Making Groups Work

ocsen410@gmail.
com 03 May 2024
MAKING GROUPS WORK

EDITED BY GEORGE M JACOBS, DR QINGLI GUO, WOO MING WEI JEFFREY
PEACHEYPUBLICATIONS LTD 2024

ocsen410@gmail.com 03 May 2024
MAKING GROUPS WORK
Editors George M Jacobs, Dr Qingli Guo, Woo Ming Wei Jeffrey.
Authors Azkiah Binte Abdul Jabbar, Brina Erh Xing Ying, Petunia Buk Mei
Ping, Chen Chunyan, Priscilla Chin Soo Ling, George M Jacobs, Iman A.A.,
Jayachandran Amudha, Jessica Raffaella Pereira, Khadijah Binte Raship,
Branda Lim Chee San, May Myat Noe Han, Nur 'Athifah Binti Mohd Noor, Ram
Das Raja Rajeswari, Rozainah Binte Mohamed, Tan Jin Ting, Tee Yong Ming,
Woo Ming Wei Jeffrey and Yeo Chuan Hui.
Illustrations by Nik Peachey using DALL·E 3
Published by PeacheyPublications Ltd UK 2024
© Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
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FOREWORD Most educators, regardless of who they teach, agree that group activities can
contribute to learning, to an enjoyable, engaged learning atmosphere and to
building life-long habits of learning, doing and sharing with others in a wide variety
of situations. Beyond those of us in education, many other people of all ages see
the benefits that cooperation has to offer. Unfortunately, at the same time, everyone
has had negative experiences when interacting with others, whether in education,
family, recreation, work, etc.
The purpose of this book is to offer experience-based ideas for solving problems
that commonly occur when students and others cooperate in educational and other
contexts. The history of the book is that the first author, George Jacobs, has, since
the early 2000s, taught a module on group activities for the Post-Graduate Diploma
in Higher Education course offered by Singapore’s National Institute of Education,
which is part of Nanyang Technological University. The large majority of the course
participants teach pre-service and in-service nurses in tertiary institutions, as well
as in hospitals and other healthcare institutions in Singapore. A much smaller
number of course participants teach in other Singapore settings.
The 30-hour module normally happens once a year. Assessment for the module
includes an individual essay on which before submission, participants are
encouraged to seek peer feedback as well as instructor feedback. During the
2023-2024 course, in their essays, participants wrote scenarios in which problems
happen when using group activities. Next, they offered ideas about why the
problems occur. The heart of each essay focused on solutions to the problems in
the scenarios, using what participants had learned about group activities from their
own experiences as educators and learners, during the module and on the
internet. Much of participants’ learning during the module about group activities
came from the literature on cooperative learning.
Before course members embarked on the problem scenario essays, they had a
choice of whether to do essays on the topic described above or the essay topic
that all the previous 18 cohorts of the course had used: an essay linking
cooperative learning with another concept in education, such as multiple
intelligences, motivation or self-directed learning. By secret ballot, participants
voted overwhelmingly to do the problem scenario essays.
Also, course members were told about the idea for the book that you are currently
reading, and all were willing to participate. The process for creating the book would
be to adapt some of their essays as the core of the book. To avoid overlap as to
problems and possible solutions, not every problem scenario was used, and
solutions were sometimes rewritten. Achieving greater clarity and uniformity in the
scenarios constituted two other reasons for rewriting. Also, ideas not included in
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the essays were introduced in order to provide you, our readers, with a greater range of resources
when using group activities.
The book was shown to the course members before it was published, and they are all credited for
their contributions. No one, neither editors nor authors, receives any royalties or other forms of
payment for this free online book. Our motivation is to share what we trust are useful ideas with you
in the hope that you will more successfully and more frequently employ group activities in the
service of education and of creating a more harmonious society.
The book’s authors are Azkiah Binte Abdul Jabbar, Brina Erh Xing Ying, Petunia Buk Mei Ping, Chen
Chunyan, Priscilla Chin Soo Ling, George M Jacobs, Iman A.A., Jayachandran Amudha, Jessica
Raffaella Pereira, Khadijah Binte Raship, Branda Lim Chee San, May Myat Noe Han, Nur 'Athifah
Binti Mohd Noor, Ram Das Raja Rajeswari, Rozainah Binte Mohamed, Tan Jin Ting, Tee Yong Ming,
Woo Ming Wei Jeffrey, and Yeo Chuan Hui.
Such a large number of authors fits with a trend in professional writing towards what has been
called hyperauthorship, i.e., works with many, many authors. Indeed, some research papers
published in the past ten years have more than a hundred authors. Perhaps, this trend towards
including many people’s contributions in books, articles etc. fits with the current book’s focus on
group activities.
The book’s editors are:
Dr Qingli Guo is a lecturer who teaches teachers of Mandarin at Jiangxi Teachers College, in
Yingtan City, Jiangxi province, China: zhu_cheng_hao@163.com
Mr Woo Ming Wei, Jeffrey, a PhD candidate who is a Senior Nurse Educator at Kwong Wai Shiu
Hospital in Singapore and also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate nursing programs at
Curtin University (Singapore) as adjunct lecturer: jeffrey.woo@curtin.edu.au
George M Jacobs, who works at Kampung Senang Charity and Education Foundation in Singapore,
as well as teaching education and language at various other institutions:
george.jacobs@gmail.com.
We made a good team, as we are quite heterogeneous as to our ages, backgrounds in education
and knowledge of nursing (the topic of most of the scenarios).
The authors and editors are most grateful to Nik Peachey, Pedagogical Director at
PeacheyPublications. We met Nik after seeing the sterling 2017 free online book he co-edited with
Alan Maley: ‘Integrating Global Issues in the Creative Language Classroom’, published by British
Council. In 2023, Nik helped us publish two free online books: ‘Cooperative Learning and the
Sustainable Development Goals’ and ‘Stories of Teacher Authenticity’.
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CONTENTS Part 1 - Introduction

1. Philosophical Musings ... 6
2. Principles to Guide Group Activities ...11
3. Theories of Learning Relate to Groups ... 14
4. Cooperative Learning Techniques Used in the Book ... 16
Part 2 - The Scenarios
1. Lack of Engagement ... 20
2. Disinterest among Group Members ... 24
3. Students Do Not Prepare Before Group Activities ... 27
4. Low Motivation ... 30
5. Freeloading - 1 ... 35
6. Freeloading - 2 ... 39
7. Excluded Group Members - 1 ... 43
8. Excluded Group Members - 2 ... 47
9. Takeovers ... 51
10.Loners ... 55
11.Introverts and Extroverts ... 60
12.Unequal Participation in Groups ... 65
13.Lack of Interaction Among Group Members ... 69
14.Differences in Background Knowledge ... 73
15.Lack of Sharing ... 78
16.Self-Selected Groups Functioning Poorly ... 81
17.Inadequate Peer Assessment ... 86
18.Lack of Role Variety ... 90
19.Complaints about Grades ... 94
20.Too Many Tests ... 98
21.Over-Reliance on Learning from Teachers ... 101
22.Groupthink ... 106
23.Too Much Reading for Students ... 111
24.Students Socialising During Groupwork ... 115
References ... cxix
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INTRODUCTION
PHILOSOPHICAL The idea that students can sometimes learn better by interacting
with peers and others is a very old idea, enshrined in sayings,
MUSINGS quotes and proverbs (Jacobs, 2014) such as:
a. Two heads are better than one.

b. Many hands make light the work.
c. All for one and one for all.
d. Nothing new that is really interesting comes without
collaboration.
e. To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin.
f. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
g. We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without
brightening our own.
h. Those who teach learn twice.
i. Our advantage was that we had evolved unstated but fruitful
methods of collaboration … If either of us suggested a new
idea, the other, while taking it seriously, would attempt to
demolish it in a candid but non-hostile manner.
j. A rope of three strands is not easily parted.
k. If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go
together.
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In addition to sayings, quotes and proverbs, other expressions of philosophy that are
conducive to successful group activities include the overlapping concepts of
‘freudenfreude’, positive interdependence, ‘kampung’ spirit and abundance. Now, we will
explore each of these concepts.
Freudenfreude Instead of Schadenfreude
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German poet, novelist, playwright and
philosopher who wrote that ‘A joy shared is a joy doubled’, which expresses a sentiment
similar to the Native American proverb listed above: ‘To have joy one must share it.
Happiness was born a twin.’ Goethe also highlighted the value of cooperation when he
wrote, ‘To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding, in
spite of distances or thoughts expressed, can make of this earth a garden.’
Given the two Goethe quotes above, perhaps it is possible to think that Goethe favoured the
feeling expressed in the German word freudenfreude, which means to celebrate the
happiness of others. When we feel freudenfreude, we are happy when life smiles on others.
For instance, when other students sing at a school-wide event and receive rapturous
applause, we not only clap loudly and smile broadly, we might even jump to our feet in hopes
of turning that applause into a standing ovation. Even if we are in a competition, such as a
table tennis doubles match, and we lose, we can feel happy for the success of our
‘opponents’ and can be warmed by their big grins and celebratory body language upon
capturing the winning point. Freudenfreude also pertains to international contexts. For
example, perhaps when a low-income country manages to increase the percentage of
people who can take part in formal education, we can be glad for an increase in the number
of people who are learning more and, therefore, will be in a better position to contribute to
scientific progress.
Schadenfreude is a German word which seems to run counter to the kindness of Goethe’s
philosophy, as schadenfreude means feeling happy when misfortune strikes other people.
Too often we see this sour feeling when peers laugh scornfully at classmates who incorrectly
answer teachers’ questions. On an international level, schadenfreude rears its ugly head
when people in one country seem happy when the economy of a neighbouring country
suffers turmoil, as those in the more fortunate country hope to take advantage of lower prices
in their less fortunate neighbour.
Positive Interdependence
Goethe lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the 20th century thinkers who did
pioneering writing on groups was Kurt Lewin who is linked to Social Interdependence Theory,
discussed below. At the heart of Lewin’s work was the question of how to encourage
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harmony among our fellow humans, in other words, how to encourage freudenfreude.
Actually, freudenfreude can be linked to a concept that students of Lewin developed:
positive interdependence, the key principle in cooperative learning. Positive
interdependence means that we feel as though our outcomes in learning and elsewhere in
life are positively correlated with the outcomes of others. Thus, we facilitate and celebrate the
successes of others, because we also benefit. In contrast, schadenfreude links with negative
interdependence, i.e., believing that we benefit from others’ failures. When we feel negatively
interdependent towards others, we do not want to help them; indeed, we may even want to
sabotage them.
Kampung Spirit
Most of the authors of this book are from Singapore and Malaysia, two countries in which the
Malay language and Malay culture are prominent. Kampung (also spelled kampong) is a
Malay word for community or village. In a kampung, people look out for each other; everyone
belongs. Should misfortune befall anyone, everyone helps. Thus, the kampung spirit,
whether in a village, a workplace, a school or wherever, involves a caring attitude similar to
that embodied in the concepts of positive interdependence and freudenfreude. In the
Philippines, a similar feeling goes by the name of Bayanihan spirit..
Abundance Instead of Scarcity
People care about a wide variety of resources: money, food, housing, time, self-esteem and
the esteem of others, to name just a few. People with a feeling of scarcity worry that they do
not and/or will not have enough resources. They worry that life is a zero-sum game; gain for
others means loss for them. In other words, they view the world through the lens of negative
interdependence, the lens of schadenfreude. Feelings of scarcity discourage development
of kampung spirit.
In education, some of the resources valued by many people include grades, test scores,
class rank and degrees. Grading on a curve, also known as norm-referenced assessment,
feeds feelings of scarcity among students. Students with a scarcity perspective fear that if
they assist groupmates, their groupmates will gain more of the scarce education resources,
and those same groupmates will not return their kindness. Groups in education cannot thrive
when feelings of scarcity predominate.
In contrast to feelings of scarcity are feelings of abundance, which link with freudenfreude,
positive interdependence and the kampung spirit. The proverbs above, ‘We cannot hold a
torch to light another's path without brightening our own’ and ‘Those who teach learn twice’
present what research also tells us: we benefit by teaching others, i.e., ‘The more we give,
the more we receive’.
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As with many other phenomena in life, cooperation can be complicated. Have you heard of
‘enlightened self-interest’? This means that the smart action is often to help others because,
as the research in education suggests, their gain is our gain. Enlightened self-interest applies
in small groups in the classroom, as well as on a global scale. Global-level examples are the
17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. To choose just two of these goals, #4
(Quality Education) and #5 (Gender Equality), when females have equal access to quality
education, they can make even greater contributions to societies wherever they live, and the
gains to everyone, regardless of gender, can be realised internationally.
Conclusion
Successful group activities require much more than the details in educators’ lesson plans as
to how group members are to interact and the topics on which they are to interact. For the
seeds of cooperation to grow during group activities, the soil must be welcoming. The
quotes, sayings, proverbs and concepts discussed here represent views of life that prepare
the ground for group activities to thrive. When educators can facilitate the growth of
freudenfreude, positive interdependence, kampung spirit and feelings of abundance in their
own hearts and those of their students, everyone will confidently and skilfully persevere in
making group activities succeed. In the first stanza of the poem ‘If’ (modified slightly here to
increase inclusivity), Rudyard Kipling illustrates the difficulties people face in remaining
faithful to their values, such as those values highlighted above.
If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when everyone doubts you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
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If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all people count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a friend of everyone!
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PRINCIPLES TO Many teachers and other educators have developed methods,

techniques, strategies, software, etc. to facilitate students
GUIDE GROUP learning with peers. Furthermore, a great deal of research across
ACTIVITIES many countries, ages of learners and subject areas supports a
belief in the potential for peers to power each other’s learning.
On top of gains in cognitive domains are gains in affective ones
as well.
All this accumulated experience and knowledge of how to

organise student-student interaction goes by many names. In the
module that was at the origins of this book, the term used was
cooperative learning. Many cooperative learning principles have
been developed to guide group interaction. Below are the eight
principles used in the module. These are not better than other
sets of principles; they are included in the book because they
were used in the module. The eight principles will be referred to
in the problem scenarios later in this book.
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The feeling among group members that their outcomes are positively correlated. In other
words, learners believe that by helping others, they are helping themselves. They believe
that they and others sink or swim together.
Individual Accountability
While the principle of positive interdependence encourages group members to support each
other, the principle of individual accountability puts pressure on each member to do their fair
share towards their group’s success.
Equal Opportunity to Participate
Individual accountability is the principle that pushes everyone to contribute to their group’s
goal, while the principle of equal opportunity to participate works to provide everyone with
chances to take part in what their group is doing. In other words, no one should be
excluded; no one should dominate the thinking, speaking and doing in their group.
Maximum Peer Interactions
Peer interaction is the fuel that powers groups forward; sitting together has no value unless
students actually interact with one another. The principle of maximum peer interactions has
two aspects: (1) a large quantity of peer interactions and (2) interactions in which peers use
thinking skills and cooperative skills (see below).
Group Autonomy
The principle of group autonomy encourages learners to meet challenges via peer
interactions rather than by immediately turning to teachers for help. In other words, each
group tries to use their own resources before later reaching out to other groups and to
educators.
Heterogeneous Grouping
The principle of heterogeneous grouping strives to have each group reflect the diversity that
exists among the members of a class. Just some of the variables that exist among students
include past achievement, social class, first language, religion and race.
Cooperative Skills
Group activities provide a great venue for students to learn and practice the use of
cooperative skills. Such skills include asking for help, teaching others, disagreeing politely
and encouraging others to participate. Groups work more efficiently and pleasantly when
these skills are used.
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Cooperation as a Value
Cooperation as a value seeks to expand the principle of positive interdependence beyond

one’s groupmates to include classmates, schoolmates, expanding and expanding till we feel
that we sink or swim together with everyone in the world, even with other species. This
principle may not appear in many lists of principles of group activities, but it is probably
implied.
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THEORIES OF In addition to the eight principles briefly explained above, various

theories also support and guide the use of group activities.
LEARNING Below links between eight prominent theories (and a key concept
in each theory) and group activities are offered.
Behaviourism
Positive reinforcement, i.e., the idea that people are more likely to
repeat behaviours if those behaviours have been rewarded, can
be seen with groups. In a class where students work alone, the
only person giving positive reinforcement is the teacher, but with
group activities, groupmates can also reinforce students’
pro-learning actions.
Cognitivism
Thinking skills, such as those in Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive

Objectives, come to life when students explain ideas to each
other, when they debate, apply and compare ideas, even
creating new ideas.
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Socio-Cultural Theory
Learning is a social activity. Scaffolding is what happens when people assist each other in learning.
Educators scaffold for students, and students can scaffold for each other. ‘Those who teach learn
twice’; thus, the scaffolders assist not only their peers, but themselves as well.
Humanistic Psychology
Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs includes many needs that peers can meet. Perhaps the most
obvious of these needs is Belonging. When people learn in groups in which the feeling of positive
interdependence pervades, they can bask in the glow of belonging. Others ‘have their back’; if they
stumble, others are there to help them up.
Positive Psychology
Accomplishment (the A in the acronym PERMA) can be a powerful feeling, when we strive to reach a
goal and we attain, or at least approach, that goal. A great deal of research suggests that group
activities can assist students as they strive toward common goals.
Multiple Intelligences
This is the idea that people are smart in many ways, and that we are more successful when we
develop and deploy a wide range of intelligences. One of the proposed intelligences is interpersonal
intelligence, which involves the ability to understand and collaborate with others, as well as the
enjoyment of interactions.
Self-Determination Theory
Autonomy (along with competence and relatedness) is a key pillar of this theory. As highlighted in the
cooperative learning principle of group autonomy, groups provide a tool for learners to be less
dependent on educators, at the same time that they build support networks that everyone, even the
most competent people, need.
Social Interdependence Theory
The cooperative learning principles of positive interdependence and individual accountability can be
directly traced to this theory, which looks at interpersonal relations and asks whether people feel
positively interdependent with others, negatively interdependent, i.e., they believe their outcomes are
negatively correlated, or do they feel that no correlation exists between their outcomes and those of
others?
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COOPERATIVE A cooperative learning technique is a suggested way for

students to organise their peer interactions. For example,
LEARNING Everyone Can Explain is one cooperative learning technique.
TECHNIQUES The following is the way that Everyone Can Explain suggests that
students organise their peer interactions.
1. Students form groups of 2, 3 or 4 members. In their groups,

their goal is to develop answers to questions. They also need
to explain the thinking behind their answers.
2. First, each student works alone on this. Next, the group

discusses and tries to agree on answers, including the
thinking behind their answers.
3. Next, the group members check that all of their groupmates

are prepared to give and explain their group’s responses. This
is why the technique is called Everyone Can Explain.
4. Students are selected at random to give and explain their

group’s responses. The group, not the individual group
member, is assessed based on the one member’s answers
and explanations.
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More than 100 cooperative learning techniques exist, and each of them have a variety of
variations, not to mention the fact that a variety of different names exist for the same (or very
similar) techniques. Thus, so many ways exist for students to organise how they will do peer
interactions. Plus, especially after learners have had time to experience and reflect on
positive and negative episodes of peer interactions, groups can create their own variations
on how to interact.
Earlier in this book, in Section C, Principles To Guide Group Activities, eight cooperative
learning principles are described. Each cooperative learning technique has the first four of
these eight cooperative learning principles - positive interdependence, individual
accountability, equal opportunity to participate and maximum peer interactions - built into the
technique. Plus, these first four principles can be reinforced as students and teachers gain
more experience in group activities, including how to integrate the other four principles, such
as cooperative skills.
Here is an analysis of how the cooperative learning technique Everyone Can Explain
facilitates the first four cooperative learning principles.
In the final step of Everyone Can Explain, to facilitate the feeling of positive interdependence,
i.e., the feeling among group members that what benefits one member benefits all members,
students from different groups are selected at random, not chosen by group members, to
represent their group. The entire group ‘sinks or swims together’ based on the quality of the
answer and explanation provided by the selected group member. This might motivate
students to assist everyone in their group to be ready in case they are randomly selected.
Plus, members who are not sure about their readiness are encouraged to request assistance
from groupmates. Knowledge of cooperative learning offers ways to strengthen the feeling of
positive interdependence. For instance, identity positive interdependence (Scenario 10)
seeks to strengthen group members’ feeling of concern for one another by building a
common identity among group members, just as members of a dance troupe might have a
common identity via a name for their troupe, a common costume they wear when performing
and a type of dance they usually perform.
Everyone Can Explain facilitates the feeling of individual accountability by the fact that in the
technique’s final step, everyone has an equal chance to be selected to represent their group.
As a result, no one can hide; no one can plead with groupmates to present for them. If they
are not ready, and they are selected to present, their lack of readiness is clear for everyone in
the group and everyone in the class, including the educator, to see. One way to further
17
promote individual accountability might be in Step 3 of Everyone Can Explain to have roles
for each group member to have a hand in guiding the group’s interaction as they prepare for
the presentations in Step 4. Roles might include facilitator (to give everyone a chance to
rehearse), praiser (to highlight strengths in each person’s rehearsal), checker (to check that
all key points are included when the group rehearses) and presentation quality controller (to
see if people adhere to various conventions of presentations, such as eye contact, clear
pronunciation and use of gestures). More on roles in Scenario 18.
The cooperative learning principle of equal opportunity to participate in some ways is the flip
side of the principle of individual accountability. While equal opportunity to participate seeks
to provide all group members chances to play a full role in what their group does, individual
accountability nudges all group members to use these opportunities to do their fair share in
the group. For example, in Step 4 of Everyone Can Explain, everyone has an equal
opportunity to be randomly selected to represent their group. To further support equal
opportunity to participate, in Step 2, after group members have had time to work alone to
formulate an initial response to the question on which the group is working, each group
member can have a designated turn to share their initial response with groupmates before
the group works on their collective response.
Everyone Can Explain is designed to bring out both aspects of the word ‘maximum’ in the
cooperative learning principle maximum peer interactions. First, as to maximum quality of
peer interactions, because groups need to explain, not just give, answers, they are
encouraged to think more deeply. Plus, even before developing their collective answers, they
need to consider the initial responses shared by each of the group members. Second, as to
maximum quantity of peer interactions, students spend a lot of time discussing in their small
groups composed of 2-4 members, before a small number of students are randomly selected
to share in whole-class format. One variation on Everyone Can Explain that bolsters the
quantity aspect of maximum peer interactions can be called Everyone Can Explain (Mobile).
In this variation, instead of selected students sharing their group’s answers and explanations
with the entire class, those students change places with the selected student in an adjoining
group and then share their group’s responses with that group, listening and responding to
the host group’s feedback and then returning to their own group to share the reaction their
group’s ideas received from the other group.
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GROUP WORK
SCENARIOS
SCENARIO 1 LACK OF ENGAGEMENT

