.

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 Two Examples:
1) In Numbered Heads Together, students form
The Structural Model (Kagan) teams of four, each student with a separate
 Spencer Kagan’s (1994) structural approach
number. All team members work together to
successfully incorporates positive interdependence
answer the teacher’s questions, although only one
and individual accountability into practical lesson
number will be called from each group to reply.
plan formats for teachers.
These students will represent their groups but are
 These allow the teacher freedom to use a variety of
individually accountable for their answers as there
content-free cooperative learning ‘structures’ with
is no prior warning as to which number will be
any subject matter to help interaction between
called. Such a structure can be used to check for
students
understanding of content and review of previously
 These include: Thinking skills, Communication skills, learned material.
Information sharing, Mastery, Class Building, Team
Building

2) Think-Pair-Share has been designed to encourage The Group Investigation Model (Sharan &
the development of thinking skills. In this structure, Sharan)
a problem is posed which students think about
alone, initially, for a specified period. They then pair  A model derived from Jon Dewey’s view that
up with someone to discuss the question. children should have some responsibility for
At this stage, careful listening to each other is directing and influencing their learning, as well as a
important as students maybe called on to explain sense of belonging to social groups (while retaining
their partner’s answer during the final stage when all their individuality)
pairs come together to share their answers with the
whole class.
 Cognitive development involves actively building
One interesting variation is instead of reporting to the
understanding from personal experience, not from
whole class, join another pair to make a team which
can further students thinking and discussion information being presented by external sources.

 Four critical components of group 3) Interaction - Students will interpret both their
interpersonal relationships and the information they are
investigation: studying. There needs to be an opportunity for reflection
1) Investigation - This refers to the way that by students (individually and as a group) and by the
classroom learning is organized to enable teacher.
inquiry based (project method) learning to 4) Intrinsic motivation- This is an essential component of
effective group investigation as there are no extrinsic
occur. rewards provided. Students need to be personally
2) Interaction - Sitting students together in interested in the topic and their part in its study.
small groups does not guarantee that Two to six students combine to choose a section of a topic
cooperative interaction will take place. from a general unit of work being studied by the class.
They then break down this subtopic into individual
They need to be shown the ways in which activities which the members set about completing. Then
to talk about and work with teach other for present their final product to class contributing to a
academic purposes. broader understanding of the original unit.

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 Teacher’s role is to guide and monitor through each

sage of the inquiry process. Evaluation at the end
 Source:
of project by both students and teacher is an
essential component of this approach McInerney, D.M. & McInerney, V. (1998).
Educational Psychology: Constructing Learning
(2nd). Prentice Hall
 This model is ideal if your aim is to develop student
inquiry and creative problem-solving skills while
exploring concepts. It is not effective for covering
specific curriculum content nor when students are
experienced in communication skills such as asking
questions and reaching consensus.