Ronnie+Farrell+-+Cooperative+Learning

Ronnie's Cooperative Learning Page ** __Cooperative Learning__ ** Cooperative learning refers to a method of instruction in which students of varying levels of learning ability are placed in small groups in which they work together to achieve a common goal. Results have shown that students who have opportunities to work collaboratively, learn faster and more efficiently, have greater retention, and feel more positive about the learning experience. (jhu.edu, n.d.) In the cooperative learning instructional methodology, the success of the entire group is largely dependent on the successful work of each individual member. According to an overview of cooperative learning from Kennesaw State University (n.d.), each member of the team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. The cooperative learning methodology is a way for students to learn essential interpersonal life-skills and to develop the ability to work collaboratively, a skill that students will be able to use throughout their lives. In a cooperative learning group, every student has a specific task and each student is involved in both the learning and the project. Briefly stated, in a cooperative learning environment, students are divided into heterogeneous groups that will together complete instructional activities. Each member of the group contributes to the group project. Individual group members have different assigned responsibilities, after these responsibilities are performed, the group members come together to teach each other what they have learned and then complete the group activity collectively. The cooperative learning structure stresses both social and academic development. Group members interact to assist each other in their success. (Marr, 1997) According to David and Roger Johnson, co-researchers and writers on cooperative learning, there are five basic components that must be in place for “circles of learning” to be successful. 1. Positive Interdependence. Group members are aware that one cannot succeed unless everyone succeeds. Students realize that each other’s achievement results from sharing resources, assisting each other’s efforts, providing mutual support, and celebrating their joint success. 2. Promotive (face-to-face) interaction. Students in the group orally explain to each other how to solve problems, discuss what information has been gathered and what concepts have been learned, sharing this gained knowledge with each other and expressing how this new knowledge connects with and expands the student’s previous knowledge. 3. Individual accountability. Evaluation by the teacher and/or group peers in order to maintain a level of individual accountability for each group member. Evaluations are shared and adjustments can then be made so that an individual is not allowed to “hitchhike” on the work of others. 4. Interpersonal and small-group skills. Cooperative learning provides an environment in which social skills can be demonstrated, observed, and corrected as necessary. Social skills of leadership, trust-building, and conflict management are taught as purposefully as academic skills. 5. Group processing. Group members discuss how well they are achieving their goals and determine what actions are helpful to improve future cooperative efforts. (Callison, 1997) Using the cooperative learning methodology, school library media specialists have discovered that they can foster a community of learners, where students are responsible for their own learning, each able to experience success while the school library media specialist teaches through coaching. (Stripling, 1996) The school library media specialist shares both the role of caregiver and coach with the classroom teacher; collaborating with the classroom teacher to develop a cooperative learning activity that fosters the utilization of information and data gathering tools available in the library media center, that will enhance the curriculum of the core subject. Cooperative learning among students creates good social learning situations. The school library media specialist and the classroom teacher must work together to structure cooperative learning groups, teaching group and individual responsibility skills for searching both electronic and print material, offering support and coaching when necessary, setting standards for performance and to devise individual and group accountability. (Stripling, 1996) Students are encouraged to help each other in seeking information, rather than doing research independently and becoming self-sufficient. When the information research process is applied in a cooperative manner, it allows students to gather evidence, classify it, reference it and share it with everyone in the group, verbally or in an electronic manner such as, e-mail, blogs or wikis. Members of the group may then describe their successes and failures in information searching so that other group members can provide suggestions as well as be sensitive to the information needs of other group members while browsing their own sources. (Callison, 1997) In a post-cooperative learning project interview, students reported that they learned better because they were able to “do something” in contrast to “just reading the textbook and answering questions at the end of the chapter”, that the “hands-on” project was much more exciting and real, and more easily remembered than something that they read in a textbook. (Mueller, 2010) According to Daniel Callison in his article on Cooperative Learning (1997), a major concept to govern cooperative learning projects within the school library media center is that the media center becomes “not only a place for information, but one of several places for constructive conversations. Moving the student within an isolated and narrow environment in which he or she concentrates on only his or her content and talent alone limits the possibilities of the student gaining a wider and richer perspective of the issues, arguments, and alternatives for communication. Interpersonal skills, practiced through cooperative learning, can greatly deepen the meaning of information literacy.” Bibliography: Callison, D. (1997). Cooperative learning. //School// //Library// //Media Activities Monthly//, //14//, 39-42. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database John Hopkins School of Education New Horizons (jhu.edu). (n. d.) Cooperative Learning//. //Retrieved from [] Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw.edu). (n. d.) Cooperative Learning//. // Retrieved from http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm Marr, M. (1997). COOPERATIVE LEARNING: A BRIEF REVIEW. //Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming// //Learning Difficulties//, //13//(1), 7-20. doi:10.1080/1057356970130102 Mueller, A. & Fleming, T. (2001). Cooperative Learning: Listening to How Children Work at School. //The Journal of Educational Research//, //94//(5), 259-265. doi:10.1080/00220670109598761 Stripling, Barbara. (1996, January 1). Quality in school library media programs: focus on learning //The Free Library//. (1996). Retrieved from [|http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Quality in school library media programs: focus on learning-a018015827]