Buk Mei Ping Petunia
Scenario
Participants at a workshop are in groups of four to discuss ways

that they can have person-centred conversations with patients.
However, the members of a particular group are not interested in
the topic of the training. As a result, they discuss very
superficially, do not generate ideas or try to learn from each
other. They spend only a short time on discussion and most of
the time scrolling their phones and doing their own things. When
it is time for their group to present, they try to push the role of
presenter to each other until the teacher has to choose someone
to present. That unfortunate member gives a short and
superficial presentation, all the while fruitlessly looking at her
group members, hoping in vain that they will rescue her. The
class discussion following this lacklustre presentation is similarly
lacklustre.
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WHY THE PROBLEM OCCURS

Firstly, learners may be unmotivated and unengaged because they lack interest in the topic. They are
only at the workshop because their boss sent them for the training. This leads them to have poor
engagement. If all the members in the group are disinterested and unmotivated, then no one is willing
to take the lead and try to engage groupmates to participate. Instead, they would try to push off the
task of completion to each other. Since there is no incentive for them to do group work, they do not
feel the need to invest their time and effort. They would prefer to quickly complete the group work by
themselves and/or split up the work rather than to engage in discussions with each other.
Additionally, the students may not be engaged in group discussions due to their previous experience
with free riders, disagreements or power struggles within groups.
With all the above problems, we can use cooperative learning principles and techniques that may be
the easiest way to improve the students’ motivation and engagement.
SOLUTIONS
Firstly, using the principle of positive interdependence, the group activity should be structured in
such a way that participants can work together to complete and achieve the learning objectives. For
the activity, to gain more interest, it could be structured in a game-like manner.
How it could work:
1. Participants are given several examples of positive and negative ways that patients have feedback
about the manner in which healthcare professionals have conversations with them.
2. Participants need to work with each other to decide which are the positive ways.
3. Every correct identification of the positive ways can earn points for their group.
4. They then think of ways to improve the negative feedback that the patients have about the health
professionals’ conversation styles.
Game-Like Activities
Various software now exist to make classroom activities a bit similar to game shows. Two examples of
Kahoot! and Mentimeter. However, one possible negative outcome of using these software is the
tendency of teachers and students to try to answer very quickly. As a result, individual students may
answer without consulting groupmates. Thus, the principle of maximum peer interactions goes
missing. Ways to avoid this include, changing the settings to give students more time to answer
questions and two students sharing one device.
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In this way, game-like activities can generate more interest. Positive interdependence also increases
the individual accountability of the group members, i.e., the feeling that everyone should do their fair
share toward the group’s goals, another principle of cooperative learning. At the end of the group
discussion, giving group members time to do group processing (appraising the pros and cons of
how their group functioned) lets the students have time to celebrate with each other or to give
feedback for improvements.
Relax!
Secondly, during the training, we can encourage the students to have fun and share. Part of this
involves reinforcing the idea that no questions and answers are ‘stupid’. Seating can also matter. If
participants are seated in a circle, this may encourage them to interact. By having a relaxed
environment, students can leave the training feeling that they have achieved something and did
something right. This also encourages a cooperative environment rather than competitive where they
would feel more relaxed and willing to help each other.
Heterogeneous Groups to Meet New People
Thirdly, we can use the principle of heterogenous groupings to organize the groups. Instead of
allowing the students to group themselves or to do it at random, the instructor would have a
registration list of the participants and group them considering the department where they are from,
the experience and their academic level to have a strong skilled group. This would allow students to
have a chance to work with other people rather than with close friends to allow the group discussions
to be more dynamic. If socially less-skilled and lower-achieving students are all arranged into the
same groups, these groups may work less effectively, learn less and develop less enthusiastic
attitudes towards group activities.
The number of students per group makes a difference as well, smaller groups can have more peer
interactions and students can learn cooperative skills better; therefore, it would be ideal to have a
group of 3-4 students. We also need to take note of the characteristics of the students as they could
affect the group cohesiveness negatively. Therefore, in the group of 4, they may assume that the
other members will complete, then reducing the group size to 3 may encourage them to participate
more.
Skits
Drama offers another way to add fun to what might otherwise seem to be unengaging activities. In
the current scenario, groups could create skits showing positive and negative examples of
conversations with patients. These dramas could be performed for other groups who have to identify
positive and negative elements. Rather than one group presenting to the entire class, groups could
present to other groups. In that way, groups can present multiple times, and the resulting small
audience size, plus the task of being able to identify positive and negative elements in the skits,
22
encourages audience members to be on their toes. Another way to add fun and challenge to the
dramas could be for groups to video their dramas. Either way, to help learners understand how to
give each other feedback, it might be useful for one group to present to the entire class before
commencing the group-to-group presentations. In that way, instructors can model the type of
constructive feedback they hope will later take place.
23
SCENARIO 2 DISINTEREST AMONG GROUP

MEMBERS
Brina Erh Xing Ying
Scenario
While nursing students are doing clinical placements , about half

of students often show disinterest during debrief or case
presentations by their peers. The disinterested students’ minimal
participation discourages discussion, such as questions and
comments. The instructor seems to be the only one responding
when students recount their experiences and do presentations.
Thus, instead of a natural, free-flowing discussions, classroom
talk follows the pattern of Teacher - Student - Teacher - Student -
Teacher - Student. The ideal is more like Teacher - Student -
Student - Student - Teacher - Student. Unbalanced,
teacher-centred discussions diminish the overall learning
experience for everyone, and the class ends up missing
opportunities for learning from others’ perspectives and
experiences, not to mention the fact that class is not very
stimulating for the instructor who enjoys facilitating discussion
among learners.
24

Here are some reasons as to why this problem exists. First and foremost, it is not uncommon to
encounter nursing students who are not interested to join nursing as a study course. The points
required to enter pre-registration nursing diploma and degree courses in Singapore are of a lower
cut-off bar, and, in the face of limited options, a fair number of students may have been inclined to
choose a nursing course for factors such as employability and aptitude. When such people are
exposed to the difficult realities of patient care and other work requirements, they may show little
interest in anything beyond completing the minimum requirements for graduation.
Next, some students may not be used to the structure of clinical placements , especially with the
introduction of shift work and long working hours. The sudden transition to taking on shift work could
affect their sleep and personal well-being. Plus, they may not get to enjoy a long semester break
compared to the semester breaks of their friends in non-nursing academic courses. As such, they
may develop some resistance to consistently bringing a positive attitude to learning at their
necessary clinical placements .
Lastly, students may also develop disinterest in learning when the set of given learning objectives
differ from what they are personally interested to learn. Students learn better when they set their own
goals and then monitor and self-regulate their progress. During clinical placement, schools often
release a fixed set of learning objectives, and clinical instructors tend to rely on these to help the
students finish their placement and provide assessment and grading. Students may also get
allocated to medical wards that house medical disciplines of patients that they are less passionate
about. Nursing students have found it harder to care for older persons, and when they are placed
into such geriatric clinical areas, they could possibly enter with a preconceived distaste for the
learning environment.
SOLUTIONS
This scenario offers two ideas for engaging less-interested students: gamification and maximum
quantity of peer interactions.
Gamification
Most people enjoy games. Oftentimes, just the mention of the word 'game' perks people up, and the
same knowledge taught via games can greatly enhance engagement. Various software - including
Mentimeter and Kahoot! - add a game-like atmosphere in which everyone plays on their phone or
other device. However, games often prioritize speed and winning, over discussion and learning.
Thus, if software are used, settings need to be adjusted so that students have time to discuss with
partners, and everyone needs to have opportunities to play, not just the best players in each group.
Also, students, not only teachers, can have a role in creating items to be used in the game.
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Maximum Quantity of Peer Interactions
One of the potential problems of teacher-fronted interaction, such as the

Teacher-Student-Teacher-Student pattern described earlier in this scenario, is that only one person
speaks at a time, and 50% or more of the time that person is the teacher. We have only one peer
interaction at a time, as the one student called on by the teacher is speaking while their classmates
are listening (or at least they are supposed to be listening). As a result of this arrangement, it is
unsurprising that after a presentation, the instructor is the only one with a question or comment; they
are the only one who has been listening.
Fortunately, when group activities are used, we have many options for greatly increasing the quantity
of peer interactions. For instance, in a class of 40 students, when students are in groups of 4, we
have 10 interactions potentially taking place: 1 interaction per group in 10 groups. If the same 40
students are in groups of 2, the number of potential peer interactions jumps to 20. Either way,
whether group size is 2 or 4, or 3, compared to teacher-fronted instruction, the quantity of peer
interaction is maximized, and when students are active, their interest level is likely to rise.
One way of maintaining a high quantity of peer interactions involves groups presenting to other
groups, rather than one group at a time presenting to the entire, soon to be sluggish and
disengaged, class. Another advantage of groups presenting to groups instead of each group, one at
a time, presenting to the entire class lies in the possibilities that groups can present more than once
in the same amount of time. For example, with 10 groups of 4, if each presentation lasts 5 minutes, it
would require 50 minutes for every group to present, not counting time for Q&A. If groups present to
other groups, in the same 50 minutes, each group could present multiple times, thereby increasing
student activity and engagement levels. Also, when students are in an audience of only 4, rather than
an audience of 36, they are more likely to be paying attention.
The companion of maximum quantity of peer interactions is maximum quality of peer interactions.
This means that students are thinking more. For example, instead of only giving answers, they are
digging deeper by providing reasons, examples, comparisons, evaluations, etc. This type of
higher-order thinking can show that nursing, or what content people are learning, is alive with
complexity, challenge and excitement. With proper scaffolding, i.e., support, from instructors, peers
and materials, this kind of thinking salutes the power of students’ brains.
26
SCENARIO 3 STUDENTS DO NOT PREPARE BEFORE

GROUP ACTIVITIES
Nur Athifah Binti Mohd Noor
Scenario
A teacher has assigned reading homework for senior high school

learners (known in some countries as pre-university learners) to
complete before a lesson. However, upon entering the class, he
notices that not all learners have actually completed the
assigned reading. This lack of preparation raises concerns about
the success of the planned lesson, as that lesson involves
students cooperating to apply and deepen their understanding
of ideas from the readings, videos, etc.
In the current scenario, the pre-class reading was part of the

Flipped Classroom learning model, which contrasts with the
traditional model. In traditional classrooms, teachers present
information in class, and then, at home or elsewhere, after class,
students do activities, usually alone, to practice what has been
taught. In this traditional model, most classroom time is spent
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with teachers talking and students sitting alone listening and taking notes. Thus, little opportunity is
available for student-student interaction. The Flipped Classroom gets its name because it flips the
traditional model upside down, with students receiving input before class and doing activities, often
in small groups, during class. However, Flipped Classroom learning only works if students come to
class prepared. With unprepared students, teachers often have to resort to the traditional lecture
mode, with little or no time remaining for group activities.

Many possible causes exist for learners lack of pre-class preparation. For example, learners often are
accustomed to and comfortable with teacher-centred learning. The Flipped Classroom and other
student-centred methods give students more freedom, but also necessitate more self-direction and
responsibility on students’ part. Thus, the door swings wide open for students’ procrastination and
negligence, and students face great temptation to walk through that door. At the same time, students
often confront competing demands on their time from a plethora of sources.
SOLUTIONS
Fortunately, cooperative learning offers ideas for increasing chances that students will come to class
prepared to interact with peers on the topics of the day.
Roles
Firstly, students can have roles within their group. For example, one role can be to remind
groupmates in class the day before or by such means as email or text message the evening before
the class will be discussing what they are to study. Cooperative skills can increase the changes that
these reminders will be happily received, e.g., a reminder sandwich can be prepared. A sandwich
consists of two pieces of bread with something in between, such as hummus or tempeh. In a
reminder sandwich, the bread equivalent consists of some two bits of friendly chat about areas of
common interest, one bit before the reminder and one after.
Peer help
Students, especially students with lower past achievement, may not do the preparation because they
may find the pre-class materials to be too difficult. This is a second opportunity for groups to be
useful, with groupmates helping peers understand the materials. This assistance need not be
one-way help, because higher achieving students who explain to groupmates also learn, just as
teachers learn by teaching their students. Schools can facilitate this peer teaching and learning by
providing spaces, such as picnic benches on the school grounds, where students can meet to
prepare.
Again, cooperative skills can be useful when students prepare for class. In this case, one potentially
useful skill is asking for help. Too many times, students are reluctant to admit they do not know
28
something or cannot do something. This links to the cooperative learning principle of individual
accountability which encourages students to do their fair share in their group. While positive
interdependence involves groupmates supporting each other; individual accountability entails
pressure from groupmates for each person to contribute to achieving group goals. Part of this
involves students letting groupmates know when they cannot do their fair share, so that groupmates
can help them.
Contracts
Contracts provide a third way that groups can assist students in being individually accountable by
coming to class prepared. Of course, the contracts referred to here are not financial contracts.
Instead, the group members promise each other to prepare ahead of class so that they are ready to
play their roles as active group members during class. Should there be rewards or penalties when
group members fulfil or do not fulfil their obligations as stated in the contract? That question is for
groups to decide. Leaving the decision to each group fits with the cooperative learning principle of
group autonomy, i.e., groups attempt to stand on their own rather than relying on teachers. Other
groups and teachers remain ready to help, but one’s group members constitute the first option when
assistance is needed. This applies to assistance in understanding materials and doing tasks. Group
autonomy also applies to group members motivating each other to be individually accountable to
their fellow group members.
Last but not least, teachers play an essential role in students’ successfully preparing for class. In
addition to the usual teacher roles, such as making materials comprehensible, teachers can also help
their students by adding short self-check tasks for students to do while preparing. Additionally,
teachers or group members can prepare mini-quizzes to do at the beginning of class for students to
review what they have learned. While teachers are important, students can have scope to decide on
their own ways to interact with the materials, such as drawing or choosing a song they are reminded
of while reading, viewing, etc. Finally, students can generate topics for the class to discuss, instead
of relying exclusively on teacher-generated topics.
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SCENARIO 4 LOW MOTIVATION

Tan Jin Ting
Scenario
There are 12 couples in the antenatal breastfeeding class. They

are not health professionals; they are members of the public who
will be having children in the next few months. Each couple is in
a group of two with a doll for them to use to simulate holding a
baby in different breastfeeding positions and latching
techniques. However, usually only the pregnant mothers-to-be
are keen learners, while their partners often seem uninterested.

Firstly, the participants who are not pregnant may feel that the
class content does not really relate to them as they will not be
producing breast milk. Thus, they do not think that their
involvement is of any significance. Also, these partners may think
that it is the responsibility of the partner who will be giving birth to
handle breastfeeding.
30
Secondly, people who are not pregnant may not understand the benefits of breastfeeding for mother
and baby and the importance of their role in supporting them as partners and fellow parents. Thirdly,
participants who are not pregnant may feel that they will not be receiving enough attention and love
from their partner who will be occupied with breastfeeding the newborn. At the same, these people
may have mixed feelings about the expanded role as a parent.
Thirdly, in this class, communication between the teacher and students (couples) is only one way.
The teacher delivers content and provides instructions. For instance, the couple will just mirror the
breastfeeding position using a doll as instructed but do not know the rationale, thereby decreasing
the couple’s confidence in successful breastfeeding.
SOLUTIONS
Three cooperative learning principles that might help address the problem of the lack of motivation in
the groups are teaching cooperative skills, individual accountability and positive interdependence.
Teaching cooperative skills
This cooperative learning principle of teaching cooperative skills can do a lot to improve
communication. One cooperative skill that might be especially useful in this scenario is asking for
forgiveness, as the pregnant women’s partners may need to do that once they realise their error of
not being more involved in the antenatal class. Research suggests that apologies can be useful both
for those giving and receiving apologies.
Here is one six-piece set of advice about how to forgive.
1. Be direct and use ‘I’.
For example, state, ‘I’m sorry.’ A negative example would be to say, ‘Maybe an apology should be
made here.’ The negative example is indirect and does not include ‘I’.
2. Explain why you did what you are now apologizing for, but the explanation should be brief, without
using excuses.
For example, state, ‘I apologize for being late. I didn’t give the class the priority it deserves’, not ‘First,
my boss asked me for a last-minute favour, and then, traffic was horrible.’ Avoid, words such as ‘but’
and ‘if’ which weaken apologies, e.g., ‘I would have been on time, but my boss was in a rush for me
to finish some stuff. If it wasn’t for that, I would have been on time.’
3. Recognise the harm caused.
For example, state, if apologising to a partner for being late to antenatal class, ‘Me being late causes
the class to start late, lowers the class morale and might cause you to doubt my commitment to
caring for the baby.’
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4. Promise to do better.
For example, state, ‘I won’t be late again.’
5. Suggest what you will do to fix the problem you have caused.
For example, state, ‘I will review the course materials to catch up on what I missed.’
6. Ask to be forgiven.
For example, state, ‘I hope that later you’ll be able to forgive me, because I value your opinion of me.’
Of course, every situation is different, and cultures differ. Furthermore, sometimes everyone involved
may owe an apology to others.
The cooperative learning principle of maximum peer interactions seeks to increase the quantity and
quality of the communication among learners. Just because learners are sitting together does not
guarantee that they will be learning together. In other words, cooperative learning is much more than
a seating arrangement. Fortunately, many cooperative learning techniques offer ways to encourage
people who are sitting together to also be learning together. One such cooperative learning
technique is Think Aloud Squares. Thinking aloud means that as someone performs a task, they
verbalize some of what they are thinking while doing the task. For instance, when students are going
to make a sandwich, they can do thinking aloud by verbalizing:
a. What ingredients to put in the sandwiches
b. Why the chose those ingredients
c. What is the nutrition
d. When was the last time they had those ingredients in a meal
e. How are those ingredients made
f. Any questions they have as they are reading (e.g., “I-don’t-understand” and “I-want-to-know-more”
questions)
g. Strategies they are using for dealing with difficulties in making the sandwich
h. Whether they are enjoying making the sandwich the reading; any other emotions
i. How this task is similar to other tasks they have done or will do.
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Thinking aloud opens a window into people’s minds. Peers, teachers and the ‘thinkers’ themselves
can all learn by gazing into this window. When higher-achieving students think aloud, their peers can
benefit from hearing the process by which they go about tasks, rather than just viewing their final
product. When students who may struggle with classroom tasks think aloud, their higher-achieving
peers gain insights into how they process the tasks, and, as a result, they can offer more focused
assistance. This emphasis on thinking fits well with the cooperative learning principle of maximum
peer interactions.
Here are one set of steps for how Think Aloud Squares might work.
1. The teacher models how to think aloud. Then, the class does a think aloud together. Next, one
student joins the teacher to demonstrate the roles of Thinker and Coach. While the Thinker thinks
aloud while doing a task, the Coach assists if needed and offers specific praise. Then, the roles
reverse.
2. Students form foursomes - just like a square has two sides - divided into two pairs. The two pairs
do the same tasks, with the rotating roles of Thinker and Coach.
3. After a set amount of time, or after several tasks are completed, the two pairs in the foursome
discuss their responses to the tasks and the thinking behind each response. It is fine, even better,
if the two pairs or even each of the four members of the square have different responses and
thought processes in response to the tasks.
4. After Step 3, the members of the two pairs thank each other for their ideas and return to being
Thinker and Coach, perhaps with different partners.
Variations
a.Visuals, e.g., mindmaps, can be a useful part of thinking aloud. These visuals can be made by
Thinkers to illustrate their thought process or by Coaches to see if they understand what is
happening in Thinkers’ minds.
b.Thinking aloud can be part of many group activities, rather than being used only when Think Aloud
Squares is used.
The cooperative learning principle of positive interdependence emphasizes that one person cannot
succeed with others. The cooperative learning technique Think Aloud Squares promotes positive
interdependence because the pairs sink or swim based on the reaction of the other pair, teachers
and others to the pair’s response to the tasks they have done as Thinker and Coach. This encourages
everyone to carry out their roles as well as they can and, if needed, to seek help from classmates,
teachers, the internet, etc..
33
The specific content in the current scenario also encourages the feeling of positive interdependence
because the expectant mothers will not be able to achieve successful breastfeeding without the
support and involvement from their partners. The partners will also want the mothers to succeed, as
breastfeeding benefits both members of the dyads, not to mention the third family member due to
emerge in a matter of months. In this scenario, the assisting partner will be required to know and
understand the rationale on how to assist their partners with appropriate breastfeeding position and
help to identify the latching techniques. At the same time, the mothers-to-be will feel that they can
always reach out to their partners if they need any support in their breastfeeding journey. The
partners will also feel appreciated as well. This interdependence facilitates the couple working
together as a team to achieve their common goal of having a healthy, happy and cohesive family.
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SCENARIO 5 FREELOADERS -1
Lim Chee San, Branda
Scenario
The institution appoints a workgroup of six people to complete a

project. While five of the six members enthusiastically get right to
work on the task, one member seems disengaged, rarely
contributing to discussions and not completing assigned tasks
despite reminders and other attempts to involve the member. The
member remains unresponsive and disengaged. As the project
progresses, the lack of input from this one member affects the
team's progress and morale. Frustrated by the situation, the team
leader holds a discussion about the contributions the various
members have made. However, the freeloader member seems
indifferent, offering excuses and offering no credible promises to
improve.
35

