Cooperative Learning…Worth All the Fuss?
Every teacher I’ve met believes that placing students in cooperative groups is good practice. Many benefits spring from these groups, and besides, doesn’t it help students become productive, inter-connected citizens in their future world?
On the exterior, cooperative learning looks terrific…but on the inside of group work, it can be anything but rainbows and sunshine.
Group work pitfalls can include:
One student doing all or most of the group work
Off-task behaviors
Personality differences causing issues
Some students habitually absent
Difficulty grading individual students fairly
Let’s take a quick look at that first one…What do I do when one student does all or most of the work, or alternatively, what do I do when students do little or none of the group work? When groups have members contributing unequally, it creates problems. Group members get upset with one another. Some work harder so that at least he/she won’t get a bad “group” grade. So is group worth work it?
Based on decades of research done by Robyn M. Gillies (2016) on cooperative learning, Jennifer Gonzalez (Cult of Pedagogy) sums it up well:
“Here’s the big takeaway: In general, when students work together, they make greater academic and social gains than when they compete against one another or when they work individually. But merely putting students into groups is not enough to realize these gains. To be effective, cooperative work needs to be structured so that it embodies five key components:
positive interdependence: Group members must work together to achieve a common goal.
individual accountability: Each member is responsible for doing his or her part.
promotive interaction: Group members help, support, and encourage each other.
effective interpersonal skills: Students are taught how to communicate, solve problems, and resolve conflict effectively.
group processing: Groups are given time to reflect on how well their group functioned and to make plans for improvement.”
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/making-cooperative-learning-work-better/
The instructional model at Community STEAM Academy-Xenia encompasses individualized instruction through STEAM community-focused project-based learning. The above components will be woven into teaching and learning in order to promote a well-rounded approach to support students in cooperative learning. During any cycle of instruction, each student will be independently assessed to demonstrate his/her own understanding of the learning objectives. So, when students work on their projects together, each student will be individually assessed for mastery of content and skills. Therefore, students who do the work will learn the content and be able to demonstrate learning. One of the Profiles of a Graduate of CSA-Xenia is "Self-initiated Work Effort". Students must take responsibility for learning at CSA-Xenia and be active as life-long learners.
Summing up, just placing students in groups with materials and simply calling it cooperative, collaborative work doesn’t make it so. Collaboration must be taught, students must have experiences to practice these skills, and students must be evaluated on them with an emphasis on their growth and individual mastery of the content. Cooperative learning IS worth all the fuss, and fostering of habits and skills over time is what it takes to make cooperative learning work and allows teachers and students to experience the real benefits.
Take a closer look:
Based on a review of the research about Collaboration, the Center for Assessment and PBL Works created these helpful rubrics to assess individual students’ collaboration efforts:
