Planning and Managing Cooperative Learning Activities

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Planning and Managing Cooperative Learning
Activities

• Michael C. Loui
• Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Distinguished Teacher/Scholar
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• November 1, 2001

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Forming Groups

• Types of cooperative groups
• Informal groups within a class period
• Teams for a project lasting several weeks
• Base groups (learning teams) for entire term
• Size tradeoffs
• Smaller groups better participation, individual
  accountability, easier to schedule meetings
• Larger groups more ideas, more complex tasks
• Magic number 4

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Top Ten Reasons for Instructor-Assigned Teams for
Term Projects

• 10. Research shows students satisfaction is
  significant-ly higher than when students choose
  own teams
• 9. Heterogeneous teams draw on a broader base
  of skills and knowledge
• 8. Its fairer to all students the instructor
  ensures each team has someone with a particular
  skill
• 7. Students learn to work with people who have
  different backgrounds and culturesan important
  skill for working in the real world
• 6. Students make new friends

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Top Ten Reasons for Instructor-Assigned Teams for
Term Projects

• 5. Students can be more objective and avoid
  conflicts of interest when they evaluate each
  other at the end of the project
• 4. Because teams are diverse, students gain
  personal satisfaction from teaching other
  students what they know, and learning from other
  students
• 3. Students are less likely to socialize too much
• 2. If a team fails, students can blame the
  instructor instead of themselves
• 1. But teams wont fail!

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Forming Long-Term Teams

• Survey individual skills and learning/working
  styles to assign students to heterogeneous teams
• Example Proficiency in C programming
• None Fair Good Awesome
• Example Preference for theory or experiments
• For project teams, if possible, wait until
  mid-semester (after drop date, midterm exams)

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Group Roles

• Typical roles
• Facilitator Explainer
• Timekeeper Checker
• Recorder Researcher/Runner
• Reporter
• Or Chief Executive Officer, Executive Vice
  President, Comptroller, etc.
• In a long-term team, roles should rotate from one
  week to the next

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Managing Groups and Teams

• Monitor long-term teams
• Meetings during class periods
• Schedule with milestones
• Weekly progress reports
• Help students learn how to work in groups
  discuss potential problems beforehand
• Assert overall values and norms
• No flaming
• No racist or sexist remarks

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Credo for Group Work

• I encourage everyone to participate
• I seek differences of opinion to enrich the
  discussion
• I stick to the subject and avoid dominating the
  discussion with long stories
• I restate what someone has said if it is unclear
  to me
• I summarize the last speaker before I speak
• I criticize ideas, not people
• I try to understand all sides of an issue
• I change my mind when the evidence is compelling
• I focus on reaching the best decision, not on
  winning
• (Based on Barbara Gross Davis, Tools for Teaching)

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Conflict Resolution

• Mediator should listen actively
• If I understand you correctly, you are saying
• Acknowledge emotions, find facts
• Cast the conflict as a problem to be solved
• Negotiate over interests, not positions
• Position We should write the first draft this
  week
• Interest Ill have less time next week
• Invent options to meet everyones interests

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Illustrative ActivityThree-Step Interview

• Form three pairs in your group
• Step 1 In each pair, one person interviews the
  other (5 minutes)
• Step 2 In each pair, the interviewer and partner
  switch roles (5 minutes)
• Step 3 Each person shares the partners
  responses with the whole group (10 minutes)

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Illustrative ActivityUncommon Commonalities

• Facilitator and recorder
• On the worksheet, list attributes and interests
  that members in your group have in common (10
  minutes)
• Using this information, negotiate a name for your
  group (10 minutes)

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Homework

• Determine which group members will be responsible
  for leading a discussion of each chapter of
  Millis and Cottell on November 8 (15 minutes for
  each of three chapters)
• Chapter 6, Structures for Problem Solving in
  Teams (1 or 2 members)
• Chapter 7, Basic Paired Teaching (2 members)
• Chapter 8, Reciprocal Teaching (2 members)
• November 8 Jigsaw