Cooperative or Collaborative Learning: A Team Process
Cooperative and
Collaborative Learning
Cooperative or collaborative learning is a team process where members support and rely on each other to achieve an agreed-upon goal. The classroom is an excellent place to develop team-building skills you will need later in life.
Cooperative/collaborative learning is interactive; as a team member, you:
■develop and share a common goal
■contribute your understanding of the problem: questions, insights and solutions
■respond to, and work to understand, others' questions, insights and solutions.
Each member empowers the other to speak and contribute, and to consider their contributions
■are accountable to others, and they are accountable to you
■are dependent on others, and they depend on you
What makes for a good learning team?
■Team activities begin with training in, and understanding group processes.
An instructor begins by facilitating discussion and suggesting alternatives but does not impose solutions on the team, especially those having difficulty working together
■Three to five people
Larger teams have difficulty in keeping everyone involved
■Teacher-assigned groups
They function better than self-assigned groups
■Diverse skill levels, backgrounds, experience
1.Each individual brings strengths to a group
2.Each member of the group is responsible to not only contribute his/her strengths, but also to help others understand the source of their strengths
3.Any member who is at a disadvantage or not comfortable with the majority should be encouraged and proactively empowered to contribute
4.Learning is positively influenced with a diversity of perspective and experience increasing options for problem solving, and expanding the range of details to consider
■Commitment of each member to a goal that is defined and understood by the group 1.Confidential peer ratings are a good way to assess who is and who is not contributing
2.Groups have the right to fire a non-cooperative or
Collaborative Learning
Cooperative or collaborative learning is a team process where members support and rely on each other to achieve an agreed-upon goal. The classroom is an excellent place to develop team-building skills you will need later in life.
Cooperative/collaborative learning is interactive; as a team member, you:
■develop and share a common goal
■contribute your understanding of the problem: questions, insights and solutions
■respond to, and work to understand, others' questions, insights and solutions.
Each member empowers the other to speak and contribute, and to consider their contributions
■are accountable to others, and they are accountable to you
■are dependent on others, and they depend on you
What makes for a good learning team?
■Team activities begin with training in, and understanding group processes.
An instructor begins by facilitating discussion and suggesting alternatives but does not impose solutions on the team, especially those having difficulty working together
■Three to five people
Larger teams have difficulty in keeping everyone involved
■Teacher-assigned groups
They function better than self-assigned groups
■Diverse skill levels, backgrounds, experience
1.Each individual brings strengths to a group
2.Each member of the group is responsible to not only contribute his/her strengths, but also to help others understand the source of their strengths
3.Any member who is at a disadvantage or not comfortable with the majority should be encouraged and proactively empowered to contribute
4.Learning is positively influenced with a diversity of perspective and experience increasing options for problem solving, and expanding the range of details to consider
■Commitment of each member to a goal that is defined and understood by the group 1.Confidential peer ratings are a good way to assess who is and who is not contributing
2.Groups have the right to fire a non-cooperative or