1. Setting academic and social goals

Cooperative learning is not an add-on to the curriculum and extra workload for teachers. It is rather a tool to achieve our teaching goals in a cooperative format.

So, the starting point for integrating cooperative learning into your curriculum is to examine your learning targets (e.g., standards, aims, goals, objectives).

Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine your goals:

• What are my learning targets? What do I want my students to get from the lesson?
• Can I achieve those targets using cooperative learning?
• What do I need to change to use this approach? What kinds of tasks to introduce? The necessary classroom layout and arrangement to make?

Once you have identified the learning targets that can best be taught within a partial or fully cooperative context, set carefully the academic and social goals for cooperative learning.

Make sure to explain them to your students and articulate them on a daily to weekly basis, especially when first introducing cooperative learning.

2. Planning activities

A variety of learning activities can be used in cooperative settings. These may allow for both individual and collaborative work, or small-group interaction, followed by whole-class discussion and analysis.

For example, students can work together to:

• create a product or performance that meets certain criteria (Group Products/Performance),
• examine information together, discuss it, and report findings (Collaborative Content Processing),
• complete independent assignments, then talk to one another and exchange feedback (Collaborative Group Work),
• answer a question/topic on a sheet of paper. Groups then rotate to the next sheet of paper. After all groups completed each station, the original group sums up the findings for their question/topic (Graffiti Model),
• learn more about an aspect of the assigned topic with members from other groups who work on the same assigned aspect. After mastering the material, students return to the home group and teach it to their group members (Jigsaw).

 

Yet, deciding on the activity design depends on your learning targets: Do you want your students to engage in inquiry and come up with a performance/product? Or do you want them to process content on their own and then cooperate to discuss and sharpen their learning?

Besides, to help students learn from cooperative learning, it’s important to focus on one skill or content at a time. So, don’t overload your students with too much work to do or learn, as this can wane their interest and engagement in the task.

Students also need specific training and monitoring, since group work requires good communication skills. So, it is essential to teach social skills within the classroom, model them, and encourage students to practise them within their group.

3. Forming cooperative learning groups

There are three ways you can select student groups:

1. Random selection. This is useful at the start of a school year to help students get to know one another. Yet, keep observing your students’ attitudes and interactions to learn more about them (preferences, strengths, needs, peers they get on well together, etc.) so that you can set up the groups.
2. Student selection. Students need to select their members by other criteria (interest, ability, etc.) than friends. Selecting only their friends can contribute to ‘off-task’ behaviours, conflicts among students, etc.
3. Teacher selection. This is the best way to form groups to ensure the greatest effectiveness of cooperative learning. As the year progresses, you can learn more about your students’ learning needs and interests.

You can group them based on their interests. Groups can pursue different activities. One group might create posters while others develop a presentation, conduct experiments, or work as a group of reporters.

Students’ abilities also count. Groups should contain students of varying ability levels who support one another in multiple ways. Those abilities not only concern academic skill level, but also personality characteristics and social skills are to be considered as well.

However, group membership needs to change so that students experience cooperation and support from other peers. Students staying in a group depends on the characteristics of the students in the class and the nature of the tasks or projects on which they are working.

When changing the group members, your selection should not be based always on heterogeneous grouping. Gifted students need to work and learn together. Students with learning difficulties should also work together to learn how to improve better.

Concerning group size, keep it small; 3 to 4 members. Research evidence shows that small teams of three to four members seem more effective than larger groups.

4. Assigning roles

One of the key features of cooperative learning is to foster positive interdependence. To this end, we should assign a specific role to each group member to help students take on responsibility for their learning.

You can assign roles such as group manager (facilitates group discussion and makes sure group sets goals and works to meet them), monitor (monitors time on task and ensures that everyone gets an equal opportunity to participate), facilitator (gathers and organizes materials, keeps a written or taped record of group activities), and reporter (shares group findings and plans in whole-class discussions).

Make sure to explain those roles and model them. Observe and monitor students’ work, and provide incentives for good roles.

As students become accustomed to working together, encourage them to try as many roles as possible. This can help them share their strengths, learn new skills from their peers, and then apply them to other learning tasks.

5. Creating the right environment

Research has shown that classroom design can positively support classroom practices by enhancing student engagement in the learning process. Indeed, the physical arrangement can define students’ interaction, attention, and so learning outcomes.

To help students interact easily with their fellow cooperative group members, separate tables (pairs sitting side by side) would be the best seating arrangement. In case this is not provided, you can enlist the help of students to move tables during cooperative work sessions in a structured and careful way.

But, how about large classes where the traditional lecture setup is dominating?

Students sitting in front of their peers can turn their chairs and work in groups of 4. Though this may not help them move easily within the room, it is the only way to provide students the chance to cooperate.

6. Managing cooperative learning

One of the common issues associated with cooperative learning is noise. Working in groups, students can talk, and get off the task.

Therefore, of great importance is using classroom management techniques to maintain order and keep students engaged in learning.

Here are some handy ones:

• Teach the skills students need to master to engage successfully in cooperative learning. These include listening actively, resolving conflict, communicating concerns, making decisions, performing a role, executing the necessary learning process, and sharing. Having difficulty using these skills often results in students’ confusion about accomplishing the task, and so distraction and disinterest.
• Be sure to clarify each group member’s role, the task’s objective, time, expected performance, and established rules for cooperative learning. These rules concern students’ movement in the classroom, communication with their peers, interaction with the teacher, etc.
• Don’t assume everything is clear, provide ongoing direction/guidelines, check for students’ understanding, and invite them to address questions and learn more. If it’s possible, give written directions, role descriptions, and assessment criteria. You can post them or hand them to your students.
• When you want to provide information for all groups, stop all groups, get their attention first, and then communicate your information simply and concisely. Yet, don’t do that often to maintain the momentum and students’ focus.
• To share valuable information with only one group, get close to them, and speak at a slightly lower volume to avoid distracting others.
• Move from group to group while observing students’ performance, providing guidelines without intervening with their work.
• If a group is struggling with the task, support them and encourage them to work.
• If one or two students are having difficulties in accomplishing their roles, talk to them individually to figure out the issue. Then, explain what they need to do. You should make it clear to the rest of the group that these students’ contribution is valuable.
• Help students self-assess by handing them a checklist to track their progress,
• Use traffic light cards to monitor the noise level of each group, and place them on group tables (green for fine, yellow for the need to lower the noise, and red for being silent).
• Assign a noise monitor role to one of the group members (usually the manager).

 

7. Monitoring and assessing individual and group work

It is important to monitor and assess the academic progress, social functioning, and productivity of the working groups.

Since individuals are assigned roles, each one is assessed based on the work he/she has completed.

You can also observe how each student interacts with the other members, confers with the group, and uses group self-evaluations to assess individual social functioning.

To evaluate group productivity, you can assess time logs, progress reports, and final group projects.

Remember that cooperative learning can provide multiple opportunities to assess students’ learning and support them to improve. So, focus on the intrinsic benefits of cooperative learning, making your feedback more constructive and motivating.

These were the 7 powerful cooperative learning strategies you can use with your students to boost their learning, build their social skills, and enhance their confidence and self-esteem. Though using these strategies requires much time, organization, and structure, they can help you carve out the most rewarding learning experience for students.