Cooperative Learning and Achievement

1
Cooperative Learning and Achievement

• Reynolds and Miller Chapter 9
• cooperative learning exists when students work
  together to accomplish shared learning goals.
  Johnson Johnson (1999)

2

• Introduction
• Consensus on positive effects on academic
  achievement
  
• Great deal of research done in this area
• No cohesive model
• Perspectives complementary not contradictory
• Functional relationship among interactions

Group Goals
Motivation to Learn Encourage others to lear
n
Help others learn
Peer Tutoring Modeling Practice Assessment C
orrection
Enhanced Learning
Interdepen- dence
3
Four Major Theoretical Perspectives -
Cooperative Learning

• Motivational Perspective
• Task motivation most important part of the
  project
  
• The only way that group members can attain their
  own personal goals is if the group is
  successful?group members must help each other
  
• Group contingencies?give students grades based on
  their group performance
  
• Works well in elementary and secondary schools if
  groups stays together for at least 4 weeks
  
• Social Cohesiveness Perspective
• Quality of group interaction depends on group
• cohesion
• Students help others learn because they care
• Team building in preparation for group
  activities
  
• Students take individual roles within the groups
  (task
  
• specialization)?creates interdependence
  Slavin (1983)
  
• Research on these theories provide inconsistent
  results
  

4

• Cognitive Perspective
• Interactions among students will in themselves
  increase student achievement for reasons that
  have to do with mental processing of information
  rather than motivation
• Developmental Perspective
• Interaction among children around appropriate
  tasks increase their mastery of critical
  concepts
  
• Zone of proximal development (collaboration with
  more able peers (Vygotsky, 1978)
  
• Piaget (1962) socially bound knowledge is learned
  from peers
  
• Interactions with peers on learning tasks
  improved school achievement?through feedback and
  debate, debate and criticism, creative thinking
  (generating ideas)
• There is almost no research

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• Cognitive Elaboration Perspective
• In order to retain information in memory , the
  students must engage in cognitive restructuring,
  or elaboration of the material?explaining
  material to someone else
• Successful with writing process models
• Transactional and reciprocal teaching

Read discuss
Teach e/ other
Factors Contributing to Achievement Effects of
Cooperative Learning Ways of doing research
Structuring Group Interactions
Group Goals and Individual Accountability
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• Structuring Group Interactions
• Using strategies for reading, cooperative
• learning skills fair better than those who
  just received group rewards
  
• Group Goals and Individual Accountability
• Cooperative learning is most consistently
  effective when groups are recognized or rewarded
  based on individual learning of their members
  
• Students who give/teach/ explain each
• other learn the most
• Groups lacking individual accountability do worst
  ?all members of groups should learn
  

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Is there any alternative to group goals and
individual accountability?

• Teachers complain about record keeping
• Others uncomfortable using extrinsic rewards
• We must stress that group goals and individual
  accountability motivate not only students to work
  together, but are also concerned about each other
  learning
• There are some instances where these group goals
  and accountability might not be necessary, such
  as
  
• Higher level cognitive tasks
• Controversial tasks without single answers
• Voluntary study groups
• Structured dyadic tasks
• Communal study groups

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• Reconciling the 4 Perspectives? Applications for
  Teaching
  
• Group goals based on individual learning of all
  group members motivate students to engage in
  modeling, cognitive elaboration and practice with
  each other
• GG may also lead to cohesiveness?care
• GG emphasize responsibility for one another
• Which Students Gain Most?
• Not enough evidence to support hi or lo achievers
  gaining the most
  
• The same results were found when crosscultural
  studies were conducted.
  
• Outcomes Other than Achievement
• Willingness to take on difficult tasks
• Intrinsic motivation
• Long term retention, higher order thinking skills
  and metacognition
  
• Creative problem solving, generalization of
  concepts, positive attitudes toward school
  
• Time on task
• Positive verbalizations