This shift has seen the emergence of cooperative learning in the college classroom. College instructors are realizing that they need to provide opportunity for the development of interactive skills for an interactive world. Research indicates that cooperative learning strategies improve student learning, retention, achievement, and knowledge base (Johnson, 1975). Students are no longer seen as vessels of information and data; now, they are seen as active participants in the learning process. The classroom focus has shifted from a receptive mode to a constructive mode. Students are seen as capable individuals who can bring meaning to the learning situation.
In spite of the efforts towards this change in instruction, instructors need to realize that they can't simply place students in groups and expect positive results. They need to be assured that cooperative learning is the most productive approach to teaching. Furthermore, they must understand what cooperative learning is, the essential elements, their role, and the different cooperative groups (Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1991).
David Johnson (1994) states that "Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups which allows students to work together to maximize their own and each other's learning" (p.3). Students work together to achieve personal and group goals. These collaborative efforts ensue that all members of the group will benefit from each other's efforts. The idea appears to be a simple one but the individual differences of the group members coupled with inexperience in this mode of learning can create disastrous results.
According to Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec (1994), in order to achieve optimum success with cooperative learning, instructors need to be cognizant of the five essential components of this instructional method; positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, individual accountability, small group skills, and group processing. Instructors can build positive interdependence by establishing shared goals or products, issuing common rewards, assigning shared resources, and specifying roles. This sharing of the experience encourages the students to rely on each other for success. Students soon realize that they are joined to their group mates in a way that one cannot succeed unless the others in the group succeed. It is important to consider the group as an entity so that if one part does not function the whole group suffers.
While positive interdependence may get the job done, it is the face-to-face promotive interaction that solidifies the relationships of the group mates and makes them responsive to the individual's success and the group's success. This element of cooperative learning becomes the adhesive which serves to make the individual members cohere to each other and become a group. Therefore, instructors must give their students adequate structured time to encourage face-to-face promotive interaction. When students help, assist, guide, encourage, listen, challenge, and support each other's efforts to learn, they are helping to bring about growth for each other and the group. This face-to-face interaction develops the relationship of the group mates to each other and to the group. Furthermore, it enhances critical thinking and metacognition because students become aware of multiple viewpoints, verbalize ideas, give constructive feedback, deal with conflicting perceptions, utilize problem solving techniques, and assess outcomes.
While learning takes place within the cooperative group, assessment of achievement must be demonstrated by the individual members. They are held accountable for the applicability of the knowledge learned. Instructors can insure individual accountability by keeping the group small, testing individually, arbitrarily calling on members to report, and observing the group for responsiveness.
Since groups are a social entity, it is important that group members have adequate interpersonal and small group skills so that they can function effectively. Instructors must provide opportunities to explore and develop leadership roles, decision making, trust building, and effective communication. Group members must become able communicators so that they can be assertive without being aggressive and they can deal with complaints, criticism, and conflict. Social skills are the key to group productivity.
Finally, it is imperative that instructors give groups time to process the process. Group mates need to reflect on what was productive and to explore avenues for improvement. Each member should engage in self-reflection before they enter into group disclosure. Individual as well as group journals might facilitate this important component of cooperative learning. This processing the process enables the groups to focus on the productivity of the group, to facilitate the learning of social skills, and to provide feedback (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 1991).
This form of instruction is usually more labor intensive for the instructor than the lecture format. In order to insure that cooperative groups are utilizing the five essential elements, instructors must specify objectives, make thoughtful decisions about group membership, explain the learning task, monitor effectiveness, evaluate achievement of content and process, teach appropriate skills, and use a variety of groups (Thousand, Villa, & Nevin, 1994). It is important that instructors see their role as one of facilitator so that students can become actively involved in the learning of content and process. At first most instructors want to intervene to set the process straight, but with experience the instructors and students learn that meaningful learning and authentic growth are taking place in the confusion.
Cooperative groups can be used in a number of ways. Formal cooperative learning groups can be created to work on an immediate task for one class period or a long term task for an entire semester. In some cases, instructors have developed groups to learn the content of a specific course. No matter whether the group formed is for a specific goal or for a multitude of objectives, these groups strive for successful completion and accomplishment of the task for everyone involved. Informal cooperative learning groups are usually temporary groups which are often interspersed within a class lecture, demonstration, or video. These help students to activate schemata, assess what is being taught, and summarize key points. Cooperative base groups are long-term groups which provide students with support, encouragement, and academic assistance. It is beneficial for instructors to use a variety of groupings where possible so that students gain experience and begin to view cooperative learning as an integral part of their life (Johnson et al., 1994).
Students need to feel confident in cooperative learning groups. Instructors must not only provide the cooperative context but they must also directly teach cooperative skills. Johnson (1991, 1993) identifies four levels of cooperative skills: forming, functioning, formulating, and fermenting. Forming skills are the rudimentary management skills which organize groups and establish guidelines for appropriate behavior. They guarantee that group members are present and working together. Functioning skills enable the group to complete the tasks and to sustain effective and constructive working relationships. At this level students must learn to use positive communication techniques so that they can state and restate the assignment, express support, give feedback, clarify ideas and paraphrase alternate viewpoints. Formulating skills provide the cognitive structures to build the complex understanding of the content, to develop higher order thinking strategies, and to enhance the retention of the information. Formulating skills can be strengthened by assigning different group roles to different students so that high quality learning takes place. Fermenting skills which are the most complex empower students to engage in academic debates which force group members to examine material for clear understanding and bias, to develop a rationale for their opinions, and to argue constructively. Students learn to use positive criticism, integrate multiple viewpoints into one sound position, justify answers, asking probing questions, and evaluate outcomes. College students must be exposed to the numerous interpersonal skills which will influence successful cooperative learning.
College teaching has to change. Recent research has clearly indicated that college students need to be actively involved in their learning. Cooperative learning actively engages students to construct their own knowledge. When this knowledge is discovered, transformed, and integrated by the students, then it truly becomes a part of who they are as people and professionals. Cooperative learning focuses on the content as well as the process. This process develops students' abilities and talents. Cooperative learning creates an interactive learning community whereby the students and instructors work together to bring meaning to learning. Cooperative learning empowers the students with knowledge and process to become lifelong learners in a changing world.
For the application part of this paper I will outline several tasks which will highlight the informal cooperative group process. In addition, I will briefly explain the use of base groups and formal cooperative groups.
Groups will share their ideas with the entire class.
Additional tasks will be taken from Foyle's INTERACTIVE LEARNING (pp.177-191). These tasks focus on group building in the college classroom.
Cooperative learning invites the student to be an active member of the learning community. Students not only work together to complete tasks but they also engage in a process which helps them to define and create information that becomes transformed into knowledge. Furthermore, cooperative learning enlivens the interaction that is needed in an interactive world.