Cooperative Learning

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Module 6 consisted of reading on collaboration/cooperative learning. Chapter nine in Models of Teaching and John Dewey’s essay “My Pedagogic Creed” were our readings this week. I found the cooperative learning strategy to be a wonderful way to include as many students into group discussions while they work together to investigate or create something. Johnson and Johnson’s five essential components of cooperative learning were also very helpful to see how collaboration is most effective: positive interdependence; face-to-face interaction; individual accountability; social skills development; group processing opportunities. (D&D, 246)

Dewey states that he, “believes that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child’s powers by the demands of the social situations where he finds himself.” (Dewey 1897) I find that this statement rings a powerful bell in my ears. In social situations where group activities are happening there is a sense of accountability that is unspoken throughout a group which holds each member responsible.  And what Dewey is saying is that true education is brought forth in group learning because each child’s powers are demanded by the social situation.  I found that in each group activity I worked in throughout my education I was pushed to bring as much forth as possible so to keep the group happy. Sometime we can surprise ourselves with the amount of interest we have in a topic if others are learning along with us, we have a voice, and people are listening. Everyone in small groups has that chance to be heard because there is less competition for “talk-time”, and it is less intimidating talking to three people instead of the whole class and teacher.

When setting up a Jigsaw, D&D suggest that the teacher prepares groups based on heterogeneous backgrounds. Using the Jigsaw method specifically, we can see that each student is required to do their own work and then come back together as a group to discuss common themes. This not only allows students to share what they thought about the text–giving them a voice–but it also opens the floor for interpretations from diverse sets a students. Each student can bring in their outside knowledge of the world to interpret what the passage in the book means, or where they first saw the certain constellation, etc. The knowledge gained will have a much wider breath than if the teacher was just to present the information and that was the end of the unit. Here we get connections between students, and the education is contextualized by story-telling within the groups. All these positive attributes of the cooperation/collaboration strategy helps students to collect knowledge and understand it deeper, which will enhance the length of their memory on the topic.