Instructional Principle: Many students learn better in a cooperative environment (where the success of one student contributes to the success of the entire group) rather than in a highly competitive environment (where the success of one student requires that someone else be unsuccessful). Moreover, cooperative environments often lead to acceptance of outsiders into a group and to enhanced self concept among students who would feel inferior in a more competitive environment.
In a cooperative environment, students have incentives to help other students meet instructional objectives. The success of the group depends on each person within the group performing well. Sometimes this performance calls for a group project, which will receive a group grade. In this case, each student may have to perform a role, the completion of which is integral to the overall project. In other cases, the cooperative group may compete with another group, with individuals competing against other individuals at similar levels of ability. In this case, the group can succeed only if the members who learn most quickly help the members who have greater difficulty. In such an atmosphere, the slower members feel that they have made important contributions, even if they do not perform as well as the brightest members of the group.
Cooperative learning has been found to be especially successful at integrating outsiders into a learning situation - as in the case of learning-disabled or blind students mainstreamed into regular classrooms. These students are able to demonstrate their strengths to others in a way that would be impossible if they were required to compete for rewards with more successful students in the same classroom. A further benefit of cooperative learning is that it prepares students for real-world activities, where they will be expected to help colleagues achieve important goals. Excellent discussions of cooperative learning can be found in Johnson and Johnson (1987) and in Slavin and others (1985).
When students are focusing on objectives of unique interest to themselves alone, working alone at the computer is the most effective strategy. However, such solitary objectives are indeed rare in most areas of the school curriculum. It is the contention of this book that often the best strategy is to have the students work in small groups or even to have the entire class work at a single computer. The computer can become the focal point for class or small group activity, thinking, and discussion. If students are going to work together at computers, effective planning can often turn this activity into an effective cooperative learning experience.
The key point is that individualization (which was recognized as a strength of the computer in chapter 1) is not synonymous with individualistic learning. Research supports the concept of individualization, which states that students learn best when instruction is suited to their individual needs. Individualization does not by any means require that students work alone. The key requirement of individualized instruction is that each student be working at his/her maximum level of performance on tasks related to his/her needs. Students experiencing individualized instruction can definitely benefit from interacting with peers; for example, they may profit from modeling, from motivating social interactions, or from receiving feedback from their peers. On the other hand, research does not support an emphasis on individualistic instruction, which would hold that students should pursue their own instructional goals without concern for the needs or interests of their classmates. It is important to keep this distinction in mind.
It is often easy to promote cooperative learning at the computer. Many simulations, for example, work best when a group works together and students discuss possible strategies before choosing one by consensus.
The cooperative learning approach with computers (Johnson & Johnson, 1986) often consists of two to four students working interdependently to complete an assignment. They don't just take turns or watch one another at the computer. Each student has a role (e.g., keyboarder, recorder, checker, encourager), and these roles are rotated among all members. All must agree before entering information into the computer. The activity should be highly interactive - requiring members of the group to assist each other in working toward their common goal. There should be a vested interest both in group performance and in the personal achievement of individual group members.
An excellent example of combining the computer with effective principles of instruction is shown in Figures 3.x and 3.y.
Figure 3.x.
As figure 3.y shows,
Figure 3.y.
The Tom Snyder Inspirer packages are a series of scavenger hunt software programs that inspire students to work in teams to learn geography, history, economics and other subjects. In the geography programs teams of students travel throughout an area of the world in search of important resources and commodities. Working in assigned roles on their teams, students interpret maps, share key information, and plan strategies. They can work together to help their own team compete with other teams performing the same activities. They have an opportunity to learn about and appreciate the diverse resources and geography of a specific region of the world. With the Inspirers Geography Series, students will:
In other words, students have an opportunity to develop important social and leadership skills while also learning useful content information.
Tom Snyder also publishes Decisions, Decisions, in which students role-play a decision-maker faced with a critical situation drawn from history or from a contemporary issues curriculum. As presidents, feudal lords, mayors, or independence leaders, students use a five-step model for critical thinking and decision-making to gather and review information, discuss options, and take action. Students not only acquire information, they learn how to use it, while interacting with others.
Note that the Decisions, Decisions programs require only one computer for the entire class, or it can be used with small groups. This is a good example of the computer simply serving as a resource for ordinary, effective, enthusiastic coopearative learning to take place in the classroom. More recently this company has produced Decisions, Decisions Online, which promotes critical thinking by providing a forum for students to discuss the latest current events each month such as gun control, cloning, immigration, death penalty, and free trade. The online format includes engaging role-playing videos that draw students into discussion and quizzes that assess student understanding of events.
