Cooperative Learning

Excerpt from Biehler/Snowman, PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO TEACHING, 8/e, 1997, Houghton Mifflin Co. (Chapters 4 & 11).

Main topics:

- Elements of Cooperative Learning
- Does Cooperative Learning Really Work?
- Why Does Cooperative Learning Work?
- Cooperative Learning in Multicultural Education Programs
- Suggestions for Teaching in Your Classroom: Using Cooperative-Learning Methods

"Over the past twenty years different approaches to cooperative learning have been proposed by different individuals. The three most popular are those of David Johnson and Roger Johnson (Johnson et al., 1994), Robert Slavin (1994, 1995), and Shlomo Sharan and Yael Sharan (Sharan, 1995; Sharan & Sharan, 1994). To give you a general sense of what cooperative learning is like and to avoid limiting you to any one individual's approach, the following discussion is a synthesis of the main features of each approach."

The learning strategies discussed in the excerpt go from individual interaction to group goals (in face-to-face learning process). Thus, we may conclude that cooperative learning, as a positive interdependence, motivate students to help each other to overcome problems or complete whatever task has been assigned.

This synthesis conclude that cooperative learning is sufficiently flexible and it can be used at all level of education. This perception is based on books and some articles that propose and discuss cooperative methods for specific grade levels (in face-to-face learning process).

According to the publications mentioned earlier, it seems that these methods (though used in face-to-face learning situations) showed to be effective in "increasing motivation for learning and self-esteem, redirecting attributions for success and failure, fostering positive feelings toward classmates, and increasing performance on tests of comprehension, reasoning, and problem solving". I believe that all these issues should be present on online education, because one student might be sucessfull if he feels he can easily cooperate with his colleagues also (positive interdependence).

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LINK: http://college.cengage.com/education/pbl/tc/coop.html#1
(retrieved October 19, 2009)