Here are several reasons why freeloading occurs. Firstly, freeloading tends to happen more often
when the group size increases, because it is easier for one person to go unnoticed in a larger group.
Secondly, a lack of motivation can cause freeloading. Among the factors that might hinder motivation
are vague objectives that confuse team members, decreasing their motivation to contribute.
Motivation may also be dimmed by poor coordination, leading members to fear that their
contributions will be cancelled out. Thirdly, people may freeload because they feel they are not
qualified to significantly impact the group’s work; so, according to this logic, the group is better off if
they do little or nothing.
SOLUTIONS
Cooperative learning has the potential to significantly alleviate the challenges faced by freeloaders in
the group. Below ideas are offered.
Write-Pair-Switch
Positive interdependence is the cooperative learning principle that most prominently encourages
member sharing. Among the many ways of promoting the feeling of positive interdependence among
group members is for each person to have a unique role in the group. Also, rather than a group of
six, members can divide into three groups of two. The smaller group size may decrease freeloading.
Here is an example using the cooperative learning technique Write-Pair-Switch.
1. Students form pairs (please be reminded that pairs are very much groups; indeed two is often the
best size for groups, because each member has more turns in a dyad, i.e., a pair). The goal of the
pairs is to decide on a project topic and to make a plan for how to go about doing the project.
2. Each individual takes a moment to think independently and Write notes in preparation for the
discussions.
3. Next, Pairs use their notes to discuss. In each pair, one member is the Realism Checker, who asks
whether the twosome’s plans are realistic, and the other is Creativity Captain who brainstorms
unusual ideas. Both need to write down the group’s ideas.
4. After the pair discussion, people Switch partners and share with someone from another dyad
about what was discussed in their previous pair.
5. After the Write-Pair-Switch, a whole-group discussion is held in which the project topic is set, roles
are decided upon and a roster of duties with due dates is formulated.
36
Variations
a. In Step 3, many other roles are possible, including Timekeeper, Facilitator (who keeps the group on
task, with occasional instances of off-task fun), Reason Asker, Praiser and Thanker. These roles
should rotate.
b. The Switch step can be repeated multiple times.
c. We can change the Switch to Square: two pairs come together to form a foursome, and each
person has a turn to tell the other twosome about the discussion within their pair. This slightly
reduces the quantity of peer interactions.
d. Another variation, one that somewhat reduces the quantity of peer interactions even further, is
Write-Pair-Share, in which a randomly selected student shares their pair’s discussion with the entire
class.
e. Of course, multiple other variations exist, such as changing Write to Mindmap.
The cooperative learning principle that most directly addresses freeloading is individual
accountability. This is the feeling among group members that they should do their fair share towards
helping groups achieve their goals. [‘Fair share’ is not necessarily the same as ‘equal share’, as for
various reasons in various situations, different members will contribute different amounts to their
groups.]
A group’s goals include gains in knowledge and skills of the members. Cooperative learning
techniques have built-in ways to attempt to promote individual accountability. For example,
Write-Pair-Switch above, facilitates individual accountability in a few ways:
a. Each person has a designated role in their group, either Realism Checker or Creativity Captain.
b. The notes people make in Step 2.
c. When group members Switch to another pair, they need to share with their new partner what was
discussed in their previous group.
Cooperation as a Value
Another cooperative learning principle that can be applied to this scenario is cooperation as a value.
This principle builds on positive interdependence and seeks to spread the feeling of ‘One for all; all
for one’ beyond the students’ small group. Cooperation as a value may help to motivate freeloaders
to be more active by highlighting the importance of what the class is learning. This importance
applies beyond the members of the small group to society generally.
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Group Investigation is a cooperative learning technique that highlights cooperation as a value. Here
is one set of steps for this technique.
1. The class decides on an important topic to investigate. They discuss in order to build learners’
knowledge, as well as their understanding of the importance of what they will be investigating.
2. Students form themselves into groups based on common interests related to a subtopic Instructors
pay attention to the size of the groups (not over four members usually) and whether the groups are
heterogeneous on variables that may be important in this particular class, including level of past
achievement.
3. Each group plans how to investigate their subtopic. A roster is developed listing who in the group
will do what tasks by what date. Group members can assist each other in doing the tasks they
have promised to do.
4. Groups review what they have learned and plan a presentation to the class. All group members
have a speaking part in the presentation.
5. Groups present to the class. If students are to be graded, peers take part in developing
assessment criteria and in doing the assessment.
6. The class discusses how what they have learned from their investigation can enhance their own
lives as well as benefiting people in general.
Variations
a. If the class does Group Investigation on a controversial issue, perhaps a consensus need not
result at the end of the investigation.
b. Part of the preparation for the investigation can be discussion of how to investigate topics and how
to guard against unreliable sources.
c. The class can consider whether it might be useful to share the fruits of their investigation with
others outside their class.
Some of the ways Group Investigation promotes individual accountability include:
a. Students have input into the topic and subtopic they investigate. The hope is that Self-Directed
Learning enhances motivation. Motivation may also be increased by the discussion of the
relevance of the topic to the world outside their class.
b. Each group has a roster of member duties. At the same time, groupmates (and the instructor) are
available if members face difficulty in completing their rostered tasks.
c. Each member has a speaking part in their group’s presentation to the class.
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SCENARIO 6 FREELOADERS - 2
Tan Jin Ting
Scenario
New nurses from different countries are in groups of four during

their orientation program on breastfeeding. Some of them appear
uninterested and do not contribute their fair share of work on
allocated group activities, leaving the burden to other group
members. This leads to feelings of frustration on the part of the
on-task members.

Three of the many possible reasons for free-riding (also known as
freeloading) are communication difficulties, lack of trust and
unclear expectations. As to communication difficulties, people
from different nationalities may also have different first languages
and different communication styles. These differences can make
participation uncomfortable, and some group members may give
up trying to collaborate. Secondly, many voices in society tell
people that we should not trust others, because they will cheat
39
us. For example, these voices tell us that if we help others, when it is our turn to need help, they will
not be there for us. Thirdly, unclear expectations and roles for each of the group members contribute
to lack of baseline for individual accountability which increases the chances of freeriding, as
individuals may feel that they will not face any consequences if they do not contribute to the group.
SOLUTIONS
Three cooperative principles that might address the problem of freeriding in the groups are positive
interdependence, equal opportunity to participate and individual accountability. One of the many
cooperative learning techniques that brings these principles to life is known by the acronym
SUMMER. Below are the steps.
1. S stands for Set the mood.
Learners are in groups of two. They engage in a bit of getting-to-know-you chit chat to promote a
comfortable atmosphere. They also review the steps they will be doing for the UMMER.
2. U stands for Understand by reading silently.
The group has a text divided into sections. The division can be done by instructors, the learners
themselves or perhaps the text has subheads that naturally divide the text into sections. Each student
independently and silently reads the same first section. In case of comprehension difficulties, they
can use devices or ask their groupmate or others for help.
3. M The first M stands for mention the Main ideas of the section just read.
One of the twosome summarises the main ideas of the section. They do this without looking at the
section in order to avoid reading word for word.
4. M The second M stands for Monitor the summary.
While the partner is summarising, the other looks at the text to monitor the summary. Anything
important left out? Too much information included? Of course, what constitutes a good summary will
depend on the group’s purpose for reading.
5. E The E stands for Elaborate on the main ideas.
The two group members take turns to elaborate on the main ideas in the section they have just read
and summarised. Elaborations include explanations, examples, additions, disagreements,
agreements, surprises, applications and connections to prior experiences and readings.
6. R The R stands for Review the entire text.
The group does the UMME for each section of the text with the roles of mentioning the Main ideas
and Monitoring the summary rotating with each section. After they have gone through all the sections,
40
they do the R, an overall review (summary) of the main ideas in the entire text. Research suggests
that using the SUMMER script increases comprehension and recall, as well as teaching learners a
useful reading strategy for future use with peers as well as alone.
Variations
a. It may be useful for the class to pause while doing SUMMER to allow pairs to share the two Ms and
the E with another pair.
b. The class might want to add questions/elaborations that fit particular purposes for which the class
is reading the text.
This cooperative learning principle emphasizes that contributions of each member are essential for
the group’s success. For example, in SUMMER, each group member has an assigned role and task
which requires each other to achieve their joint goals towards the success of the group. These
shared responsibilities can motivate people of different cultural backgrounds to communicate and
collaborate effectively to work as a team. Sometimes, the use of a group grade or combination of
group and individual grade (Scenario ?) may increase learners’ motivation to perform their assigned
roles and their motivation to assist groupmates to carry out their roles.
This cooperative learning principle ensures that all group members have a fair opportunity to
contribute to the group discussion. SUMMER promotes equal opportunity to participate as everyone
has chances to, for instance, mention the main ideas, monitor the summary and to elaborate. Note,
please, that in SUMMER each member of the twosome has time to work alone during the U step. It is
during that time, the group members can prepare for what they will say when mentioning main ideas
and elaborating. Due to these contributions, each member may feel valued that they are being heard,
thereby increasing their motivation and engagement. However, there may be a chance of free riding
in the group if each member is not accountable for their involvement.
This cooperative learning principle emphasizes that each group member is to be held responsible for
their part in the group’s success. Each member needs to know that their individual role and
contribution will determine whether the group can achieve their goals. Hence it is sometimes crucial
to assign specific roles or tasks with clear instructions. Therefore, each member will feel they are
important and valued.
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One cooperative learning technique is the Jigsaw method. One set of possible steps are:
1. Learners begin in their Home Groups. Each group has four members. The educator provides
information on low milk supply in breastfeeding mothers and divides it into four parts, like the
pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. These four jigsaw pieces on the topic of low milk supply will consist of
different causes and treatments of low milk supply in breastfeeding mothers. Each Home group
member will receive only one jigsaw piece. Then, they work alone to read and understand their
piece.
2. Learners then move into the Expert Groups consisting of members of other Home Groups with the
same jigsaw piece. Each Expert Group has a maximum of four members. These members need to
be sure that they understand their piece and then to come up with a plan for teaching their piece
to their Home Group members. To aid their teaching, the Experts can prepare visual aids such as
PowerPoint slides to indicate their key points. Expert Groups also rehearse their presentation to
check that each person is ready when they return alone to their Home Group. Part of the rehearsal
involves presenting within the time allotment decided by the class.
3. Learners return to their Home Groups. Each Home Group member presents their piece and takes
questions from other members of the Home Group.
4. The purpose of this fourth step is for the Home Group members to bring together the information
from all the four jigsaw pieces. A simple quiz can be conducted to assess if members of the Home
Group understand information in all the four pieces of jigsaw pieces.
Jigsaw method promotes active learning and participation of each member. Each member is
empowered to become an expert to share the knowledge for the group’s success in a cooperative
way. (see Scenarios 14 & 23 for variations on Jigsaw).
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SCENARIO 7 EXCLUDED GROUP MEMBERS - 1

Lim Chee San, Branda
Scenario
The students are in a group of four. Three out of four members

come from the same nursing institution, while one is from a
different institution. The group needs to complete a project. The
member from the different institution struggles to interject her
thoughts amidst the animated conversation. Her attempts to join
in are often met with brief nods before the discussion continues
without her. As a result, the excluded member dreads
participating in any group activity and feels like an outcast from
the group discussion. The three other members miss out on
opportunities to learn more from interactions with her.

There are a few reasons why the problem of excluded members
might occur.
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First, pre-existing cliques among members might inadvertently exclude others, making it challenging
for new or less connected individuals to integrate fully.
Second, personality conflicts or differences in interests and approaches within the group can cause
an individual to feel left out if they don't align with the dominant trends in the group.
Third, when an individual underperforms in the group, their groupmates might not respect their input
and not welcome any contributions they make. This could cause the excluded member to withdraw.
As a result, the underperformers experience reduced self-esteem and a reduced sense of control.
Furthermore, they may feel disconnected from the group’s achievements. And, of course, the
excluded member(s) learns less and groupmates learn less from them.
Fourth, a lack of effective communication can make a member feel excluded. This might be due to
differences in communication styles or cultural backgrounds, or language barriers may exist.
Language barriers hinder effective communication among group members, leading to
misinterpretation and frustration. Cultural similarity among certain members might lead to an
unintended subgroup formation within the main group. This division can inhibit collaboration and
disrupt cohesion. Even worse, cultural differences might perpetuate stereotypes among group
members, leading to assumptions that affect interaction within the group.
SOLUTIONS
Ideas from cooperative learning have the potential to overcome the problem of excluded members.
Here are three such ideas.
Teaching Cooperative Skills
Teaching Cooperative Skills is one cooperative learning principle that can lead to inclusive groups. In
the current scenario, the group will have a better outcome if the dominant members use cooperative
skills such as encouraging others to participate. This means that the dominant members use phrases
including, 'What do you think _____ (person’s name)?' and 'We need different perspectives. _______
(person’s name), do you have anything to add at this point?' The cooperative skills of thanking and
praising others with specifics builds previously excluded members’ confidence that groupmates will
value their contributions. An example of specific thanking is 'Thanks, _______ (person’s name), for
suggesting that we ask caregivers for their input. I had forgotten that'. For specific praising, an
example could be 'That was useful of you, ______ (person’s name), to remember what the instructor
said last week'.
Cooperative skills are also important for excluded members. For instance, some people may have
difficulty interrupting in order to contribute to the group’s discussion. In such situations, they could
gently wave a hand at the person speaking in order to get their attention and then say, 'Sorry that I
haven’t said much lately, but here’s an idea to consider'. Excluded members could also suggest
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communication via writing, either on paper or via devices, as writing makes it easier for everyone to
have their say. Additionally, asking for clarification shows interest in what the group is doing without
claiming necessarily to have a better idea.
The cooperative learning principle of equal opportunity to participate provides many ways to lessen
the problem of excluded members. Using this principle, everyone needs to have opportunities to be
active, and more than being active, they need multiple chances to play a thinking role in their group.
One cooperative learning technique that promotes equal opportunity to participate is Write-Circle of
Drawers, part of the Circle Family of cooperative learning techniques. Here is one version of that
technique.
1. Students form groups of four (smaller groups are also possible).
2. Before the group does a mindmap, or other graphic organiser, everyone has time alone to do their
own draft or write notes about what to include.
3. Everyone has a different colour pen. They take turns to add to the mindmap, but before they draw
something they first use pencil to let groupmates know their intention. Other group members give
feedback, but the final drawing is done by the person holding the turn.
4. The mindmap needs to include all the group’s colours.
5. Groupmates take turns practicing explaining their map, and they explain parts of the map drawn
by others.
6. One member is called at random to present their map to the class or to another group.
Notes:
a. The use of colours provides a visual reinforcement of everyone’s opportunity to participate.
b. Calling on a group member at random to present the group’s work encourages the group to help
all members to be ready to represent their group.
Circle of Brainstormers
Similar to Circle of Drawers, Circle of Brainstormers is another of many possible variations on Circle
of Speakers and Circle of Writers, cooperative learning techniques in which members take turns to
contribute ideas and information. Here is one way to do Circle of Brainstormers.
1. The class and then individual groups of four spend time helping everyone build their knowledge
and ideas on the topic on which the various groups will be brainstorming.
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2. The class sets ground rules for brainstorming. These include accepting all ideas, even if they
appear to be wrong, not interrupting when someone is speaking, and being good listeners, such
as looking at the person who is talking.
3. Everyone has a turn to speak. They also take turns to write down what a groupmate has said. This
may include asking the speaker to clarify or repeat.
4. When everyone has contributed their ideas, members will take turns to build upon and evaluate
ideas shared. This fosters a collaborative and iterative (doing something again and again, perhaps
in hopes of improving) brainstorming process.
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SCENARIO 8 EXCLUDED GROUP MEMBERS - 2

Brina Erh Xing Ying
Note: In many countries, for various reasons including difficulties

females may have entering other more desirable professions,
most nurses are females, as well as most nursing instructors.
Thus, while in society generally, females are more often than
males to be the victims of discrimination who are not included in
some contexts, in the current scenario, the situation is somewhat
different.
Scenario
Nursing students are assigned to clinical placements in hospitals

in groups of six. Each group is made up of mostly females with
maybe one male student. Whenever the students encounter a
situation to troubleshoot or resolve a problem, it is observed that
the female students reach out to their clinical instructors and
female counterparts only. The female students also tend to
discuss patient cases or share interesting learning opportunities
amongst themselves and leave the male student out. As a result,
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the male student is sometimes not included and, as a result, has less exposure to peer learning and
misses opportunities to develop their clinical evaluation skills.

