cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is instruction that involves students working in teams to accomplish a common goal, under conditions that include the following elements:

Positive interdependence: is the need to work together to accomplish a common task. If any team member fails to do his/her part, everyone suffers consequences.

Individual accountability: teammates interact in ways that maximize the learning of every group member. All students in a group are held accountable for doing their share of the work.

Face-to-face interaction: Although some of the group work may be parceled out and done individually, some must be done interactively, with group members providing one another with feedback, challenging reasoning and conclusions, and perhaps most importantly, teaching and encouraging one another.

Teaching Social skills: teach students how to take turns, use quiet voices, participate, stay on task, being responsible, encouraging, listening and give help with the group.

Processing: includes evaluating social and academic learning. Members in the group assess their effort and target improvement. Assessment is done as self evaluation of members for their contribution, members evaluating other group members, group self evaluation and group evaluating another group.

Cooperative learning helps students to acquire a higher self esteem, higher achievement, greater social support, greater intrinsic motivator, and greater use of reasoning. Students benefit from cooperative work by acquiring better attitudes towards teachers and schools.