DEFINITIONS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING

AND THEORIES UNDERLYING

COOPERATIVE LEARNING
NURMA AINI (0203516016) – FAIZAH (0203516023) – LULU WALIDAINI (0203516051)
All cooperative learning methods share the idea that
students work together to learn and are responsible for
their teammates learning as well as their own.
Three concepts of CL

Team reward

Individual
accountability
Equal
opportunities
for success
Several points in Slavin’s definition of CL

1. There is an emphasis on rewards.

2. The rewards which Slavin talks about are not
grades. Grades are earned individually.
3. Collaborative skills are not explicitly taught.
4. Groups are heterogeneous based on students’ past
achievement record.
5. Individual accountability is fostered by means such
as individual quizzes
Davidson’s Definion about CL

1. A task for group completion, discussion, and (if

possible) resolution
2. Face to face interaction in small groups
3. An atmosphere of cooperation and mutual
helpfulness within each group
4. Individual accountability (everyone does their
share)
5. Heterogeneous grouping
6. Explicit teaching of collaborative skills
7. Structured mutual interdependence
Kagan’s Definition
Spencer and Miguel Kagan and their coleagues have
developed the structural approach to CL.
Kagan and Kagan describe four principles which are key
to the structural approach:
1. Simultaneous interaction
2. Equal participation
3. Positive interdependency
4. Individual accountability
Theories Underlying CL

Four concepts foundations:

1. Group-Investigation (G-1)
Developed by Shlomo Sharan and colleagues, based
in part on the philosophy of John Dewey
2. Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD)
Developed by Robert Slavin and colleagues, based
in part on behaviorist psychology
3. Learning Together
Developed by David and Roger Johnson, and jigsaw
developed by Eliot Aronson and colleagues, both
based in part on theories in social psychology
4. Murder
Developed by Donald Dansereau and colleagues,
based in part on cognitive psychology
Dewey’s Philosophy
The Group-investigate approach to cooperative learning
is a deliberate atempt to embody some of dewey’s
principles in a set of procedures applicable to
classroom without the total redesign of a school
environment and organization that Dewey wished to
achieve.
Dewey’s (1966) central ideas are:
1. Stdents should be active, learning by doing.
2. Learning should be based on intrinsic motivation
3. Knowledge is changing, not fixed
4. Learning should relate to students’ needs and
interests
5. Education should include learning to work with,
respect, and understand other
6. Learning should be related to the world beyond the
classroom and should help to improve that world.
Behaviorist Psychology
Based on a review of the research on CL, Slavin argues
that group contingencies are essential if small-group
structures are to enhance achievement. The behavior
of one or more group members brings rewards to a
group.
Some typical features of behaviorist learning
methods
1. Extrinsic motivation
2. Low cognitive level tasks
3. Everyone does the same thing
4. Achievement is the goal
5. Product orientation
6. Teachers decide what is to be learned and give
students the information they are to learn
Social Psychology
A key concept is interdependence.
Interdependence concerns people’s perceptions of how
they affect and are affected by what happens to others.
POSITIVE
Example: superior
performance, Jigsaw
technique

INTERDEPENDENCE
NEGATIFE
Student did not come to
like or to understand
each other, racial tension
gets worse
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology, perhaps the dominant view in
education today, focuses on how humans take in, store,
and process what we learn.
Two important cognitive psychologists, Piaget and
Vygotsky, emphasized that interacting with others
could be an important aid to learning.
TEACHERS’ ROLE IN COOPERATIVE LEARNING
STUDENTS’ ROLE IN COOPERATIVE LEARNING
TECHNIQUES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING
Cooperative learning techniques can be loosely
categorized by the skill that each enhances (Barkley, Cross
and Major, 2005)
CATEGORIZED OF CL TECHNIQUE
Discussion
"A good give-and-take discussion can produce unmatched
learning experiences as students articulate their ideas,
respond to their classmates' points, and develop skills in
evaluating the evidence of their own and others'
positions." (Davis, 1993, p. 63)
• Think-pair-share
• Three-step interview
Reciprocal Teaching
Slavin (1996), in a review of hundreds of studies,
concluded that "students who give each other elaborated
explanations (and less consistently, those who receive
such explanations) are the students who learn most in
cooperative learning." (p. 53)
• Note-taking pairs
• Jigsaw
Graphic Organizers
"Graphic organizers are powerful tools for converting
complex information in to meaningful displays...They
can provide a framework for gathering and sorting
ideas for discussion, writing, and research." (Barkley,
Cross and Major, 2005, p.205)
• Group grid
• Sequence chains
Writing
The Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse at
Colorado State University encourages the use of
written assignments across the campus because is
teaches students to communicate information, to
clarify thinking and to learn new concepts and
information.
• Dyadic essays
• Peer editing
Problem solving
Research by mathematics educators Vidakovic (1997) and
Vidakovic and Martin (2004) shows that groups are able
to solve problems more accurately than individuals
working alone.
• Send-a-problem
• Three-stay, one-stray
THE STRENGTHNESS OF CL
• A positive effect of the student learning
• The potential to produce a level of engagement
• Students learn how to teach one another and explain
the material in their own words
• Questions and answer occur in students group
• Positive interdependency is achieved
cont…
• Interpersonal and collaboration skills can be learned
• We can meet more learning style
• Sends the symbolic message
• Higher ability students are in position to be experts,
leaders, models, and teachers; lower ability students
get the benefits of having higher ability students in
their group
THE WEAKNESSES OF CL
• Lower ability students are passive
• The students must think independently, without help
of others
• High stakes create increased chance for conflict
• Difficult for the teacher to make sure that the students
talk about the material/the content
cont…
• Higher ability students may not experience to stimulate
• Lower ability students perpetually in need of help
rather than try to get the knowledge by themselves
• Lower ability students make it the burden
References:
Jacobs, George M, Gan Siowck Lee, and Jessica Ball.
Learning Cooperative Learning Via Cooperative
Learning. 1997. Singapore: Seameo Regional language
center
Orr, Janet K. Growing Up with English. 1999.
Washington DC: English Language Program