This problem may have occurred due to a few reasons. Firstly, nursing is a female-dominated
industry, starting from nursing schools. Each gender often exhibits a preference to form social
connections with someone of their own same gender. With females being the majority, they may tend
to gravitate towards their female counterparts and choose to form groups within themselves. On the
other hand, the male student may have to overcome the status quo to initiate social interactions with
his female schoolmates and only do so when he is purposefully placed in situations to work together.
Secondly, male and female students may sometimes show differences in their perspectives towards
learning. According to some research, female students have a more positive attitude to teamwork
and are more inclusive towards their peers when they learn something new or discover new learning
opportunities. And, this inclusion may first be directed to female peers whom they deem alike to
themselves. On the other hand, the public’s perception of nursing being a more feminine career can
cause male students to experience isolation and self-doubt. This may discourage the male nursing
student from learning along with his female peers. The male learner may also choose to perform
independent thinking and learning rather than partaking in group discussion and decision-making
activities.
Lastly, in Singapore, during clinical placements, male students are not given access to cubicles
containing female patients. This would limit their opportunities to observe some clinical situations.
The lack of shared experience may deter female students from discussing their learning issues with
their male schoolmates. [For those readers in other professions, do equivalent situations exist in your
profession which might limit the experiences of one or another gender?]
SOLUTIONS
Concepts from cooperative learning can help to improve the peer learning experience for all
students, facilitating all students keeping pace with their female counterparts, regardless of their
backgrounds. Here are three cooperative learning principles and one cooperative learning
technique.
Firstly, it is important to facilitate the feeling of positive interdependence among learners to help them
recognise the mutual benefits of everyone taking part in learning through cooperation. This principle
of positive interdependence encourages learners to expand learning beyond themselves as
individuals and towards collaboration with peers. Helping group members form common goals can
build opportunities for them to recognise that they are in the same 'race' regardless of their gender.
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Recognition of the reality that 'we are all in this together' applies in healthcare and throughout life.
However, much in society can undermine the understanding of our positive interdependence.
Examples include competitions and rankings, as well as other hierarchies. These may have their
place, but unless implemented cautiously they can foment feelings of negative interdependence, not
positive interdependence, meaning that people believe what is good for others is bad for themselves,
and what is bad for others is good for themselves. In other words, instead of life being win-win, it can
be misunderstood as a zero sum game.
Teaching Cooperative Skills
Next, cooperative skills can facilitate useful interactions among learners. These are lifelong skills that
will assist them at work and beyond. Instructors can promote cooperative skills, for example, by
inviting students to affirm one another’s learning and validate each other’s experiences through
mutual thanking, praising with reasons and actions like clapping to affirm peers’ beneficial actions.
Indeed, cooperative skills often use not only words but also forms of body language, such as
gestures, facial expressions and posture, to communicate feelings. Therefore, students need to take
cooperative skills into account when interacting with peers and others. For instance, to invite others
to participate in a discussion, in addition to words, such as 'What are your experiences, ______ (the
person’s name)?' body language, such as smiling, leaning forward and looking at the person,
communicate welcome. However, it should be noted that how to implement cooperative skills may
differ from culture to culture.
Instructors can also use practical tasks that have multiple viable solutions (also known as fuzzy tasks)
to introduce the cooperative skill of polite disagreement and allow students to practice this difficult
skill while using the cooperative learning technique Circle of Speakers. The steps, tailored to the
current scenario, are:
1. Students form groups of 2, 3 or 4 members. Either individual groups or the class as a whole decide
on a patient care problem that at least one of the nursing students experienced during a recent
shift.
2. Each student thinks alone about ways to address that problem. They also link their potential
solutions to what they have been studying during their course.
3. Each student has a turn to offer their suggestions and the links from the course or elsewhere, such
as the internet, that support their suggestions. After each person’s turn, groupmates agree,
disagree, offer amendments, etc., all with reasons.
4. The instructor calls upon different students randomly to share responses from their group, not just
their own ideas. A whole class discussion ensues.
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Variations
a. In addition to or instead of the whole class discussion, groups can discuss with other groups.
b. If applicable, the views of patients, patients’ family/friends, as well as views of other healthcare
professionals can be solicited and then reported to the class/group.
Group Autonomy
Last but not least, the cooperative learning principle of group autonomy can also be facilitated to
encourage the students to interact more with each other, to see groupmates as their first option for
help and to share experience and feelings (positive and negative). Instead of students immediately
sharing problems, concerns, questions, feelings, ideas, etc. with instructors, students can first turn to
groupmates using the TTT (Team Then Teacher) strategy. Taking TTT a step further is 3 + 1 B4 T, i.e.,
first discuss with your 3 groupmates. If you want to discuss more, please turn to 1 more group of
classmates B4 (before) asking teachers. Of course, teachers are still looking forward to being part of
students’ support network, just not the only part or the first option. Yes, instructors are the 'experts',
but learners need to be as self-reliant as possible individually and in groups.
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SCENARIO 9 TAKEOVERS
Rozainah Binte Mohamed
Scenario
The class are Year 2 nursing students doing a module on

Pharmacology. Today, in groups of four, students are given a list
of medications. Their task is to work together to find out the
indications, common side effects, and nursing considerations of
each medication in the list. Within the group of students, some
students have better pharmacological knowledge than others.
Instead of discussing with groupmates, the students with better
knowledge take over the task; they work on their own in filling up
the required information. Then, they just tell the answers to their
groupmates. As a result, no real interaction takes place, only a
one-way exchange of information, with no explanations. The less
knowledgeable students passively receive information. Plus, the
whole group may miss other important information, as fewer
people are working on the task.
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Takeovers happen when the discussions or work are dominated by one or two members within a
group, while the rest quietly follow or do nothing. There are many reasons that can cause members of
a group to dominate and others to follow or withdraw. Some examples of why some members
dominate can be that these members either like talking more than listening, or they feel that they
need to do all the work so that the work is completed accurately and quickly. In the scenario above,
the takeover happens because some group members have more pharmacological knowledge than
the rest.
SOLUTIONS
Cooperative learning encourages students to learn together and enjoy the process of learning
together.
The cooperative learning principle of equal opportunity to participate can be promoted in many ways.
This scenario describes some of these ways, while other ways are explained in other scenarios.
Talking Chips
The simple idea in this technique is that students use a chip each time they speak and need to stop
speaking after using up their chips.
1. Each group member receives the same number of chips, such as three. Chips can be made of
anything: from poker chips, to sticks of gum, to pieces of used cardboard or paper.
2. Each time a person speaks, they give us a chip. To supervise this, one group member can take on
the role of banker or chipmaster: (a) making sure everyone surrenders a chip after each speaking
turn and (b) holding on to the chips.
3. When someone has used all their chips, they can no longer speak, until everyone else has used all
their chips. The one exception to this rule is that people with no more chips can ask questions to
encourage those who still have chips to use their remaining chips.
4. As soon as everyone has used all their chips, the chips are returned and the process begins
again.
Variations
a. To encourage a variety of cooperative skills a variety of chips can be used. Types of chips could
be those in which the holder needs to: ask for reasons, disagree politely, praise, thank or add
information.
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b. The group can use the chips to examine their interaction. For instance, do some members often
seem to quickly use up all their chips, while other groupmates use chips more slowly? The group
can try to understand why this might be happening and consider if they wish to change.
Circle of Speakers
Many cooperative learning techniques promote equal opportunity to participate by students taking
turns to speak. Circle of Speakers, part of the Circle Family of cooperative learning techniques, is one
such technique. Here is one version of the steps in the technique.
1. Students form groups of 2, 3 or 4 members.
2. Each takes a turn to speak; the turns can rotate around the group multiple times.
3. Later, one student is chosen at random to share with the class what one or more of their
groupmates said. The point is that they need to be listening and understanding what peers are
saying in order to be ready to share peers’ thoughts, rather than their own.
Variations
a. In addition to taking turns to speak, students can also question, praise, thank, disagree with or add
to what groupmates have said.
b. Instead of, or in addition to, speaking, students can also provide equal opportunities to
groupmates by doing other members of the Circle Family of cooperative learning techniques, such
as Circle of Writers and Circle of Drawers.
This cooperative learning principle looks at two elements of the interactions among students: the
quantity and the quality of interactions. The quantity involves how many peer interactions are taking
place at the same time. In the current scenario, interactions took place when those students who took
over the task told the answers to their excluded groupmates. Thus, the main problem was not the
quantity of peer interactions, but the quality of those interactions. No higher order thinking was going
on; students were merely exchanging information, because students had only been asked to give
information, rather than explanations.
How could the task be changed to promote higher order thinking, i.e., maximum quality of peer
interactions? For instance, the task could be changed to ask for explanations of answers. For
instance, in the part of the task that asked about the side effects of the medications, students could
also be asked to explain the reasons for the side effects, and/or to discuss how to treat those side
effects. Adding more thinking to tasks may provoke more discussion among group members and, as
a result, deeper learning.
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Building on the need for quality peer interactions, another cooperative learning principle that may
avoid takeovers is positive interdependence. For instance, if students are chosen at random to
represent their group with both answers and explanations of those answers, the group has more
reason to help all members to be ready by using the cooperative skill of checking for understanding.
In other words, groups need to ask themselves, 'Are all group members ready to give and explain our
group’s responses to the task?' When group members feel positively interdependent, they feel as
though they sink or swim together. If one of two group members takeover a task, a task that requires
understanding, not just recall, of information, some members will not be ready, and the entire group
may sink, including those who did the takeover.
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SCENARIO 10 LONERS
Tee Yong Ming
Scenario
An Electrocardiogram (ECG) course was organized for nurses

with at least one year experience to learn how to interpret and
analyse the ECG rhythm. The class size is about 20 nurses with
two facilitators. The workshop requires participants to form a
group of five and to present their responses to a case scenario.
The workshop facilitator notices that in Group 2, one of the
members seems to be a loner who doesn’t cooperate with peers
in class and doesn’t socialize with them outside class. He does
his own research via handphone and writes his own responses,
which he does not share with other members or ask for their
opinions.
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Here are some reasons why the loner problem might occur.
First, some people have had past negative experiences with groups, and, as a result, they avoid
participating with others, socially or for learning purposes. For example, perhaps they choose to be
loners because they were bullied or ostracised in previous groups, maybe all the way back to
primary school. Second, perhaps groupmates of the loners in the recent or distant past did not do
their fair share of the work. Third, another reason could be that the person acting as a loner feels
different from groupmates. In this case, the difference is that he is male, while the other group
members are females. A fourth possible reason for the loner problem highlighted in this scenario is
that the student feels inadequate to participate. Maybe he does not have any background on ECGs,
because he works in the palliative ward. Fifth, in other situations, the loner may feel that groupmates
are inadequate and that the only interactions of value would be with the instructor. Also, he could be
a slow learner who totally doesn’t understand how to analyse the ECG rhythm.
SOLUTIONS
Building Trust Among Group Members
Previous negative experiences involving interacting with others can damage people’s trust in groups.
Trust is essential in so many areas of life. In the novel, What You Are Looking For Is In The Library, two
characters, Hina and Ryo, discuss trust.
Hina: Ryo, dear, have you ever thought about what makes the world go round?
Ryo: Er . . . er, love, I guess.
Hina: Oh, that’s priceless! You never cease to amaze me, Ryo, but that’s what I love about you. I
believe it is trust.
Ryo: Trust?
Hina: Yes, trust. Anything you do - borrowing money from a bank, commissioning a piece of work,
sending or receiving a parcel, making a plan with friends, ordering food at a restaurant - all those
things can only happen because of mutual trust on both sides.
Ways to rebuild trust include creating group guidelines, participating together in activities, telling
personal (but not confidential) stories and having successful experiences together.
Group Guidelines
Group guidelines fit with the cooperative learning principle of cooperative skills. Such guidelines set
expectations for how learners will act toward groupmates and how groupmates will act toward them.
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Learners should be involved in deciding on guidelines for their groups. Examples of possible
guidelines include (please note that they are phrased positively to focus on what people do, rather
than negatively, focusing on what people should not do):
a. We let others finish speaking before sharing our own ideas.
b. We encourage everyone to share their ideas when they are ready. To encourage everyone to
speak, we can sometimes use the 3 x 3 rule after speaking once, before speaking again, we let
three others speak (depending on the size of our group) or we wait three minutes.
c. We look for opportunities to praise and thank others.
d. We criticise ideas, not the people who state those ideas. For example, instead of saying, ‘I don’t
agree with you’, we say, ‘I don’t agree with that idea’. Also, instead of criticising, we can add other
ideas or suggest alternatives.
e. We explain what we are saying by using examples, offering explanations, showing visuals and
giving details.
f. We check to see if others are understanding. We help others who might be having difficulties.
g. We try to solve problems within the group, but we may also consult other groups, online and offline
resources and instructors.
h. We act as ‘crew, not passengers’. This means that when any of us sees something that needs
doing, such as taking notes or making a roster of duties, instead of waiting for others to do it, we
offer to do it.
Participating Together in Activities
When trying to build trust in a group, it may be useful to begin with easy activities that everyone can
do together. Sharing food and drink is such an activity, as everyone needs to eat and drink. Of
course, concern is needed in regard to matters including food allergies and special diets. Also,
learners should be encouraged to use environmentally-friendly plates, cups etc. Food can be
supplied by instructors or participants can bring the food in potluck style. For online classes, ‘cook
togethers’ can be done, with each person cooking at home, either the same dish or whatever they
like to prepare, while groupmates look on. Not everyone is proficient at gourmet cooking. Those
people can, instead, prepare something simple, such as a salad or porridge with a wide variety of
ingredients. Arts and crafts activities offer other opportunities for easy activities. These can be linked
to what the class is studying, e.g., students can draw or make collages.
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Building a Common Identity
One strategy often used to bring people together involves building a common identity. Countries do
this via flags, national anthems and other songs, favourite foods, mottos and national birds, flowers,
etc. Groups can use similar strategies, including mottos, handshakes, theme songs, names and
mascots. In the cooperative learning literature, this is called building identity positive
interdependence.
Telling Personal (but not confidential) Stories
By opening up at least a little to tell about themselves students build trust. The teambuilding activity
described in Scenario 11, ‘A Surprising Fact about Me’ facilitates this process. Possible safe topics
for sharing include:
a. Favorite song, film, video game, etc.
b. Best present ever received
c. A highlight of the past week
d. Current or past role models
e. A favorite friend
f. Show a photo with you in it.
After each person shares, other group members should ask questions, mention similarities to
themselves or make positive comments, because to build trust people need to see groupmates
showing interest in them and reacting positively to what they say. In other words, people are taking a
risk when they share; to build trust, those risks should be rewarded with positive responses from
peers. In that way, loners will be more likely to share in the future.
Another way to share is via two inter-related cooperative games: Forward Snowball and Reverse
Snowball. In Forward Snowball, groupmates combine to make lists. For instance, they could make a
list of foods. They start alone, combine lists with a single partner and then, two pairs combine lists. In
this way, the list, i.e., the snowball, grows larger. Then, in Reverse Snowball, they start to shrink the
list, perhaps by choosing foods that everyone in the group likes.
Having Successful Experiences Together
Many learners reject interacting with groupmates because they think either that groupmates cannot
learn from them, or they cannot learn from groupmates, or both. Thus, it may be important for
learners to experience early success in their group activities. On one hand, a great deal of research
and theory supports the idea that learning with others increases learning, that 1 + 1 can equal not
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just 2 but even 3. Nevertheless, peer interaction isn’t magic. On the other hand, educators need to
consider the level of challenge involved in tasks and the sufficiency of resources – human and
otherwise – to help groups successfully complete tasks. The human resources that a group has can
be maximised via heterogenous grouping, in particular, if the high achievers and/or people with
relatively high background on a topic are evenly distributed among the groups.
Building learners' confidence in themselves and their peers relates to the cooperative learning
principle of group autonomy, the idea that groups attempt to stand on their own. Yes, instructors are
still there to help when needed, but groupmates and other peers represent the first option when
assistance may be necessary. Two slogans embody this idea.
a. TTT = Team Then Teacher, i.e., learners consult groupmates before turning to teachers.
b. 3 + 1 B4 T = learners first consult their groupmates (in this case in a group of four), then 1 (or
perhaps more) other group of peers, and if they still need help, they ask the teacher.
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SCENARIO 11 INTROVERTS AND EXTROVERTS

Yeo Chuan Hui Sharon
Scenario
Nursing students are in a group of four. The group discussion

focuses on the nursing care of a patient admitted for epilepsy.
The key points of the discussion comprise the bedside
preparation, the appropriate nursing interventions for
management of epilepsy, nursing documentation and
pharmacological management (when to administer the
medications), which are Intravenous (IV) Lorazepam and Rectal
Diazepam, including their rationales (drug indications). Three
students who the instructor recognises as extroverts are actively
participating in the group discussion, doing most of the talking
and enjoying. However, one student who identifies as an introvert
appears reserved and seems to be gaining significantly less
enjoyment from the group discussion.
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One reason leading to this problem is the different approaches towards group activities adopted by
introverts and extroverts. The three extroverts are enthusiastic and talkative, whereas the one introvert
is reserved and cautious, preferring to think before speaking. Therefore, this could pose a possibility
of extroverted students dominating the group discussion, leading to unbalanced participation
between the introverted student and her extroverted groupmates.
Another reason for this problem is the introverted student may not be acquainted with the three other
students. Generally, nursing students are grouped heterogeneously into their clinical placement
groups, to prepare them to succeed in a diverse workforce. This situation could make her feel
uncomfortable speaking out in the group discussion and result in her being fearful of her opinions
being judged and getting into confrontation with the other group members.
SOLUTIONS
Understanding That Introversion and Extroversion Are Both Good
First, some basic misconceptions about introverts need to be cleared up.
a. Introversion and extroversion are not either/or characteristics; these two characteristics are points
on a continuum, with everyone being more or less introverted and more or less extroverted.
b. Introversion is not a problem; people do not need to be ‘cured’ of introversion and become
extroverts.
c. Everyone needs to be good at working alone, just as everyone needs to be good at interacting
with others.
d. Introverts like other people. They enjoy interacting with others, maybe just in smaller groups and
for shorter amounts of time. Introverts, just like extroverts, can share with and help others. All can
thrive during group activities.
e. Many introverts do well in life roles – such as teachers and other managers - that demand
speaking in front of and leading groups of people.
Icebreakers
In the current scenario, the introverted student is not acquainted with the three other students; so, it
might be favourable to employ 'Two Truths - One Lie' as an icebreaker to warm up the students and
learning space.
The steps for doing this icebreaker in a foursome are:
1. Students take turns to make three statements about themself to the rest of the group.
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2. Two of the statements given should be true, and one should be a lie.
3. Once a member makes their three statements, the three other students should ask questions and
then guess which statement they think is made up.
[Note: Some people do not like 'Two Truths – One Lie', as they worry that deceiving partners may
harm relations within the group. An alternative preferred by the editors of the book you are currently
reading is 'A Surprising Fact About Me', in which group members take turns to share something
about themselves that groupmates might find interesting, such as hobbies, noteworthy family
members or past experiences. After each person has shared, groupmates ask questions before the
next person shares. An even simpler icebreaker is for the group to generate a short list of questions
for each member to respond to about themselves.]
The cooperative learning principle of equal opportunity to participate might be useful in addressing
the current problem scenario. However, first, a bit of explanation might be useful. One important point
to understand about this cooperative learning principle lies in the word ‘opportunity’. The principle
does not say that everyone must speak the same amount of time. Furthermore, some group members
may wish to listen and think for a while before sharing. If you like Education jargon, one term for this
waiting before sharing is Legitimate Peripheral Participation, the idea that it’s fine for people to take a
while before they create output (speaking, writing, etc.).
Many means exist via which group members can have more time to prepare before sharing.
a. Many cooperative learning techniques ask members to Think, Write, Draw, etc. as a first step.
Please note that these three steps, which are usually done alone and usually done early in an
activity, can also come later in activities. For instance, after discussing with partners, students can
have time alone to write. Also, it should be noted that activities normally done alone can also be
done in a group. An example is that thinking can be done via thinking aloud with others.
b. Asynchronous communication, such as email and discussion boards, also reduce pressure for
immediate responses.
c. The Flipped Classroom, discussed in Scenario 3, involves students first studying outside of class
by reading, watching videos, going over slides of lectures prepared by teachers, etc. – alone or in
a small group – before coming to class to do activities. The time before class offers students time
to think before interacting with others.
Circle of Writers
Writing offers one way to encourage reflection among learners. Circle of Writers, part of the Circle
Family of cooperative learning techniques, is one of many cooperative learning techniques involving
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writing. This technique has at least two versions: Circle of Writers (One at a Time) and Circle of
Writers (All at Once). In Circle of Writers (One at a Time), there is only one piece of paper or
electronic device per group, and everyone takes a turn to write. Then, the group can discuss what
was written. When writing in groups, Individual Accountability can be further encouraged if each
group member writes in a different colour. In Circle of Writers (All at Once), each group member has
a piece of paper / device, and they all write at the same time. After a certain amount of time, the
paper / device rotates to a different group member who reads what the previous person / persons
has written, asks any questions they might have about the meaning of what has been written and
then continues writing.
In the internet environment, affordances such as Padlet provide friendly means for students to work
alone before sharing. Padlet is a web application that allows users to share notes on a digital wall,
which is like a sheet of paper, but it is on the internet.
The steps, adapted to the task in the current scenario, are (of course, apps often change as new
versions are introduced):
1. Each student has an electronic device to access Padlet, by scanning the QR code.
2. The students have time to think and write their input under the four respective headings: what to
prepare at bedside, the steps to perform when a child presents with seizures, key features to
document on seizure chart, when to administer IV Lorazepam and Rectal Diazepam and the
reasons.
3. Once the students have added their inputs in Padlet, starting from the first heading, one at a time,
each student shares what they wrote in the Padlet and provides reason(s).
4. Groupmates ask questions, add information and, when appropriate, politely disagree.
Variation
One variation on Circle of Writers (All at Once) can be done when groups disband, perhaps because
a course is ending or because the class has decided to shuffle group membership after a particular
period of time, e.g., after the mid-term exam.
a. Each member has a piece of paper and writes their name at the top.
b. Everyone passes their paper to the person on their right. Upon receiving a groupmate’s paper,
each student, on the bottom of the paper, writes something to praise that partner for a specific
positive contribution that person made to the group.
c. After writing on the bottom of the paper, each student folds the paper so that what they wrote
cannot be seen. Then, they pass the paper to the right, to a groupmate who has yet to write on it.
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d. This process continues until the papers return to the group members whose name is written on the
top. They unfold the paper and smile as they enjoy the praise they have received. Also, let’s hope
that they also enjoy seeing similarly sparked smiles on their groupmates’ faces.
64
SCENARIO 12 UNEQUAL PARTICIPATION IN GROUPS

