Collaborative and Cooperative Learning
Collaborative and Cooperative Learning
Collaborative and Cooperative Learning
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In small groups, students can share strengths and also develop their weaker skills. They
develop their interpersonal skills. They learn to deal with conflict. When cooperative
groups are guided by clear objectives, students engage in numerous activities that
improve their understanding of subjects explored.
In order to create an environment in which cooperative learning can take place, three
things are necessary. First, students need to feel safe, but also challenged. Second,
groups need to be small enough that everyone can contribute. Third, the task students
work together on must be clearly defined. The cooperative and collaborative learning
techniques presented here should help make this possible for teachers.
positive interdependence
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individual and group liability
primitive interaction (face to face)
teaching the students the required interpersonal and small group skills
group processing.
There has been a split regarding to the differences between collaborative and
cooperative learning. Some believe that collaborative learning is similar, yet distinct
from cooperative learning. While both models use a division of labor, collaborative
learning requires the mutual engagement of all participants and a coordinated effort to
solve the problem whereas cooperative learning requires individuals to take
responsibility for a specific section and then coordinate their respective parts together.
Another proposed differentiation is that cooperative learning is typically used for
children because it is used to understand the foundations of knowledge while
collaborative learning applies to college and university students because it is used to
teach non-foundations of learning. Another believed difference is that cooperative
learning is a philosophy of interaction where collaborative learning is a structure of
interaction.
However, many psychologists have defined cooperative learning and collaborative
learning similarly. Both are group learning mechanisms for learners to obtain a set of
skills or knowledge
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become more engaged and thoughtful learners, but teaching them that obtaining
knowledge is a communal activity itself.
When compared to more traditional methods where students non-interactively receive
information from a teacher, cooperative, problem-based learning demonstrated
upgrading of student engagement and retention of classroom material. A meta-analysis
comparing small-group work to individual work in K-12 and college classrooms also
found that students working in small groups achieved significantly more than students
working individually, and optimal groups for learning tended to be three- to four-
member teams with lower-ability students working best in mixed groups and medium-
ability students doing best in homogeneous groups. For higher-ability students, group
ability levels made no difference. In more than 40 studies of elementary, middle, and
high school English classrooms, discussion-based practices improved comprehension of
the text and critical-thinking skills for students across ethnic and socioeconomic
backgrounds. Even discussions lasting as briefly as ten minutes with three participants
improved perceived understanding of key story events and characters.
Festivity of diversity: Students learn to work with all types of people. During small-group intera
find many opportunities to reveal upon and reply to the diverse responses fellow learners bring to t
raised. Small groups also allow students to add their perspectives to an issue based on their cultura
differences.
Interpersonal development: Students learn to transmit to their peers and other learners as
they work together in group enterprises. This can be especially helpful for students who have
impenetrability with social skills. They can benefit from structured exchanges with others.
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More opportunities for personal feedback. Because there are more exchanges among
students in small groups, your students receive more personal feedback about their ideas
and responses. This feedback is often not possible in large-group instruction, in which one
or two students exchange ideas and the rest of the class listens.
Collaborative learning can take place any time students’ work together --
for example, when they help each other with homework. Cooperative
learning takes place when students work together in the same place on a
structured project in a small group. Mixed-skill groups can be especially
helpful to students in developing their social abilities.
The skills needed to work together in groups are quite distinct from those used to
succeed in writing a paper on one's own or completing most homework or "seatwork"
assignments. In a world where being a "team player" is often a key part of business
achievement; cooperative learning is a very useful and pertinent tool.
Because it is just one of a set of tools, however, it can easily be integrated into a class
that uses multiple approaches. For some assignments individual work may be most
efficient, while for others cooperative groups work best.
Research suggests that cooperative and collaborative learning bring positive results such
as deeper understanding of content, increased overall achievement in grades, improved
self-esteem, and higher motivation to remain on task. Cooperative learning helps
students become actively and constructively involved in content, to take ownership of
their own learning, and to resolve group conflicts and improve teamwork skills.
Over the past twenty-five years, the use of small-group learning has
greatly increased. Informal collaborative projects have grown into
structured, cooperative group work. Cooperative learning became
especially popular in the early 1980s and has matured and evolved since.
One evolving aspect of cooperative and collaborative learning involves how the
educational community approaches the composition of the small groups. Debates still
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occur on this topic. Researchers disagree mainly about whether to group students
according to their ability, or to mix them so that stronger students can help the weaker
ones learn and themselves learn from the experience of tutoring.
Cooperative activities entail the construction of new ideas based on personal and shared
foundations of past experiences and understandings -- so they naturally apply some of
the ideology of constructivism. Learners also scrutinize significant, real-world problems
through good explorative questions, and as a result these groups can easily be used for
an inquiry-based approach.
Cooperative and collaborative activities can have many diverse objectives, ranging from
mastery of basic skills to higher-order thinking. Because the specifics of a cooperative-
learning project depend on the objectives of the particular teacher, the teacher can easily
orient the project toward meeting these standards.
References:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/collaborative_learning
2. https://www.thirteen.org/ed