It is also possible to develop more formal techniques for integrating the computer with cooperative learning. Computer Supported Cooperative Learning (CSCL) is the practice of using computers and technology to assist in learning.
Anderson and Humphreys (1996) offer numerous suggestions for integrating the computer with cooperative learning. Finally, note that the Internet by its very nature lends itself to cooperative learning. That is, students can benefit from the interdiscplinary activity of working together to find information on the Internet and then combining that information in a new way to present information to an audience of their own. Many of the Thinkquest projects (See Figure 3.x for an example), do exactly this.
Figure 3.x. An example of a cooperative project that displays the integration of complex skills.
Finally, it is possible for students to collaborate by email with other learners whom they may never even meet directly in person. Particpating in long-distance projects via email with students at other schools and even in distant countries can be a signifcant attaction of the Internet. Some simple examples of cooperative learning by computer (complete with guidelines for collaboration) can be found at http://www.bham.wednet.edu/online.htm. The approach known as telementoring often involves cooperative learning. Burniske & Monke (2001) describe their attempts to conduct long-distance cooperation, and they suggest some serious caveats.
Cooperative Learning
The Cooperative Learning Research Center at the University of
Minnesota
http://www.clcrc.com/
This web site is maintained by Roger and David Johnson, two of the leading scholars who have conducted theoretical and practical reseaarch on cooperative learning.
Active and Cooperative Learning
http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Cooperative_Learning.html
Professor Felder has posted here a number of good papers he has written about the use of active and cooperative instructional methods in college science and engineering courses, some reporting on his own classroom research studies and some summarizing the literature.
Cooperative/Collaborative Learning
http://www2.emc.maricopa.edu/innovation/CCL/CCL.html
This site brings together a large amount of information by numerous theoriists on cooperative learning strategies.
Cooperative Learning Elementary Activities
http://sps.k12.mo.us/coop/ecoopmain.html
Real life lesson plans that have actually incoporated cooperative learning into real life classrooms!
Cooperative Learning: Response to Diversity
http://www.cde.ca.gov/iasa/cooplrng.html
This is a well written essay that describes one aspect of cooperative learning: its potential for helping diverse students learn more effectively than would be possible in a competitive environment. It includes numerous good links to other resources.
Jigsaw Classroom
http://www.jigsaw.org/
This web site is maintained by Eliott Aronson, who is largely responsible for the development of the jigsaw approach to cooperative learning. It explains the technique clearly and convincingly.
Classroom Instructional Programs: Cooperative Learning
Methods
http://www.newhorizons.org/trm_atriskinstr.html#circa
Clear and concise descriptions of six specific approaches to cooperative learning.
Consumer Guide: Cooperative Learning
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/cooplear.html
This is a 1992 consumer guide from the U.S. Office of Education. It's explanation of cooperative learning is still accurate.
The Essential Elements of Cooperative Learning in the
Classroom by Robert J. Stahl.
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed370881.html
This is a well written 1994 ERIC Digest on the topic.
Cooperative Learning by Jim Cooper
http://www.virginia.edu/~trc/cooperat.htm
Excellent bibliography compiled in 1995.
Sample Cooperative Learning Activity
http://www.artsci-ccwin.concordia.ca/education/cscp/Try.htm
Brief but excellent description of how to make specific plans to impelement cooperative learning in a classroom.
Cooperative Learning Through Telecommunications by Margaret
Riel
http://www-cscl95.indiana.edu/cscl95/outlook/14_Riel.html
This essay describes the use of the computer to promote cooperative learning through learning circles. A Learning Circle is a small number of classrooms that interact electronicallyto accomplish a shared goal. Each classroom in a Learning Circle is a team that contributes to the overall end product.
What Is the Collaborative Classroom? by M.B. Tinzmann, B.F.
Jones, T.F. Fennimore, J. Bakker, C. Fine, and J. Pierce
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/rpl_esys/collab.htm
These authors from North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) describe in detail collaborative learning, which is a slightly broader concept than cooperative learning. Collaborative learning focuses heavily on constructivist ideas (the student learning in collaboration with the teacher and other learners), and cooperative learning can be regarded as a subset of this broader concept.
Developing and Using Courseware for Cooperative Learning
Activities in the Classroom by Siowck-Lee Gan
http://www.pppl.upm.edu.my/~gansl/coop.html
Useful guinedlines on what the title says.
Using Cooperative Learning in the Technology Infused
Classroom
http://www.learnsol.com/coop.html
The editors of Learning Solutions web site describe specific and useful guidelines for using cooperative learning in a classroom in which students are actively using computers.
Cyber Coop
http://sps.k12.mo.us/coop/ecoopmain.html
Examples of cooperative learning activities at the elementary grade levels.
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