Buk Mei Ping Petunia
Scenario
Students are in groups of four. That morning during practicum,

part of each student’s task had been to encourage patients to be
more active in engaging in self-care, such as eating healthier
diets. Now, during debrief, the task for each group is to complete
a form about how the patients responded to this approach. Each
person has a copy of the form. One member actively works on
the form, but when she asks her fellow members for input, they
are silent, just writing down whatever the active member says or
using their phones for unrelated matters. In the end, only the
more active member completes the form and presents it to the
class. Her disgruntled look and standoffish manner show she is
upset with her group. Additionally, reflections are a regular part of
the debrief sessions, but this time, the group’s reflections on the
morning’s activities are of poor quality. Did they all advocate
self-care? What was their approach to such advocacy? How did
patients respond?
65

Often, why anything - a problem, a success, etc. - occurs can be traced to multiple reasons. In this
scenario, one reason for most students’ lack of participation might be their lack of ownership of the
task of convincing patients to engage in self-care. Perhaps, these nurses have tried and failed to
increase patient involvement in their own health. Ironically, patients’ attitudes towards attending to
their own health may be similar to students’ attitudes towards attending to their own learning. Too
many patients want to leave healthcare to the experts (nurses and doctors), just as too many
students want to leave education to the educators.
SOLUTIONS
Preparing Groups to Succeed
Firstly, perhaps the morning task – promoting self-care by patients – was too difficult. After all, many
patients take the view that protecting their health means having healthcare professionals give them
medicines and perform procedures on them. This is somewhat similar to some learners’ passive view
of education: teachers are the active ones who pour knowledge into the heads of the passive
learners, just as healthcare professionals load patients up with medicines and procedures.
To better prepare learners to address attitudes that impede self-care, perhaps, the previous class,
more scaffolding (support) could have been given. For example, learners could have done role
playing to hone their skills. Also, when interacting with patients that morning, pairs of learners could
have rotated roles, with one interacting with the patient and the other offering support.
The cooperative learning principle of heterogeneous grouping provides another way of scaffolding
for students. Students high in past achievement, with positive attitudes towards studying and with
useful background of a particular task should be sprinkled throughout groups. These students can
do some of the teachers’ work of helping groups succeed, which at the same time will boost their
own knowledge and skills.
Too often, learners and others feel that teachers who ask high achievers to assist their peers are lazy,
ineffective teachers who are being unfair to their high-achieving students. However, the benefits
gained by high achievers when they aid peers go beyond additional learning. For example, when
they help peers, high achievers gain recognition as capable professionals and kind people. Thus,
when - tomorrow or 20 years from now - it is their turn to need assistance, the deep well of goodwill
that these high achievers have built makes it likely that peers will welcome opportunities to
reciprocate their past generosity.
Perhaps, part of the current problem resulted from the high achievers lack of skill at teaching peers
or her reluctance to assume that role. Here, the cooperative skill of teaching others can be very
66
useful. Teaching involves both science and art. Thus, teaching well requires learning and practicing.
Furthermore, many higher-ranking positions in all kinds of organisations have a major teaching
component. By growing their skill in teaching peers, high achievers prepare themselves to qualify for
such positions.
Positive Peer Interactions
A second possible reason for unequal participation may be that the quiet members lack confidence
and may fear that their mistakes will be laughed at by their peers. One remedy here could be working
with learners to establish ground rules for interacting in groups, including the cooperative skills
involved in responding supportively when learners believe their groupmates have made mistakes.
For example, instead of pointing out what they see as an error, groupmates can ask questions to
encourage peers to recognise and correct their own errors.
Helping Groups Enjoy Success
Thirdly, learners may have had past bad experiences with group activities. For instance, groupmates
may have taken other people’s information and ideas but not shared any of their own. Or, some
partners may not have had enough knowledge/experience to share. One strategy for overcoming
past bad experiences with groups involves starting with group activities that are fairly easy as to both
content and task complexity. In this way, learners are more likely to see groups working well.
One easy way to help students succeed at group activities is to use the cooperative learning
technique Write-Circle of Speakers. The steps are:
1. Each group member has a paper or a writing device, such as a tablet. In the case of the current
task, each member has a copy of the form to be used to reflect on their morning experience.
2. Everyone works alone to Write on the form. This is the Write step.
3. Group members take turns to share some of what they have written with groupmates. This is the
Circle of Speakers step.
4. This sharing can go for more than one round, followed by questions and discussion. The
interaction is essential to promoting thinking and learning.
Does Everyone Know How to Do the Task?
Fourthly, participation may be unequal because some group members could be lost and not sure
what is happening or what to do. Sometimes, learners are not listening when tasks are discussed.
Other times, procedures are not clear, or a long procedure is explained all at once, making it difficult
for learners to remember everything. Strategies for addressing this problem include:
a. Learners are involved in planning how tasks will be done.
67
b. The steps to be done are shared in writing.
c. One person per group or per class repeats procedures.
d. Examples are provided of how to do the task.
e. One person per group acts as facilitator, helping the group stay on task.
f. Teachers visit groups to monitor how they are doing the tasks, as well as whether they are
understanding the content. Also, just because a group does a task differently doesn’t make the
group wrong. Often, there are ‘many ways to pet a cat’ (an animal-friendly version of ‘many ways to
skin a cat’). Indeed, the group’s unique procedure might even be better.
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SCENARIO 13 LACK OF INTERACTION AMONG

GROUP MEMBERS
Jessica Raffaelia Pereira
Scenario
The issue is that sometimes the entire class is unusually quiet.

While participants can provide short responses when directly
asked, there is a noticeable lack of longer answers and
interaction among peers. The result of this is that the teacher is
uncertain about the students' overall understanding, and their
disengaged demeanour is evident. The pervasive quietness and
minimal peer discourse dampens the ambiance of the entire
lesson/module.

Two primary factors contribute to this problem. Firstly, reduced
social interaction often occurs when the participant mix is
diverse, for example, blue collar staff and white collar staff, or
nurses, doctors and / allied healthcare professionals from various
wards and specialties. Consequently, there exists a prevailing
69
lack of acquaintance amongst them, and in some instances, a complete unfamiliarity and
discomfort.
Secondly, the lack of interaction may be exacerbated by fatigue experienced by the participants,
given that instructional sessions are scheduled after long and arduous shifts. People working shifts
often suffer from dipped alertness and performance. In such instances, participants may find
themselves overly strained or stressed, leading to a diminished capacity and willingness to engage in
social interactions. People’s thoughts may be, ‘If I talk less, the session may end sooner. Then, I can
get home sooner.’
SOLUTIONS
The first cooperative learning principle to be applied to this problem could be maximum peer
interactions. Given that the core problem is minimal exchanges between classmates, this principle
will definitely break the ice by starting conversations within the class. Perhaps, the situation is similar
to speed dating: people may want to meet new people, but they need someone else to organise the
interaction.
One classic technique to demonstrate this would be Circle Of Speakers, which is part of the Circle
Family of cooperative learning techniques, which also includes Circle of Drawers, Circle of Writers
and Circle of Mimers. Here is one version of how Circle of Speakers can be done.
1. Students form groups of 2, 3 or 4. The class as a whole may have some pre-discussion of the topic
they will be discussing in their groups.
2. They take turns to speak on the given topic. Others can value-add or share insights when one
member is done speaking.
3. A group member is chosen at random to share ideas from their discussion. This sharing should
certainly include ideas from the partner(s) of the person chosen to speak.
Variations
a. Members of the Circle Family can be combined. For example, students can do Write-Circle of
Speakers in which they write first before speaking to their groupmates.
b. Instead of students being randomly selected to share with the entire class, the randomly selected
students can share with only one other group. This makes for more peer interactions taking place
at the same time.
One possible drawback of Circle of Speakers is that while the quantity of interactions may increase,
the interactions may not necessarily be quality conversations, at least at the beginning. This may be
70
due to the fact that most of the participants may not know each other, making it difficult to get the ball
rolling. To combat this, groupmates can ask for elaborations, such as reasons or experiences. For
example, in a group of three, after the first group member takes a turn, the third group member can
ask for elaborations, and after the second member’s turn, the first member can ask. The hope is that
these deeper conversations foster camaraderie, and, as a result, people form friendships outside of
their narrow work categories.
While the cooperative learning principle of maximum peer interactions, may enliven otherwise dreary
sessions, we cannot forget that there is a high possibility for certain members to be sleeping
partners. Placing them into smaller groups of two or three reduces the possibility of one withdrawing
from the discussion; however, it does not eliminate it. A good counter to this possible obstacle is to
highlight the cooperative learning principle of individual accountability. This can be done by using
Everyone Can Explain. This cooperative learning technique was discussed in this book’s introduction.
Here are the steps again.
1. Students form groups of 2, 3 or 4. Each member has a number based on where they are sitting.
For instance, the person in the SouthEast corner of their group could be #1.
2. The group has a question that they need to answer, and they need to give an explanation for their
answer. They try to reach consensus on an answer and explanation. Or, if they cannot agree, they
can arrive at different possible answers and explanations.
3. The group checks that all their members can give and explain their group’s answer(s).
4. To reduce the chance of freeloading, one member is selected at random to represent their group in
a brief presentation to the entire class.
The underlying concept revolves around the notion that, even in cases where students may exhibit
apathy toward the collective performance of their groups, a desire to preserve their self-respect
would impel them to assume responsibility for their individual learning and contributions. By
emphasizing individual accountability, the likelihood of freeloading diminishes, fostering a more
equitable and collaborative learning environment. Moreover, the framework ideally encourages
students to recognize the interdependence between their active involvement and the overall
performance of their team. Beyond the confines of the classroom, this principle serves to fortify a
robust work ethic, instilling a commitment to diligence and conscientiousness in both individual and
collaborative endeavours.
Cooperative Skills
Teaching cooperative skills intends to create a harmonious classroom, where collaboration and
mutual respect are key components of the learning experience. For instance, one cooperative skill is
71
praising others. While this might seem like a very rudimentary skill, in a room filled with unfamiliar
faces, receiving praises either from the teacher or from classmates can create an environment where
one feels acknowledged and valued. On a tiring day, a little compliment can go a long way to
re-energising one’s spirits. The uplifting atmosphere mitigates social tension and can motivate better
engagement. The onus lies on educators to establish this dynamic. Educators could begin the lesson
by thanking everyone for their attendance and mentioning how valuable their students’ participation
is to them. Throughout the lesson, they could also praise students for clarifying doubts, assisting one
another and for practicing mindful inclusion of quieter classmates. Praise is a very powerful tool to
create an inclusive setting, where every student feels seen and appreciated. It is capable of fostering
a sense of belonging and acceptance among diverse individuals.
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SCENARIO 14 DIFFERENCES IN BACKGROUND

KNOWLEDGE
Azkiah Binte Abdul Jabbar
Scenario
A clinical instructor is designated to supervise and evaluate a

group of 12 students during their clinical placement . For weekly
discussions, the nursing students form three groups of four. Each
group explores a specific topic, such as the roles and
responsibilities of a nurse in various clinical processes, e.g.,
admission process of a preoperative patient, preparation of a
preoperative patient and care for a postoperative patient. After
receiving instructions, students begin to research online, to recall
what they learned in school and to share their previous clinical
placement internship experiences. Notably, students who
previously worked in healthcare do most of the talking. During
the group presentations, groups whose members have no
previous healthcare experience provide information that is too
general and not relevant. Additionally, some students focus on
preparing for their presentations rather than maximizing their
73
learning by paying attention to the other groups’ presentations, asking questions and offering
feedback.

The nursing processes taught in schools are universal, but hospital policies and operational
guidelines related to the task the class is doing may differ slightly, leading to a lack of exposure for
nursing students unless they have completed an internship. Those with such prior experience may
already have this exposure, giving them an advantage in preparing for assigned topics. However,
fresh nursing students may face greater difficulty, which may lead to a negative attitude towards the
curriculum, including a perceived lack of value in the course or content and a demotivating belief that
effort will not improve performance.
Also, for whatever reason, students may not prepare their presentations before class and instead
attempt to prepare while the other groups are presenting. This leads to the common problem that the
instructor is the only one really listening to students’ presentations and the only one providing
feedback, both positive and constructive, as well as being the only one asking questions. The lack of
an attentive peer audience diminishes the presenters’ experience.
SOLUTIONS
Jigsaw Cooperative Learning
The Jigsaw cooperative learning technique may help students increase their engagement and
learning. Jigsaw provides more time for students to prepare and makes it more likely that peers will
pay attention during others’ presentations. Jigsaw involves assigning learners, with peer support, the
responsibility of teaching certain content to their group, thereby fostering self-confidence, and
enhancing problem-solving and critical thinking abilities.
Here are the steps in one version of Jigsaw.
1. Each group of three students is designated as a ‘home group’. Each member of the home group is
given a different piece of information, like having a different piece of a jigsaw puzzle. In the case of
the group in the current scenario, the instructor provides fact sheets based on the hospital's
operational guidelines on their nursing processes. Examples of topics students may receive
include pre-operative preparation of a patient, post-operative care of a patient and the admission
process of pre-operative patients. Students are given approximately 10 minutes to read through
their assigned information individually.
2. Students then form ‘expert groups’ with other students from different home groups who have the
same piece of information, the same piece of the Jigsaw puzzle. The goal of these expert groups
is twofold. First, they need to understand their topic. Second, they need to prepare to teach it to
their home group members. Teaching means explaining in their own words; it does not mean
74
reading aloud from the fact sheets. Using mind maps or other graphic organisers might help. The
expert groups should also rehearse the presentations that they will do when they return to their
home groups. Rehearsal includes keeping to time limits.
3. Students return to their home groups and take turns teaching their groupmates about their piece of
the Jigsaw puzzle. Groupmates act as timekeepers, ask questions, add information, praise and
thank the presenters, etc.
4. Students take an individual quiz that includes all three of the Jigsaw pieces. Alternatively, each
group can do a task which uses information and insights from each expert group.
Variations
a. Rather than instructors providing the information students teach each other, students can do
research to gather the necessary information. This is known as Bring Your Own Piece (BYOP)
Jigsaw. To assist learners in this gathering, instructors can suggest websites and other sources, as
well as listening in on groups as they prepare to teach and when they do their presentations.
b. The four steps of Jigsaw as presented above is known as Jigsaw I. In Jigsaw I, each student
receives only one piece of the Jigsaw puzzle and must rely on their home group members to teach
them the other pieces. However, sometimes, it may be difficult for learners to understand their own
piece if they have not read the other pieces. Also, sometimes, home group members may not do a
fantastic job of teaching their pieces. Jigsaw II addresses these issues. In Jigsaw II, all students
receive or research all the pieces, but in their expert groups, they become experts in only one
piece and then teach that piece when they return to their home group.
Jigsaw and Cooperative Learning Principles
Jigsaw, like other cooperative learning techniques, brings to life a number of cooperative learning
principles. Some of those principles are discussed below.
The form of positive interdependence most apparent in Jigsaw is resource positive interdependence,
as each home group member has unique information that they learned from the instructor, found via
their own research and/or developed via discussion with their expert group members and the
instructor. Everyone needs to share this learning with their home group members in order for the
home group to reach its goal of learning all the Jigsaw pieces, as well as seeing the bigger picture
formed when all the pieces come together.
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Because in Jigsaw, each learner has to teach their individual piece to groupmates, the technique
also promotes the cooperative learning principle of individual accountability, as everyone depends
on everyone else to do their fair share by teaching their piece to their home group. Jigsaw also
strengthens individual accountability, because in the final step of the technique, each person works
alone to take a quiz involving information from all the pieces their group studied and taught each
other.
At the same time that Jigsaw promotes individual accountability, as explained above, Jigsaw also
facilitates the cooperative learning principle of equal opportunity to participate because groupmates
need to give each group member their fair share of air time in order to learn about their pieces. Even
when Jigsaw II is used, and everyone has all the pieces, thanks to the expert group experience, each
home group member becomes an expert in one of the pieces, thereby giving them expertise that
fellow home group members will value.
A fourth cooperative learning principle facilitated by Jigsaw is maximum peer interactions which, you
will recall, has two aspects. First, maximum quantity of peer interactions means that multiple peer
interactions happen at the same time. This multiplicity of simultaneous peer interactions contrasts
with the situation in the current scenario in which each group presented one-at-a-time to the entire
class, meaning that only one student at a time spoke. These peer interactions take place in home
groups and expert groups.
The second meaning of maximum peer interactions has to do with the quality of the interactions
among learners. Jigsaw boosts these interactions in at least two ways: in their expert groups,
learners need to identify key points in their subtopics to present to home group members and decide
how to present those points in a useful manner; when students present to their home groups,
maximum quality of peer interactions can also involve the questions and other feedback given by
groupmates, as the questions, disagreements, additions, etc. can spark deeper thinking and
learning.
One more cooperative learning principle deserves mention with regard to this specific scenario. That
principle is heterogeneous grouping, which involves forming groups in which members differ in
various ways. For this scenario, a key difference was the amount of previous experience learners had
in healthcare contexts, as such experience provided crucial background for understanding the
information to be learned in the lesson. Thus, in this case, it might be useful to form home groups
76
who are mixed in terms of past experience working in healthcare. Other variables might also be
considered depending on who the learners are, as a key goal of heterogeneous grouping involves
creating small groups that mirror the diversity which exists in the overall class.
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SCENARIO 15 LACK OF SHARING

Azkiah Binte Abdul Jabbar
Scenario
Although clinical education in nursing is a complex and

unpredictable learning environment, this environment offers
students a valuable opportunity to combine their theoretical
knowledge with practical knowledge, as well as psychological
and psychomotor skills that are essential for patient care. Despite
these benefits, one issue with this unpredictable environment is
that not all students will have the same exposure to patients'
diagnoses. For instance, student A in Room 25 may encounter
patients with lower limb gangrene, peripheral vascular disease
and diabetic foot ulcer, while student B in Room 26 may
encounter patients with pancreatic cancer, liver cirrhosis and
gallstones. This means that students may only learn the care of
patients with the diagnoses that they encounter, potentially
missing out on other valuable learning experiences. The quality
of learning may also vary depending on the proactive efforts of
each student to share and to ask peers to share. Unfortunately,
little sharing takes place among this particular class.
78

There are varying degrees of proactivity among interns when it comes to seeking out skills,
knowledge and learning opportunities. Some rely solely on their own experiences, while others
actively seek guidance and knowledge from their clinical nurses and instructors, as well as
encouraging sharing among peers. Those who are proactive in asking for help tend to have better
outcomes. On the other hand, less proactive students may struggle due to inadequate readiness,
which might stem from lack of knowledge, practical skills, or communication skills. This second group
of students may find patient care even more challenging than it already is, have difficulty performing
certain procedures and struggle to express their learning needs effectively.
SOLUTIONS
Group activities have been found to positively impact the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Cooperative Dialog Journals
Journals, also known as dialog journals and reflection journals, are a common tool for encouraging
students to recall and think about their learning experiences, as well as to interact and share with
others about those experiences. However, a problem arises because too often that interaction takes
place only between instructors and individual learners, rather than students also interacting with
peers. This is yet another example of ‘the rich get richer’ consequences of teacher-fronted
instruction, with instructors (who are already rich in knowledge and experience) rather than peers
(who are relatively poor in knowledge and experience) learning from the students’ experiences.
Furthermore, the traditional use of dialog journals reinforces the all-too-common view that teachers
are the only people with whom students can have valuable interactions.
Cooperative learning offers many ways for students to share their journal entries with each other and
provide each other with feedback. First, here are some basic rules of journaling:
1. When students write journal entries, they should focus on ideas, rather than on grammar, spelling,
punctuation and other surface matters. Yes, these other matters have importance, but they are of
much lower priority.
2. Journal entries should be reader-friendly, meaning that writers try to put themselves in readers’
shoes and explain any situations, terms, etc. that readers might not know. Such explanations are
particularly important when dealing with health information.
3. The writing principle of 'Show, not tell' should be used. This means that situations should be
described in a manner that helps readers 'see' the same scene that the writers saw. For example,
instead of writing, 'The wound was a mess', which would be telling, writers should show by
describing the wound, e.g., The wound was round, about 3cm in diameter, just above the back of
the patient’s left wrist. White pus covered the left third of the wound, whereas the surrounding site
79
of the wound was fairly dry and faint red in colour. The physician was notified and oral tablets of
Doxycycline (an antibiotic)100 mg twice a day were prescribed.
4. Journals can also include personal background and that way, they help instructors and students to
get to know each other, rather than focusing solely on course content.
5. Instructors can also write journal entries and share them with learners.
Using dialog journals to promote peer interaction has at least three advantages. First, peers offer an
additional audience for students’ journal writing. Having a larger audience may motivate students to
write more words, write more often and write more clearly. Another point related to the audience is
that one teacher may not have opportunities to provide students with timely feedback on their journal
entries. That should be less of a problem for fellow students who only need to give feedback on
groupmates’ entries, rather than the entries of an entire class. Second, students can learn from each
other’s dialog journals. Third, journals can serve as a starting point for more ongoing interaction
among peers. For example, after reading a groupmate’s dialog journal entry about helping a patient
with a diabetic foot ulcer, a learner who knows little about this issue could ask for more information
from their groupmate.
Student interaction around dialog journals can be organised in a number of ways. The following
principles will be useful regardless of how the peer interaction takes place.
1. Feedback should focus on ideas, not on grammar or other surface matters.
2. Remember that these journals are called dialog journals and reflection journals. Feedback can
promote both of these aims. For example, to encourage further dialog, students can ask questions,
in writing or orally, that ask for further information. To encourage reflection, student feedback can
ask about emotional reactions to experiences (such as surprises, disappointments or moments of
happiness) and about what might be done better the next time.
3. Feedback should include specific praise, e.g., ‘It was brave of you to ask the senior nurse when
you didn’t understand’.
In addition to written feedback on journal entries, students can do something similar to Circle of
Speakers (Scenario ?) in which groupmates take turns asking and commenting on each other’s
entries. Sometimes, online tools are used to facilitate feedback on journal entries from beyond
students’ groupmates. Of course, peer feedback on journals does not preclude feedback from
instructors. Indeed, some instructors report that interacting with learners via journals provides a way
to establish satisfying connections with them. This is just one more example of how cooperative
learning – in this case, in the form of student feedback on journal entries – can fit well with
student-instructor interaction.
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SCENARIO 16 SELF-SELECTED GROUPS FUNCTIONING

