Most teaching takes place in groups, and it is therefore imperative that science teachers closely examine the results of research on small group, mixed-ability team learning. At one time or another, students in your classes will be involved with each other doing science laboratory activities, pairing off to answer questions or solve a problem, working in a small team to prepare a report or make a class presentation. Students interact with each other, and it is important to know how this interaction contributes to student learning. It is also important for the teacher to know how to apply social learning theory to improve student learning, and instruction. Enter cooperative learning.
Over the past several years, a major educational innovation has emerged that is effecting classroom learning. Teachers are implementing programs in which students are organized into small groups to accomplish a task, solve a problem, complete an assignment, study for a test, engaged in a hands-on activity.
Cooperative learning is based on the relationships among motivation, interpersonal relationships and the accomplishment of specific goals. According to social psychology theorists, a state of tension within the individual motivates movement toward the attainment of desired goals. Thus, from this notion, it is the individuals drive to accomplish a desired goal that motivates behavior, whether it be individualistic, competitive or cooperative.
Cooperative learning theory posits that behavior among individuals in a group is synergic, that is the goals of the individuals in a group are linked together in such a way that cooperative goal attainment is correlated positively, or is greater than the separate or individual performance of the group members. This theoretical principle runs through a wide range of cooperative learning models which will be discussed in detail in Chapter 6, but are alluded to briefly below.
How does cooperative learning facilitate student learning? There are many points of view on this question. The behaviorist explanation goes like this. Students working in one group compete with other groups that the teacher has established. Students within a group work together to accomplish a task (complete a laboratory report, study together to prepare for a test, complete a science worksheet). Students are placed in a situation where their success is dependent on the behavior and performance of other students in their group. Success does not necessarily imply a grade, but simply doing well on a competitive task where one teams performance is rated against other teams' performances. Accordingly, team rewards and individual accountability are essential to achievement. In one of the most widely used models of cooperative learning (Student Teams--Achievement Divisions) student teams study together after being presented information by the teacher. After studying together, students take a test. Test scores are used, along with a system of improvement scores, to chart team recognition.
On the other hand, a cognitive perspective argues that the intrinsically interesting nature of learning tasks combined with the range of abilities and knowledge that students bring to the classroom promotes an environment of learning. Learning tasks that require multiple abilities to accomplish appear to be effective in reducing the domination of group learning by high-ability students. Instead of relying heavily on reading ability, science teachers should design group learning tasks that require reasoning, hypothesizing, predicting, and inductive thinking, the use of manipulative materials, and multimedia sources. According to social psychologists, such tasks "encourage students to modify their perceptions of their own and one another's competence."
A number of social factors affect the success of cooperative learning. As David and Roger Johnson point out, cooperative learning is not having student sit together as they do individual assignments, not having high ability students help slower students, and is not assigning a project wherein one person does all the work. They do, however, point out that cooperative learning is based on the following concepts.
Principles of Cooperative Learning
Johnson and Johnson (1992) has investigating learning in cooperative teams, and have developed a model that is based on several principles, the most important of which are positive interdependence, face-to-face communication, individual accountability and social skill development.
Positive interdependence. Students need to value the performance of each member of the group, as well as their own. A sense of mutual dependence is established by agreeing on a goal, dividing up the workload or materials, resources or information, differentiating roles, and providing joint rewards. Each of these creates contributes to creating an environment of positive interdependence.
Face-to-Face Communication. Students need to be put in situations where they interact with each other face-to-face. Learning in small groups is dependent on students talking with each other. Interaction in the science classroom will not only involve verbal exchanges, but, if you embrace the multi-ability concept mentioned earlier, students will interact with each other nonverbally as well. For example, building models of atoms, or glacial features, making a video tape of a natural phenomena, testing the ph of a collection of rain samples are activities that provide the opportunity for both verbal and nonverbal interaction.
Individual Accountability. There is always the fear that groupwork results in one or two students doing all the work, while the rest get a free ride. The structure of cooperative learning is dependent also on each student's mastery of the material being learned, and responsibility for sharing in the attainment of the groups' goal. Individual testing, grading and feedback are part of the cooperative learning approach.
Interpersonal Skills. Just as students need to learn the skills of doing science, you will discover that students, if placed in cooperative learning groups, will need to learn some communication skills. Just as science teachers devise lessons designed to help students learn science skills such as observing, classify, predicting and hypothesizing (see Chapter 3), they also design lessons to prepare students for cooperative work. Cooperative groupwork requires a set of communication skills that are not required in traditional , or individualized learning environments.
One effective technique is to design a science activity, but use it to focus on one or more of the following discussion or cooperative group skills:
1. Asking for others' opinions2. Listening
3. Reflecting on what has been said
4. Being concise
5. Giving reasons for ideas
6. Allowing everyone to contribute
7. Pulling ideas together
8. Finding out if group is ready to make decision