POORLY
Scenario
For their clinical placement, 16 Year 2 nursing students are

attached to a community care setting for a week. After the
placement, when the nursing students return to class, they are
tasked to present a learning topic in their respective groups
related to the clinical posting. They are allowed to do
self-grouping into foursomes. One self-selected group consists of
four good friends who are often seen together in academic and
social settings. Unfortunately, these friends tend not to be very
studious, especially when they are together. As a result, the
interaction in this group is often off-task. While the other three
foursomes produce quality work, this group’s work is put together
in a slipshod manner, contributing little to the group members’
understanding or to that of the class as a whole.
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Here are two possible reasons why this particular self-selected group functioned poorly. First,
students with similar study habits gravitate towards each other. Not surprisingly, these same students
are often friends and feel comfortable with each other. In this scenario, the clinical instructor
empowered the nursing students to form self-selected groups, so that they could feel comfortable
supporting one another when encountering difficulties. Unfortunately, this comfort did not translate
into on-task behavior.
Secondly, there was a lack of responsibility in the group featured in this scenario. The social element
that cooperative learning brings adds importantly to the learning atmosphere. We humans are social
animals who need interaction to feel whole. However, this group had too much social interaction and
too little learning interaction. Group members need to have a sense of purpose or role in groups to
feel motivated to contribute to their group meeting its learning goals. Therefore, groups can add
motivation, because people are learning and doing not only for themselves but also for their group.
However, for the group in this scenario, the learning goals came in a distant second place compared
to social goals.
SOLUTIONS
Heterogeneous grouping is a cooperative learning principle that suggests students should often, but
not always, be in groups where at least some of the other members are from different backgrounds,
including being different in terms of studiousness. Overall, advantages of heterogeneous grouping
include:
a. Provides role models for students who may lack necessary academic skills and attitudes.
b. Builds confidence in being able to work with people different from oneself.
c. Offers the potential for building friendship with people from different backgrounds, thereby
expanding students’ friendship circles.
d. Presents a model of a diverse society in which people respect others and everyone benefits from
collaboration.
e. Encourages peer tutoring when people with different experiences and knowledge work together.
f. Prepares nurses or anyone to work with patients / customers, etc. from different backgrounds.
g. Makes the world a friendlier, less lonely place when people know others from diverse settings.
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While heterogeneous grouping widens students’ circle of colleagues and possible friends,
homogeneous grouping makes it more likely that students’ circle will remain relatively narrow.
Nonetheless, homogeneous grouping may sometimes be appropriate in the short term. Here are two
examples.
1. If a new person joins a class, it may help them adjust to be in a group with someone they already
know and/or someone with whom they share similar background.
2. If a similarity in a group is the basis of an upcoming presentation, e.g., perhaps a group of nurses
from China could cooperate on a presentation about the public health context in their country.
While heterogeneous grouping is often done by instructors assigning students to groups based on
the information instructors have about the background of students in the class, students can also be
involved in deciding on group membership. For example, one instructor at a junior college in
Singapore asked all his students to do the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (a personality profiling
instrument). Then, students formed their own groups that were mixed as to personalities. A similar
student-led process can be used based on other factors on which students may differ. Thus,
student-selected groups need not always result in homogeneous groups.
7S
It should also be noted that groups need not stay together for a long time. Also, even when students
remain with the same group for a period of months, often short-term groupings can also be used. An
example of a cooperative learning technique in which students change groupmates is 7S. Here are
the seven steps in that technique.
1. Stand – Everyone stands up.
2. Slide – They slide their chair under their desk to provide more space for moving around later on.
3. Stretch – Students do some light stretching to release tightness from possibly sitting a long time.
4. Sip – Everyone takes a sip of water, as being hydrated helps thinking.
5. Stir – Students walk around the round on their own, rather than with their groupmates.
6. Stop – When the signal is given, everyone stops walking and forms a pair with the person from
another group who is closest.
7. Speak – With that person, they discuss the topic that the class has chosen.
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Variations
a. 7S can be repeated. After the first round, during the Speak step, students can share what was said
with earlier partners.
b. To make the Stir step more fun, students can walk in unusual ways, such as imitating particular
animals.
A final word on heterogenous grouping comes from the philosopher and poet Rabindranath Tagore of
the late 19th and early 20th century:
Let us unite, not in spite of our differences, but through them. For differences can never be wiped
away, and life would be so much the poorer without them. Let all human races keep their own
personalities, and yet come together, not in a uniformity that is dead, but in a unity that is living.
In other words, the goal of heterogeneous grouping does not lie in washing away differences
between students, but in privileging students to learn about differences, to appreciate differences
and to gain skill at navigating differences in pursuit of common goals.
The cooperative learning principle of positive interdependence can enhance group functioning,
because the principle focuses on motivation. Just as the motto of the Three Musketeers was 'All for
one and one for all’, when students feel positively interdependent with groupmates, they are willing to
work hard so that their group can reach its goals. For example, a group goal might be that everyone
in the group acquires a particular skill, such as doing injections. Or, a goal might be that they acquire
particular knowledge, such as everyone scoring at least 80% on a quiz about injections.
One potentially confusing concept about cooperative learning involves the fact that although
students are working in a group, the group’s goals target the status of the individual group members.
For example, if the group’s task is to conduct and write-up an experiment, even if the experiment is
superbly conducted, and the research report is well-written, the group’s task is not completed until
each and every group member has increased their ability to conduct research and write up their
research.
Thus, the group needs what in Malaysia and Singapore is called the 'kampung spirit'. A kampung is a
small village in which everyone looks out for everyone else. If one person or family has a problem, it
is everyone’s problem, and if a person or family has a success, it is everyone’s success. Growing this
kampung spirit inside a group is one reason that the main group to which students belong should
stay together for more than just one activity.
At the same time that positive interdependence encourages everyone to help their groupmates, the
cooperative learning principle of cooperation as a value seeks to spread the ‘all for one and one for
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all' feeling and 'kampung spirit' throughout the class and beyond. Relating back to the current
scenario, the hope is that all groups will be motivated to contribute to their class by building
everyone’s knowledge and skills. Furthermore, in this way, the class members will be better able to
contribute to the wider society.
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SCENARIO 17 INADEQUATE PEER ASSESSMENT

Yeo Chuan Hui Sharon
Scenario
A pair of nursing students are given two separate topics to teach

as part of caregiver education. Each teaches the caregivers
about one topic and acts as peer assessor when their partner is
teaching. Student A is teaching caregivers about fever
management for a child, with Student B acting as peer assessor.
Student B teaches caregivers about nursing management of
gastro-oesophageal reflux (GER) for an infant with regurgitation,
with Student A acting as peer assessor.
The students have some prior knowledge on the relevant clinical

signs and symptoms and medical conditions, as these are in the
nursing curriculum. Also, they have ten minutes before their
presentations to look for resources on the internet. Previous
guidance about peer assessment includes the peer assessor (a)
praising specific good points in the teaching and explaining why
they were good; (b) asking questions to clarify; (c) checking
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understanding of the information shared; (d) summarising the information given at the end of the
health education session.
Unfortunately, Student B leaves some important information out of her presentation, such as that
regurgitation is normal in babies less than six months old. The peer assessor does not catch these
omissions. Also, when Student A praises her partner, she does not give specific praise. Instead, she
only says, ‘Well done’.

Two of the challenges of peer assessment are (a) lack of content expertise and (b) lack of feedback
skills to critique peer’s work. Furthermore, students often express reluctance to criticize their peer’s
work. In general, students feel that only their teachers/instructors are qualified to give feedback. Or,
students feel that feedback is not their job. They believe that responsible, hard-working teachers will
give feedback.
SOLUTIONS
Students Learn to Appreciate Peer Feedback
Yes, teachers generally know more than students and have much more experience giving feedback.
However, students should understand that feedback can have three forms: teacher feedback, peer
feedback and self feedback. All three forms of feedback can be useful in the same activity. Thus,
peer feedback is not instead of teacher feedback; it is in addition to teacher feedback.
Furthermore, from the perspective of lifelong learning, of the three forms of feedback, teacher
feedback seems to be the least long term, because teachers, supervisors etc. are only available in
certain areas and times of people’s lives, and the ratio of students to teachers, nurses to nursing
supervisors, etc. is often a high one. In contrast, for self feedback, the ratio is one to one, and for
peer feedback, people often have many peers. One useful term for how students view peer feedback
is that of ‘critical friend’, with ‘friend’ being the most important of the two words in the term, with
‘critical’ including constructive criticism. What a joy, what a support it is to have a critical friend,
somewhat upon whom we can depend to ‘tell it like it is’ and at the same time to always ‘have our
back’.
Learning To Give and Receive Peer Feedback
However, four questions about peer feedback are:
a. Are peers willing to offer feedback?
b. Are people willing to accept peer feedback?
c. Do peers know how to give feedback?
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d. Do people know how to receive peer feedback?
One solution involves introducing peer review opportunities and guidance on how to give and receive
peer feedback early in nursing programmes. The absence of formal training on peer assessment
results in students not equipped with the best practices to provide accurate and supportive
feedback. In the current scenario, only brief instruction about peer assessment has been given to the
students.
Rubrics to Guide Feedback
Rubrics assist students to internalize performance standards. In this way, rubrics enable students to
better prepare their work, because they know the keys to a good performance. Also, thanks to
rubrics, students who will be giving feedback have a structure to follow. Yes, they can comment on
matters not in the rubric, but their focus flows from the rubric. Of course, teachers need to be
available to support students as they give and receive peer feedback.
Rubrics should include:
a. The purpose of the peer feedback, its rationale and expectations
b. Highlighting that assessment is formative, i.e., a measure of progress; assessment is not an

evaluation of the quality or character of the person being assessed
c. Student involvement in developing and clarifying assessment criteria, with these criteria explicitly
linked to the course objectives
d. Inclusion only of some key points for peer feedback, with other points reviewed only by teachers
e. A balance of positive feedback, along with areas for improvement, whereas too often, students
believe feedback focuses only on weaknesses
f. Training in using the rubric, such as the class using the rubric together on a specially simulated
performance.
Graded Peer Feedback?
Most educators agree with the use of peer feedback. However, more controversy may be generated
by proposals to involve students in grading each other. Such peer involvement in grading can take
such forms as:
a. When a group works on a project, groupmates can give input on whether each person gave their
all to the project. For example, if the group scored 80% for their project, group members whom
peers rate as giving their all to the project receive a score of 80, i.e., the top possible score for a
member of their group, for the project. However, if for another group member, peers say that
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person only made a 50% effort, their grade is 40. Ratings should be accompanied by examples to
increase their validity.
b. When students work on tasks with right or wrong answers, the class can first work on an answer
key, and then students use the answer key to grade peers’ work, thereby saving teachers from a
lot of busy work and significantly speeding up the grading process.
c. Hybrid grading can be used when students’ grades consist of a combination of the grades given
by teachers and the grades given by peers. Peers’ grading should include a rationale, and peers’
rationales can themselves be graded, in order to encourage well-reasoned grades and to reduce
possible subjectivity.
Students Preparing Each Other for Assessments
In this scenario, students can use the cooperative learning technique Exchange-A-Question to
prepare each other for assessments. The following represents one way to do Exchange-A-Question.
1. In twosomes, students work alone to write questions for their partner. Before writing questions, the
class can discuss types of questions, such as thinking questions, including the types of questions
that appear on exams or other assessments. Examples of possible questions for the two topics in
the current scenario are 'At what body temperature, do we perform tepid sponging for a child?',
'Which body areas do we pay attention to during tepid sponging and why?' and 'Why do we place
infants’ head and upper chest higher than the level of their stomach after milk feeds?'
2. Students also write answers to the questions they created for their partner. Writing answers helps
students check their questions for clarity and doability.
3. Students exchange questions, but not answers, with their partner. They answer each other’s
questions and then compare answers.
4. Other pairs can become involved in sharing and discussing questions and answers.
Teachers can assist students’ use of Exchange-A-Question by providing or referring students to

resources, e.g., in this case, education pamphlets provided by hospitals on the topics they will later
be teaching to caregivers.
Variations
a. Students and teachers can share with the entire class some of the questions that students wrote
for each other. They could even be used on exams or other assessments.
b. Rather than learning in pairs, students can do Exchange-A-Question in foursomes with each pair
developing questions for the other pair. How can individual accountability be promoted in this
version of Exchange-A-Question?
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SCENARIO 18 LACK OF ROLE VARIETY

Ram Das Raja Rajeswari
Scenario
A lecturer assigns group projects to her class of 20 students at

the start of the year. The class is divided into four groups of five
students each. Each group member is given a permanent role by
the lecturer – researcher, writer, designer, editor and presenter.
The researcher is responsible for finding and compiling
information, the writer for building the presentation’s content
based on the research, the designer for creating visuals to
accompany the presentation, the editor for proofreading the
slides in the presentation and the presenter for delivering the
presentation to the class. Every time the groups do projects, the
roles remain the same. Not all the members like this. For
instance, in one group, the member acting as editor reports
feeling bored and demoralized doing the edits all the time. He
also feeds back that the designer is only interested in his design
work and does not contribute content ideas.
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Working on projects as a group can be complicated and requires a great deal of organization and
skill to meet various goals, including the goals of creating quality presentations, earning good
grades, all members learning in a variety of necessary knowledge and skill areas and, last but not
least, the group enjoying their time together. In the current scenario, the way that the projects are
organised conflicts with these goals in at least three ways. One, because each group member always
plays the same role, they do not expand their skill set very much, and only the researcher and writer
are centrally involved with the core knowledge of the presentation. Two, the grading system could
open the door to freeloading in which some members do not do their fair share, because each group
member’s contribution is not assessed (more on grading in Scenario 19). Third, nothing is in place to
encourage group members to interact about the presentation. Instead, the group could work
sequentially, with each person doing their part and then passing their work to the next member for
them to perform their designated task.
SOLUTIONS
Let’s look at how these problems might be addressed.
Roles
Many ways exist to facilitate the feeling of positive interdependence among group members, i.e., the
feeling that all the members’ outcomes are positively correlated. One way to promote positive
interdependence involves each person having a unique role to play to enable the group to achieve its
goals. In the current scenario, roles were researcher, writer, designer, editor and presenter. Some of
the many other possible roles include:
1. Facilitator - encourages everyone to participate, creates a roster listing who should do what by
when and gently reminds members of their obligations.
2. Praiser - highlights specifics about what groupmates have done well, in hopes that they will
continue to do the same and that others, including the praiser, will act similarly.
3. Questioner - raises questions to encourage groupmates to think more deeply about what they have
done and plan on doing; questioners can also point out possible errors / weaknesses in the
group’s plans.
4. Materials handler - finds and manages the materials needed in some projects, although as this role
probably involves little learning, whoever is materials handler might need an additional role.
5. Language captain - encourages members to use the language that the group decides to use, e.g.,
a group of students in the Philippines who are studying Korean might want to encourage each
other to, most of the time, speak Korean in their group)
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6. Refreshment provider - provides refreshments for the group, as they may be spending long hours
on their project; this role can be played by many members simultaneously, a bit like in a potluck
spread of food and drink.
A few points can be useful when roles are used.
a. Avoid one person too often doing menial roles. As mentioned above, material manager is an
important role, but the student who only performs that role may not learn much.
b. The person in each group who is best at a particular role should not do that role; instead, they
should coach their groupmates. For example, the best presenter in the group should not present;
instead, they should help all their groupmates to become better presenters. This is a key difference
between a work setting and a learning setting. When a group is working at a company, etc., the
emphasis lies on doing tasks as well and as quickly as possible. Therefore, the person who is best
at a task usually does that task, even if such priorities mean that that person does the same task
again and again, and no one else ever does it. In contrast, when learning is prioritised – whether at
a school or at workplaces where a professional development workshop is conducted - everyone
should learn to do all the roles, and to do that learning, they should have many opportunities to
perform each role.
c. Roles should rotate so that everyone can improve in their ability to do all the roles. Furthermore, the
group might decide to introduce new roles or to modify existing roles.
d. While one person may, in a rotating manner, be in charge of a specific role, groupmates should
look for opportunities to assist. For instance, everyone can interact on the research, even though
the person who, at this time, is the designated researcher will do research on their own as well as
curating the research the groupmates have done. In other words, no one should adopt an 'It’s not
my department' attitude; instead, the attitude should be 'All hands on deck'. To use a proverb,
'Many hands make light the work', with ‘light’ having the double meaning of ‘easier’ and ‘more fun’,
i.e., ‘light-hearted’ and to extend the proverb, 'Many hands make (more) right the work', as two,
three or four heads are better than one.
e. Information gaps exist where one or more group members have unique information that others
need for the group to complete its task. For example, if in a pair, the task is to create a table listing
both group members’ experiences with and feelings about a particular skill, an information gap
exists, because the only way for each person to know the required information is to ask their
partner. Information gaps give each person the rotating roles of information requester and
information supplier.
f. Points b and c need emphasising. So many times during group activities students seek out their
comfort zone and are very reluctant to budge. Educators have a major role to play here. For
example, educators need to help students learn to coach their peers. This is a crucial life skill, e.g.,
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older family members coach children, and, in a company or other organisation, more senior staff
often need to coach their juniors. Additionally, educators need to monitor the interaction in groups
and to be ready to intervene softly or otherwise.
Everyone Can Explain
The cooperative learning technique Everyone Can Explain is described in this book’s introduction.
One way to vary the technique involves students taking on different roles. But first, here again are the
basic steps in Everyone Can Explain.
1. Students form groups of 2, 3 or 4 members. [If there are more roles than members, perhaps
students can play multiple roles.]
2. Students work alone to develop responses to question(s)/task(s).
3. They share responses with groupmates and attempt to agree on a shared response, plus
explanations of the reasoning behind the response. If not everyone agrees, no worries.
4. Students help each other practice sharing their group’s response(s) and accompanying
explanations.
5. One member is selected at random to share on behalf of their group.
A variety of roles could be used at various steps in Everyone Can Explain. For example, in Step 2,
before students work along on the questions/tasks they are undertaking, useful roles might be
brainstormer, throwing out ideas for responses and explanations, and questioner, asking questions
about any terms or concepts that might not be clear. In Step 3, useful roles include devil’s advocate,
disagreeing in order to encourage deeper thinking, and consensus-builder, finding ways for the
group to come to reach a consensus if members have different responses and/or explanations.
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SCENARIO 19 COMPLAINTS ABOUT GRADES

Scenario
Students are doing projects in groups. Each group receives one

grade, and that is the grade for all the group members, rather
than members being graded individually. The grade the group
receives is based solely on the quality of the presentation. This
group grading - although favored by some experts on group
activities - has led to complaints about fairness from some class
members.

Some students prefer group grades, although sometimes these
may be the students who, for whatever reason, do not contribute
much to their group. Other students worry that their grades will
suffer due to underperforming groupmates. Perhaps, the grading
options were not discussed by the class; they were dictated by
the teacher or by the educational institution. Students had no
voice in the decision and the reasoning behind one grade for the
entire group was not explained to the class.
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SOLUTIONS
Grading Groups
In the current scenario, all group members receiving the same grade led to some discontent. At least
four possibilities exist as to grades for groups: same grade for everyone; individual grade for
everyone; combination of group and individual grade and no grade. Each possibility has pros and
cons. Also, context plays an important role, and each possibility can be used with the same group of
students at different times, just as different types of assessment can be used at different times.
Same grade for everyone
If everyone in a group receives the same grade, this may encourage all group members to help each
other, because the group members sink or swim together in terms of the grade. In cooperative
learning jargon, this constitutes celebration / reward positive interdependence. Same grade for
everyone did not seem to be working in the current scenario. However, it could be argued that this
kind of sink-or-swim-together situation is the norm in many areas of life, such as in sport teams,
orchestras, families and start-up companies. For example, in a basketball game, one team wins and
the other team loses, regardless of individual players’ contributions to their team’s result. Similarly, if a
start-up company goes bankrupt, usually everyone is out of work.
Thus, students have to learn how to cope in sink-or-swim-together contexts, as they are likely to face
them throughout their lives. For example, an important cooperative skill involves motivating
groupmates to do their fair share and understanding the obstacles that may be standing in the way.
Another cooperative skill involves working with groupmates to build their confidence and
competence. One more point about giving one grade to the entire group is that it is easier for
instructors, in contrast with having to decipher each member’s contribution to their group..
Individual grade for everyone
Some people would argue that the fairest method of grading is to give each group member an
individual grade. For example, with group grades, two people in two different groups who match
exactly as to knowledge, skill and effort might receive different grades because of their groupmates.
However, the potential negative impacts of individual grades include that students have less
motivation to teach and otherwise help groupmates. Plus, how can instructors know how much each
person contributed to their group? This latter issue can be partly addressed by involving students in
grading groupmates, but this solution comes with its own set of issues.
Combination of group and individual grade
A method of meshing the benefits of group and individual grading is to combine the two. A simple
means of coming up with a grade that mixes group and individual elements gives each student a
grade that combines assessment of their individual work with assessment of the overall group
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product. An example would be to give the designer of the group’s presentation a grade for the look of
the presentation slides and anything else they designed and combine that with their group’s overall
project grade. The mix could be 50-50, group and individual, or other combinations could be used.
Instructors might want to consult the class when deciding on the mix.
No grade
At best, grades are a necessary evil in education, as they can motivate students. Yes, grades can
motivate students, but it is extrinsic motivation, which might detract from students’ enjoyment of
learning, thereby weakening their development as lifelong learners who thrive on intrinsic motivation.
While the impact of grades has long been debated, perhaps everyone can agree that not everything
students do must be graded. Indeed, group activities generally can be viewed as preparation – as a
kind of scaffolding – for students later doing similar tasks on their own perhaps for a grade.
Furthermore, grades are not the only form of assessment. Students can be assessed, thereby
providing very useful information to students, teachers and other stakeholders, without connecting
that assessment to a grade. Additionally, some people might care less about grades and more about
what peers and teachers think about them. Thus, extrinsic motivation can be present even without
grades. Last but not least, self-assessment matters greatly for many people; they are their own
toughest assessors.
Group Projects
This scenario dealt with grading of group projects. Here are some points for educators to bear in
mind when facilitating these projects.
1. Remember the principle of group autonomy. In other words, just as each student should at first try
to stand on their own, although peers are available to help, so too should each group attempt to be
self-reliant, although teachers are available to help. Groups that strive to increase their level of
group autonomy might feel more comfortable about group grades.
2. Individual accountability constitutes another important principle when students do group projects.
The principle can be promoted by:
a. Groups create a roster that lists what each member should do and the date by which they
should do it. Of course, peers can help each other complete their rostered duties.
b. Each group member has a speaking part when students present about their project.
c. Each person writes a reflection during and / or after the project to discuss learning, group
functioning and applications of what was learned. These reflections can be preliminary to
group discussions.
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d. As mentioned above, students can assess each others’ contributions to the project. These
assessments might or might not be part of grading.
3. Many of the same strategies to promote individual accountability also promote equal opportunity to
participate. For instance, in point 2b above, each group member having a speaking part gives
everyone an opportunity to participate when the groups present their projects.
4. Grades are the most obvious way to encourage groupmates to feel positively interdependent with
each other. However, assessment need not involve grades. For example, group members can
assess their own project, including strengths and weaknesses, as well as ideas for improvements
the next time they undertake a group project.
5. The cooperative learning principle of maximum peer interactions also deserves attention when
students do group projects. One way to increase the quantity of peer interactions involves groups
presenting to groups, rather than the usual procedure in which each group takes a turn to present
to the entire class and the teacher.
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SCENARIO 20 TOO MANY TESTS

Scenario
A few outspoken Year 1 students state the following

dissatisfaction with their learning situation:
“In our business analytics class of 20, the lecturer has been
giving us weekly tests for the last 3 months. We always take
these tests alone and are given no time in class to study together
in preparation for them. The tests are supposed to make us
understand the subject better, but having so many of them is
causing some problems. For instance, some of us find it hard to
catch up, as we don’t understand some of the topics. We worry
that low scores on this mountain of tests will leave us deep in a
ravine of sadness and low grades. Many of us students feel
overwhelmed and burnt out, especially those of us getting low
scores on the tests. We need a better balance between learning
and testing. It would be great if the lecturer could rethink how
many tests we have and give us more time to really learn and
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think about the subject. It would be nice to have a more relaxed, experiential and thoughtful learning
experience and to get to know our classmates better, since we don’t know each other well.”

Motivating students is often difficult. Educators hope that students will be motivated by such forces
as the attraction and usefulness of the content being taught, the educator’s own personal link to
students, students’ good study habits or the quality of the presentation slides or other materials being
used. However, sometimes these are insufficient to engage students. Thus, many educators turn to
tests as a motivation tool, and, the thought goes, the more tests and the more the tests are worth
towards final grades, the more motivating tests will be. All this is not to mention the value of tests for
informing students and educators about students’ current level of progress.
SOLUTIONS
In education, many issues arise as to how and how often to assess, as well as the connection
between assessment and grading. The point we want to make in this scenario is that regardless of
what the students in this scenario manage to negotiate with their lecturer, regardless of whether
assessment is formative (used to guide future learning) or summative (used to assess past learning),
regardless of whether lower- or higher-order thinking is involved or the format of the tests, e.g.,
multiple choice, essays, short answers, adding group activities to the mix can help. In fact, a large
body of research, in many countries, in many subject areas, with learners of a wide range of ages,
associates cooperative learning with gains in cognitive (information, skills and types of thinking) and
affective (feelings and attitudes) variables. The remainder of this scenario highlights two ideas that
the students in the above scenario might be able to use to convince their lecturer to alter their
teaching method.
Overcoming Loneliness
People in many countries face what has been described as an ‘epidemic of loneliness’, with the
World Health Organisation calling loneliness ‘a global health concern’. Research links loneliness with
increased risk of dementia, coronary artery disease and substance abuse. When most people think
of loneliness, they picture older people stuck inside their homes without anyone to talk to. However,
contrary to this stereotype, youth too can suffer from loneliness. For instance, one study reported that
12% of adolescents in Africa feel lonely. This might seem strange, as youth are often surrounded by
schoolmates and family members.
Loneliness can be lessened by including cooperative learning as one way that students learn. When
students feel positively interdependent with each other, groupmates matter to and motivate each
other. If someone is not in class, they are missed, and their groupmates notice. If someone is
struggling with the curriculum or with personal matters, groupmates want to help, because what hurts
students’ groupmates hurts the students as well, and when students help groupmates, they help
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themselves, too. Therefore, groups help students belong, and belonging offers a powerful antidote
for loneliness.
One way to build positive interdependence among groupmates involves forming a common identity.
Gangs represent the use of a negative type of what in cooperative learning jargon is called identity
positive interdependence. Think about the different ways gangs build their identity, such as gang
names, symbols, handshakes, meeting places and acts of solidarity. Can these same strategies be
used positively to develop solidarity among the members of groups focused on pro-social tasks? Can
solidarity among group members be as powerful a study motivator as tests?
Group Tests
Tests can be enlivened and student results improved when a peer interaction element is added. This
peer interaction element can be done in many ways. Of course, the standard way involves students
studying in groups before taking the tests individually. In addition to studying together in class,
students can also take part in OCAC (Out of Class Academic Collaboration). OCAC can take place in
students’ homes, online, at coffee shops or wherever students feel comfortable and safe.
Various incentives can be added to this format, such as all group members can earn rewards, e.g.,
bonus points or recognition, if their group’s average score increases or if each member improves on
their past average (those who previously had perfect or near-perfect scores need only maintain their
average). The cooperative learning technique Exchange-A-Question (see Scenario 17) offers yet
another way to add a peer interaction aspect to test preparation.
More innovative approaches to adding peer interaction to testing involve students doing versions of
the same test twice, once as a group and once alone. [Please be reminded that two people
constitute a group.] The order of whether the first test is done in a group or alone can vary. In one
study, students overwhelmingly stated that they preferred inclusion of a group-testing element, in
particular, interaction with fellow students, opportunities to meet and socialise, exchanging
understanding and protocols, and developing feelings of solidarity.
This evidence seems to suggest the power of groups to improve students’ learning experience,
including their motivation. After all, we human beings are social animals. Cooperative learning allows
students to enjoy social experience while learning. In this way, students benefit cognitively as they
learn from, with and by teaching peers, and they benefit affectively as learning becomes a more
pleasant experience, a means of fending off loneliness, thanks to the social aspect that cooperative
learning adds. As the poet Byron wrote, 'All who joy would win must share it. Happiness was born a
twin’.
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SCENARIO 21 OVER-RELIANCE ON LEARNING FROM

TEACHERS
Jessica Raffaelia Pereira
Scenario
In nursing education, lecturers regularly meet with recurring

queries from different consultation groups every two weeks
throughout the semester. This cyclic pattern necessitates
educators to invest significant time reiterating content, given the
shared thematic questions. This redundancy poses a challenge
in optimizing educators’ time and resources. Conversely, certain
groups that may not have these questions forego valuable
knowledge, emphasizing the need for strategic approaches to
minimize repetition. Addressing this challenge is crucial to
enhancing the efficiency and impact of consultation sessions,
ensuring that valuable insights are disseminated effectively as
well as to maximize lecturers’ time.
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The manifestation of this issue is possibly rooted in restricted inter-group interaction within the class.
Furthermore, in instances where groups are formed based on friendship, there is an inclination for the
continuity of the same group dynamics (Thanh & Gillies, 2010) until the end of the semester.
Consequently, such sustained group cohesion propagates the likelihood of homogenous mindsets
within the group, either pre-existing (Youyou et al., 2017) or evolving over the course of the academic
term.
SOLUTIONS
Many cooperative learning techniques encourage students to teach each other, rather than relying
exclusively on teaching by instructors. Here are three of them.
Tell/Guess
Scenario 22 tells about the Tell Family of cooperative learning techniques. Here is another family
member: Tell/Guess. Here, students take turns to quiz groupmates. One set of steps for Tell/Guess
could be:
1. The class works together to prepare quiz questions (with answers) for peers. Questions could also
come from teachers, course materials etc. Also, questions could have a variety of sources.
Questions and answers can be put on flash cards.
2. Students form pairs and take turns to play the roles of Teller and Guessers. Both the Teller and the
Guesser are encouraged to elaborate on the answers, e.g., they can share other information they
know about the topic.
Variations
a. After playing one round, students can change partners and play again, including sharing
elaborations they developed with their first partner.
b. Students can write down their elaborations and later do research to learn more on topics that
particularly interest them.
Gallery Walk
Gallery Walk, also called Gallery Tour, is a well-known cooperative learning technique in which
learners work in groups to share information with peers. A possible set of steps are:
1. Students work in groups to study a topic. Then, they make a poster to use to share what they
learned with peers.
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2. Group members rehearse using their poster to tell about their topic. The class decides how long
each presentation should be. Groups put their posters on the walls around the room.
3. Each group divides in half. One half stand next to their poster and take turns to present their topic;
the other half of the group members walk around, view other groups’ posters, listen to their
presentations, ask questions, make comments and praise the presenters.
4. Roles reverse, and those who earlier presented their posters now travel together to visit other
groups’ posters.
Variations
a. Students can make quiz questions based on their posters.
b. Instead of students standing next to their poster and presenting about their topics, posters can be
unstaffed, with visitors looking at posters and using post-it notes etc. to leave feedback. Later,
groups can view the feedback their posters received.
c. Online versions of Gallery Walk can also be done, e.g., with groups preparing websites, doing
podcasts and using software such as Padlet.
K-W-L-S
K-W-L-S are the initials of a cooperative learning reading technique. This technique was built from a
reading strategy that students usually performed alone. That was called K-W-L. In the K step,
students write down what they already Know about the topic on which they will be reading. In the W
step, they write about what else they Want to know about the topic. The L step is where, after
reading, students record what they Learned about the topic from the reading. Therefore, readers do
the K and the W steps before reading, and the L step after reading. In later years, an S step was
added to K-W-L to create K-W-L-S, with the S standing for ‘Still want to know,’ in celebration of the
fact that learning is a life-long, ongoing process; the more we know, the more we want to know.
K-W-L-S was created as a teacher-led technique, with students working alone—which certainly has a
place in education. However, if you are reading this book, you, no doubt, believe that peer
interactions also have an essential role in learning. Thankfully, teachers and students can easily
convert K-W-L-S and almost any other technique from the mode of students-work-alone to the mode
of students-learn-together. Here is one set of possible steps for such a conversion of K-W-L-S.
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1. Students in groups of 3 make one K-W-L-S chart per group. A sample chart is pictured below.
What We STILL Want to

What We KNOW What We WANT to Know What We LEARNED
Learn
2. Groups write their topic in the blank space on top of the table. Then, they discuss what they
already Know about their topic and how they came to know it. For instance, maybe they learned it
from a class, a senior nurse, documentary, a website, or personal experiences. Discussing how to
gain knowledge prepares students for future learning. Next, one student has the rotating role of
writing what the group knows in the ‘Know’ column of the table.
3. The groups discuss what they Want to know on their topic and why they want to know it. The ‘Want
to know’ points go into the second column.
4. After the class has read about the topic, they discuss and then write in the L and S columns.
Reading material can be supplied by teachers or found by students. For the L column, they also
discuss how they learned this information, and for the S column, they discuss how they might learn
what they still want to know.
Variations
a. Every student can have their own table, but they only write in it after discussing with groupmates.
b. A ‘U’, for ‘Use’, can be added to the K-W-L-S table. This encourages students to consider how they
can apply their knowledge.
c. One group member can be chosen at random to share their group’s K-W-L-S-U table with another
group.
A pivotal strategy for facilitating information sharing among learners is the implementation of the
cooperative learning principle of heterogeneous grouping. By assembling groups that deviate from
the customary, students encounter classmates with diverse perspectives, fostering an exchange of
valuable insights. This approach not only stimulates diverse problem-solving approaches but also
mirrors real-world scenarios requiring collaboration in varied professional environments. Crucially,
heterogeneous grouping induces a departure from conventional cognitive frameworks, propelling
individuals to broaden their mental horizons. This not only cultivates adaptability but also nurtures a
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mindset conducive to navigating the complexities of diverse contexts, thereby enhancing students'
preparedness for multifaceted challenges in both academic and professional spheres.
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SCENARIO 22 GROUPTHINK
Scenario
A class of Year 3 nursing students, in groups of four, is

discussing the topic: ‘Fetal abnormality: Should abortion be
considered?’ During the discussion, some group members have
very strong opinions against aborting a fetus found with
abnormality. When other members try to share different views on
the subject, the members against abortion reject their views. As
the majority feel that abortion is immoral, and to avoid being seen
as immoral, as well as to avoid a long and heated argument /
discussion, the members with opposing opinions agree to
oppose aborting a fetus with abnormality. Unfortunately, this form
of groupthink – everyone going along with the loudest voices in a
group – greatly limits opportunities to dig deep into various
perspectives on a controversy. Plus, it sets a bad example as to
how to resolve conflicts.
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There are many reasons why people tend to conform to the opinions of others, leading to groupthink
(Lumbert, 2005).
1. Correctness: People strive for accuracy and may rely on social cues to understand
situations, especially when unsure of the right answer.
2. Social acceptance: The desire to belong and avoid rejection drives conformity, even in risky or
undesirable situations.
3. Group goals: Achieving shared objectives motivates individuals to align their behavior with the
group's norms.
4. Alignment with similar individuals: Identifying with an in-group and aligning with their norms fosters
a sense of belonging and can lead to bias against out-groups.
SOLUTIONS
Here are suggestions for lowering risk of groupthink (Van Bevel & Packer, 2021).
a. Group leaders (whether they are appointed or elected as leaders or are unofficial leaders) should
give their views last, rather than first, as others may tend to unthinkingly agree with leaders;
b. Promote the idea that ‘An enemy will agree, but a friend will disagree’, in order to highlight the
value of disagreement and to make including a range of perspectives as ‘standard operating
procedure’;
c. For a similar reason, include the role of devil’s advocate in each group to offer conflicting
perspectives, and to practice the cooperative skill of disagreeing politely;
d. Provide a safe space for input from all group members, perhaps by allowing for anonymous input;
e. Encourage groups to discuss how they function, including whether they have processes in place
to reduce groupthink (Johnson & Johnson, n.d.)；
f. Avoid an ‘echo chamber’ by facilitating students to interact, e.g., by going online, with a variety of
perspectives on the topic being discussed.
Cooperative learning techniques, such as Cooperative Debate (Johnson et al., 1996), and social
skills building activities, such as practicing paraphrasing and asking for elaborations, provide forums
for such possibly mind-opening interactions. The typical steps in Cooperative Debate are as follows.
1. The class decides on a topic to debate, perhaps a topic related to what they are studying.
Students form groups of four divided into twosomes: Pair A and Pair B. The topic is divided into
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opposing views. For example, the topic of vegetarianism can be divided into ‘Humans should not
eat other animals, such as chickens and fishes’, Position A, versus ‘It is fine for humans to eat other
animals’, Position B. In each foursome, one pair is assigned Position A, and the other pair is
assigned to Position B. They do not choose.
2. Pairs have time to prepare to present their assigned positions. They also divide the points among
their two group members, such that everyone will later speak for approximately the same amount
of time.
3. The two pairs in the foursome present to each other for an equal amount of time, as decided by the
class. Learners do not interrupt their peers’ presentations; they only take notes and serve as time
keepers for the other group.
4. Twosomes prepare to rebut points made by the other pair. They take turns to each rebut, followed
by open discussion. The cooperative skill of disagreeing politely is used.
5. Students switch positions. For instance, those who had been assigned to argue for vegetarianism
now prepare to argue against it. With their new position, learners repeat steps 2, 3 and 4.
6. Students remain in their groups of four, but they are no longer members of a pair, and they no
longer have an assigned position. Instead, they formulate their individual view of the topic being
debated and attempt to convince group members to agree with their view, which could be Position
A, Position B or a third view on the topic.
Variations
a. For Step 5, pairs can form foursomes with different pairs. For instance, the pair in one group who
argued for Position A during Steps 2-4 can form a group of four with a pair from another foursome
who had argued in favour of Position B.
b. The class can spend time practicing the skill of disagreeing politely. They can also discuss why the
skill is important, as well as situations in which the skill could be useful.
Interrupting Politely
From an early age, people may be taught that to interrupt others while they are talking is rude
(Boggard, 2017). However, when trying to avoid groupthink by stating a different view, sometimes
interruption is useful. The strategies suggested below allow for interruption to be done in a
considerate manner.
1. Ask for permission.
Explicitly ask permission to interrupt. This way the group member who is interrupting can gauge if it is
the right time. Asking permission also acknowledges that an interruption is being made, but it does
suggest that the member who is interrupting has been listening.
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2. Interrupt sparingly.
Announcing the interruption recognizes that it is being made and if used sparingly, such apologies
allow the member to speak.
3. Chime in with a relevant point.
Make sure that before the interruption is made the point that is going to be made is relevant to the
topic being discussed. Relevance avoids taking the discussion off track.
4. Lay ground rules from the beginning.
a. Sometimes, even when using points 1 to 3, an interruption is seen as impolite.
b. Therefore, it is helpful to set common expectations for how long people can hold the floor, and
whether and how interruptions can be made.
c. Understanding the preferences of the group members eases negative reactions to interruptions.
Phrases that can be used to politely interrupt someone during a discussion include the following
(Boggess, 2023).
1. ‘Could I please offer a different perspective?’
2. ‘I am sorry to interrupt but …’
3. ‘While we are on that topic …’
4. ‘Excuse me?’
5. ‘I think it’s worth mentioning …’
6. ‘Do you mind if I quickly share an idea?’
7. ‘Just to clarify, …’
Listening to Others
Groups often suffer from too many talkers and too few listeners. Groupthink and misunderstandings
bloom in such infertile ground. So, let's help students learn to listen! Eye contact, nods and
paraphrasing can be seeds of understanding and watering cans of effective communication (Jacobs
& Renandya, 2019). Tell/Paraphrase is a cooperative learning technique done in pairs that allow
students to practice paraphrasing. Because paraphrasing is not easy, it might be useful to spend
time on this vital skill before using the technique.
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Here is one set of steps for Tell/Paraphrase, a member of the TELL Family of cooperative learning
techniques.
1. Person A speaks, for example, ‘Hospitals should subsidize plant-based food to encourage patients
and staff to eat greener and healthier’. This is the Tell step.
2. Before their partner, Person B, can give their own view on the topic, first Person B paraphrases
what their partner, Person A, said, for example, ‘You believe that it is the duty of hospitals to charge
less for plant-based meals. The goal would be to make it easier for people in hospitals to eat diets
that are better for their health'. This is the Paraphrase step.
3. Person A checks the paraphrase, for example, ‘Thank you for listening carefully. Your paraphrase
is good, but you left out that plant-based diets are also better for the environment’.
4. Person B thanks their partner for the feedback, and now it is Person B’s time to state their view and
to be paraphrased by their partner.
Variations
Tell/Paraphrase is part of the much larger Tell/? family of cooperative learning techniques. Here are
some of the other members of that family. Plus, many others can be created.
a. Tell/Question - Person A tells Person B something; Person B asks a question about what Person A
stated; Person A answers the question; Person B tells Person A something; Person A asks a
question, etc.
b. Tell/Add - Person A tells something; Person B adds information and/or ideas; Person B tells
something; Person A adds information or ideas, etc.
c. Tell/Thank and Praise - Person B begins this time. They tell Person A something. Person A thanks
Person B and gives specific praise related to what Person B told them. Then, the process repeats
with A beginning.
The importance of praise being specific, e.g., saying, ‘Your story was good because you gave many
details so that I felt that I was in the room when the action was happening’, instead of merely saying
‘Good story!’ This point is illustrated in the novel What You Are Looking For Is In The Library when one
character, Nozomi, remembers a compliment she received from an elementary school special
education teacher more than 10 years earlier on a piece of writing she had done.
Ms Komachi happened to say something that really made a difference to me. She told me that a
reading report I’d done for summer-holiday homework was very interesting. … I knew she wasn’t lying
because she told me exactly which parts were good and why. It made me feel so good about myself
that every time I read a book after that, I wrote a report and gave it to Ms Komachi to look at.
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SCENARIO 23 TOO MUCH READING FOR STUDENTS

Woo Ming Wei, Jeffrey
Scenario
The instructor assigns nursing students to read about

atherosclerosis for their problem-based learning (PBL) lesson the
next day. PBL sees the lecturer serving as a facilitator while
students, working in groups, engage in self-directed learning that
includes the expectation that they will source out relevant
materials to read prior to the PBL lesson where they are
expected to address the problem upon which the lesson centres.
During the PBL activity, not all learners are well-prepared. As a

result, the instructor, who has long had doubts about the efficacy
of group activities, jumps to teacher-fronted mode and delivers a
long lecture on the content students are supposed to have read.
During debriefing, students explain their lack of preparation by
noting that there is too much content for them to read and digest
before class.
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There are several reasons for students’ lack of preparation and the instructor’s switch to
teacher-fronted mode.
Firstly, as to why not all students were well-prepared for the PBL classroom activities, PBL is
grounded on theories that seek to empower students by granting them control and responsibility over
their own learning. Nonetheless, this pedagogical approach needs to be used with care so as not to
be overly time-consuming for many students. Perhaps, students are not yet ready for the quantity and
comprehension level of the materials they need to digest before class.
Secondly, many educators have had negative experiences with groups, when they were students or
as educators. Thus, it is not surprising when educators lack confidence in group activities. However,
in some settings educators feel pressure to use group activities whether they want to or not. Often,
university professors, in keeping with various theories of education – as described in the Introduction
to this book – advocate to pre-service and in-service teachers for the use of groups. Some
administrators even specify that when they visit classrooms, they want to see students spending
some of their time interacting with peers. Furthermore, a great deal of research and teaching
materials support group activities as an important part of learning, not to mention colleagues’ and
students’ endorsement of groups.
The above notwithstanding, if any educators say that facilitating group activities is easy and trouble
free, either these educators have exceptional students, or they prefer to remember only their happy
experiences. Additionally, educators care deeply about their students’ learning, and if the
student-centred mode of instruction doesn’t seem to be working, a strong temptation arises to
abandon that mode, and switching to teacher-centred mode appears to be the only responsible
option. In some ways, teacher-centred is the easier mode, because in that mode, as long as the
teacher is prepared, the lesson can proceed. In contrast, in student-centred mode, such as with PBL,
an entire classroom of students need to be prepared for the lesson to proceed, and, in the present
scenario, such preparation is not universally present.
SOLUTIONS
Jigsaw
Cooperative learning (CL) can support PBL, because well-organised collaboration can ease
students’ burden and spark their thinking. Indeed, PBL harnesses the collaborative effort of all
students within their group to collectively understand and then analyze the given issue, followed by
creating and evaluating ideas to solve the assigned problem.
The Jigsaw cooperative learning technique (Scenarios 6 & 14) is compatible with PBL. In PBL,
Jigsaw involves grouping students and assigning each member to take charge of a specific subtopic
of the wider problem. This eases the burden on students, as they are only expected to study and
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teach selected materials to input their contribution. As such, Jigsaw enables students to develop a
stronger feeling of accountability for their own and others' learning. Jigsaw can be integrated with
PBL via the following six steps.
1. Students form Home Groups of approximately four members.
2. The educator presents the problem on which students will be working.
3. Each Home Group member receives (or searches for) different information related to the problem
the class is addressing. If students receive materials, they can also do additional research to learn
more.
4. Students leave their Home Group and come together with classmates who have the same piece of
the Jigsaw puzzle about the problem. This is their Expert Group (such groups should usually
consist of no more than four members). The Expert Groups’ dual tasks consist of (a) assisting all
their group members in understanding the materials they were given by the educator and found on
their own; (b) making a plan to teach that material to their Home Group members and checking
that all their Expert Group members are prepared to do that teaching.
5. Students exit the Expert Group and return to their Home Group. They take turns to share the
information learned in their Expert Group.
6. Each Home Group uses the combined information to solve the assigned PBL problem. Then, they
prepare a presentation based on their solutions. These can be presented to the entire class,
presented to other groups and/or sent to the educator. Additionally or alternatively, students can
take individual quizzes based on the information taught by all four of their Home Group members.
How might Jigsaw enhance students’ PBL experience? Firstly, students have less material to read /
view, because each student is only reading one quarter of the total amount of assigned / found
material. Also, if students have difficulty understanding anything in the material, they can ask other
members of their Expert Group for assistance. Secondly, students are reading / viewing to teach, as
they and their fellow Expert Group members need to be ready to teach when they return to their
Home Group. This kind of preparation may promote deeper understanding of the material.
Building Educator Confidence in Groups
Several ways exist to increase educators’ belief in the power of group activities. Firstly, group
activities can be used for workshops, etc. that educators attend. For instance, educators can
experience Jigsaw as learners at an in-service workshop on whatever topic. Experiencing (what is,
hopefully) cooperative learning as students may make educators more enthusiastic about their own
students sometimes doing groups. Secondly, educators who have more background in cooperative
learning and other tools for enhancing student-student interaction can coach fellow educators with
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less background. Such coaching could involve visiting each others’ classrooms and feedback and
questions about each other’s lesson plans.
Negotiated Syllabus
A third way to boost educator confidence in the efficacy of group activities could be to involve
students in decisions about how they learn via what is known as a negotiated syllabus, i.e., instead of
educators being the sole decision-makers as to what is studied and how it is to be studied, students
can also be consulted. Such consultation also provides opportunities to discuss not only the nuts and
bolts of cooperation, e.g., various cooperative learning techniques, but also some of the points listed
in the Philosophical Musings section of this book’s introduction, e.g., whether students feel that by
helping groupmates learn, they are also helping themselves learn. Fourthly, success heightens
confidence levels. Thus, it may be best if initial group activities involve tasks on which students are
likely to succeed. Once educators, as well as students, see groups working well, once they become
more comfortable with peer interactions, concerns may diminish.
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SCENARIO 24 STUDENTS SOCIALISING DURING

GROUP WORK
Iman A.A.
Scenario
During group activities, some groups are discussing topics that

are not related to the learning objectives. The educator finds it
challenging to monitor this, because when she is with one group,
she doesn’t know what the other groups are doing. In worst case
scenarios, some groups may use the collaborative setting as an
opportunity to gossip and ignore the learning tasks at hand,
altogether.
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Before considering causes of this problem, it should be stated that the problem of students being off
task is by no means unique to group activities. Indeed, students’ minds can wander to who knows
where any time during class, not to mention after class when homework is on the schedule. To be
honest, the authors of this book not infrequently face the same challenge of focusing our minds on
the task at hand. The difference between an individual’s mind wandering while sitting alone and the
minds of a group wandering while they are supposed to be engaged in a group task is only that the
sound of off-topic socialising of the group makes the lack of on-task focus more obvious and
potentially more distracting to others.
A short list of reasons for this off-task socialising includes:
a. Resistance to the course, course materials or the educator.
b. Materials that are too easy or too difficult or not engaging for other reasons.
c. Student prioritisation of topics other than those in today’s lesson.
d. Students’ felt need to engage in socialising and relaxation generally.
e. Lack of clear task description, such as time limits.
SOLUTIONS
One of the strengths of combining group activities with other modes of learning is that group activities
can balance social interaction and a focus on learning of content and skills, whereas the modes of
learning alone and learning from teacher-fronted instruction feature less social interaction. Clamping
down on social interaction completely may be counterproductive, because it might signal to students
that the teacher is anti-social and uncaring.
Below are three points in a lesson when various classroom management strategies could help
students remain on task during group activities.
Before Lesson
Structuring some ‘connection time’ at the start of the lesson, before launching into the learning
activities. Teachers may consider including a simple mood checker activity where students can
report their current mood using technology, or on the class’s noticeboard or to groupmates. This
mood checking can be combined with positive psychology, for example, students sharing with one or
more partners about one area in life that they are grateful for, e.g., the delicious mango they ate for a
snack before class.
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During Lesson
Incorporating structured peer interactions for learning tasks that are situated in students’ zone of
proximal development (ZPD), i.e., the area in which students’ background knowledge prepares them
to succeed, while still feeling challenged. According to Vygotsky’s ideas on the social nature of
learning, the ZPD refers to the difference between what learners can do without help and what they
can achieve with support and encouragement from one or more partners. These partners can be
teachers and groupmates, as well as classmates in other groups. Thus, groups help move tasks into
students’ ZPDs.
In the internet age, students with internet access have the good fortune of looking for support virtually
anywhere. One term for this is ‘communities of practice’, i.e., groups of people with similar interests.
Communities of practice are composed of experts, novices and everyone in between. More
conventionally, students should be confident that if they find themselves stuck after seeking help from
groupmates, classmates and others beyond their classroom, they are able to seek help from the
teacher. (See Scenario 8, for ideas on facilitating the cooperative learning principle of group
autonomy in which groupmates support and encourage each other, with educators watching in the
wings should additional help be needed.)
After Lesson
When students have finished a group activity, it can be useful for them to discuss how well their
group functioned. This fits with the cooperative learning principle of cooperative skills, as learning
how to enhance group function requires a crucial set of cooperative skills. Ideas from positive
psychology, which was mentioned earlier in this scenario, can be useful. Below please find two
post-lesson activities inspired by positive psychology.
Gratitude Journals
Scenario 15 discussed the use of journals as part of group activities. One type of journal, gratitude
journals, encourages students to consider what they feel grateful for. Expressing gratitude benefits
both those communicating gratitude and those to whom the gratitude is expressed. In the case of
group functioning, not only can groupmates be thanked but so can teachers – who facilitated the
group success, e.g., by providing examples of what groups might do – as well as people in other
groups who modelled effective peer interactions or lent support when a group faced difficulties.
Gratitude Objects
Praising others is both a cooperative skill as well as being a powerful tool for encouraging the use of
cooperative skills. Sadly, despite how seemingly easy it is to praise others, too often praise is in short
supply. Additionally, the best praise involves being specific with reasons and examples. For instance,
instead of one group member praising another by stating, ‘You’re a good groupmate’, it might be
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even better to say, ‘You’re a good groupmate, because you give reasons for your ideas, such in
today’s activity when you said that we should use add a bar chart to our presentation because
visuals help classmates understand our points better’.
Praise, as well as other types of feedback, often works best when given as soon as possible after the
act being praised took place. Thus, post-lesson discussions could work. Gratitude and praise fit
together well, and gratitude objects offer one way for that praise to stay in the minds of those
receiving the praise. A gratitude object can be anything, but it should be small with no sharp edges
so that recipients can easily carry their objects around with them, maybe even hanging the objects
from their bags. When students bestow gratitude objects onto each other, there needs to be specific
praise accompanying the objects. For instance, a student could say:
I’m giving you this gratitude object, because you are not afraid to tell others when you don’t
understand. It takes guts to admit you don’t know something. As Confucius said, ‘Real knowledge is
to know the extent of one’s ignorance’.
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REFERENCES
Philosophical Musings
Jacobs, G. M. (2013). Quotes on cooperative learning and education generally.

http://www.academia.edu/3460176/Quotes_about_cooperative_learning_and_education_ge
nerally
Kipling, R. (2024). If. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if
Webb, N. M., Franke, M. L., Ing, M., Turrou, A. C., Johnson, N. C., & Zimmerman, J. (2019).
Teacher practices that promote productive dialogue and learning in mathematics
classrooms. International Journal of Educational Research, 97, 176-186.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2017.07.009
Principles To Guide Group Activities
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Scenario 4 – Low Motivation
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the groups. Children's Health Care, 51(1), 20-36.

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Scenario 5 – Freeloaders 1
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talking circles promote engagement, social connectedness, and academic benefit. Active
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Behavioral Sciences, 93, 1433–1437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.05
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behaviour of minority members. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 20(3), 422–
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Scenario 7 – Excluded Group Members 1
Chacon, M., Levine, R. S., & Bintliff, A. (2023). Student perceptions: How virtual student-led
talking circles promote engagement, social connectedness, and academic benefit. Active
Learning in Higher Education, 146978742311792.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14697874231179238
Doolaard, F. T., Noordewier, M. K., Lelieveld, G. J., Van Beest, I., & Van Dijk, E. (2021). Go on
without me: When underperforming group members prefer to leave their group. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 95, 104158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104158
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Miminoshvili, M., & Černe, M. (2021). Workplace inclusion–exclusion and knowledge-hiding

behaviour of minority members. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 20(3), 422–
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Sripradith, R. (2019). An investigation of the round robin brainstorming in improving English

speaking ability among Nakhonphanom University's second year students in Thailand.
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Scenario 8 – Excluded Group Members 2
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Scenario 9 – Takeovers
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issues. Indonesia Journal of English Language Teaching, 12(2), 101-114.
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Scenario 10 – Loners
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Scenario 11 – Introverts and Extroverts
Cain, S. (2012). Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking. Random
House.
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Scenario 12 – Unequal Participation in Groups
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learning. In S. M. Brito (Ed.), Active learning: Beyond the future (pp. 59-62).
doi:10.5772/intechopen.81086
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in two different cultures. Education Sciences, 12(3), 1-14. doi: 10.3390/educsci12010003
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learning in higher education: evoking positive interdependence. Life Sciences Education,
15(69), 1-9. doi: 10.1187/cbe.16-07-0219
Tran, V. D. (2013). Theoretical perspectives underlying the application of cooperative

learning in classrooms. International Journal of Higher Education, 2(4), 101- 115. doi:
10.5430/ijhe.v2n4p101
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Scenario 13 – Lack of Interaction Among Group Members
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praise. English Language Teaching, 10(6), 37. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v10n6p37
Ganesan, S., Magee, M., Stone, J., Mulhall, M. D., Collins, A., Howard, M., Lockley, S. W.,
Rajaratnam, S. M. W., & Sletten, T. L. (2019). The impact of shift work on sleep, alertness and
performance in healthcare workers. Scientific Reports, 9(1).
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Jacobs, G. M., Zhu, C., Chau, M. H., Guo, Q., & Roe, J. (2023). Using cooperative learning
to teach the sustainable development goals. Autonomy and Responsibility Journal of
Educational Sciences, 8(1), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.15170/ar.2023.8.1.3
Makmun, M., Yin, K. Y., & Zakariya, Z. (2020). Gallery Walk teaching and learning and its
potential impact on students’ interest and performance. International Business Education
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Scenario 14 – Differences in Background Knowledge
Aronson, E. (2024). The jigsaw classroom. https://www.jigsaw.org
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health programs among nursing students. Asian Journal of Nursing Education and
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Voyles, E. C., Bailey, S. F., & Durik, A. M. (2015). New pieces of the jigsaw classroom:
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Scenario 15 – Lack of Sharing
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Journal of Research and Review, 8(4), 484- 487. https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20210458
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practicum: Experience from a Hong Kong institution. Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in
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Scenario 16 – Self-Selected Groups Functioning Poorly
Budiana, H., & Nurwaliyah, N. (2019). The affective factors causing students to be passive
during the speaking class. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities
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Jacobs, G. M., Zhu, C., Chau, M. H., Guo, Q., & Roe, J. (2023). Using cooperative learning
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Kahu, E. R., Ashley, N., & Picton, C. (2022). Exploring the complexity of first-year student
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Scenario 17 – Inadequate Peer Assessment
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measurement. Routledge.
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assessment skills: A self- and peer- assessment tool in higher education. International
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student creative thinking skills. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1460.
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Jacobs, G. M., Lie, A., & Tamah, S. M. (2022). Cooperative learning through a reflective lens.
Equinox
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introduction. Springer Theses, 1–17. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-7213-1_1
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interactions. Journal of International and Comparative Education 4(1). doi: 10.14425/00.76.07
Lambregts, M.G. (2020). Introverts and extraverts collaborating: The influence on

participation, transactivity and group work perceptions during an online discussion.
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Padlet in collaborative writing based on students’ perceptions. Child Education Journal 5(1),
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the elementary classroom. WOU Repository. https://wou.omeka.net/s/repository/media/4824
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learning: Focusing on extrovert and introvert learners. Theory and Practice in Language
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ollaborating-with-students
Scenario 18 – Lack of Role Variety
Belbin, R. M., & Brown, V. (2022). Team roles at work (3rd ed.). Routledge.
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Cecchini, J. A., Carriedo, A., Mendez-Gimenez, A., & Fernandez-Rio, J. (2024).

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Lotan, R. A., & Holthuis, N. I. (2021). Complex instruction for diverse and equitable
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Scenario 19 – Complaints About Grades
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academic achievement and goal orientation on learning performance in group capstone
projects. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(5), 913-925.
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Scenario 20 – Too Many Tests
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ocsen410@gmail.

com 03 May 2024

MAKING GROUPS WORK

PEACHEYPUBLICATIONS LTD 2024

MAKING GROUPS WORK

Editors George M Jacobs, Dr Qingli Guo, Woo Ming Wei Jeffrey.

Illustrations by Nik Peachey using DALL·E 3

Published by PeacheyPublications Ltd UK 2024

© Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

The book’s editors are:

CONTENTS Part 1 - Introduction

a. Two heads are better than one.

Freudenfreude Instead of Schadenfreude

Abundance Instead of Scarcity

If you can keep your head when all about you

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

PRINCIPLES TO Many teachers and other educators have developed methods,

All this accumulated experience and knowledge of how to

Equal Opportunity to Participate

Maximum Peer Interactions

Cooperation as a value seeks to expand the principle of positive interdependence beyond

THEORIES OF In addition to the eight principles briefly explained above, various

Thinking skills, such as those in Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive

Social Interdependence Theory

COOPERATIVE A cooperative learning technique is a suggested way for

1. Students form groups of 2, 3 or 4 members. In their groups,

2. First, each student works alone on this. Next, the group

3. Next, the group members check that all of their groupmates

4. Students are selected at random to give and explain their

Equal Opportunity to Participate

Maximum Peer Interactions

SCENARIO 1 LACK OF ENGAGEMENT

Participants at a workshop are in groups of four to discuss ways

WHY THE PROBLEM OCCURS

How it could work:

Heterogeneous Groups to Meet New People

SCENARIO 2 DISINTEREST AMONG GROUP

While nursing students are doing clinical placements , about half

WHY THE PROBLEM OCCURS

Maximum Quantity of Peer Interactions

One of the potential problems of teacher-fronted interaction, such as the

SCENARIO 3 STUDENTS DO NOT PREPARE BEFORE

A teacher has assigned reading homework for senior high school

In the current scenario, the pre-class reading was part of the

WHY THE PROBLEM OCCURS

SCENARIO 4 LOW MOTIVATION

There are 12 couples in the antenatal breastfeeding class. They

WHY THE PROBLEM OCCURS

Teaching cooperative skills

Here is one six-piece set of advice about how to forgive.

1. Be direct and use ‘I’.

3. Recognise the harm caused.

For example, state, ‘I won’t be late again.’

Maximum Peer Interactions

a. What ingredients to put in the sandwiches

b. Why the chose those ingredients

c. What is the nutrition