Education is life. Life is a journey. We cannot continue our journey alone. It is impossible to be able to sustain yourself in a journey you are doing alone. Somehow and somewhere along the way, you would need the company of another, and another…… and still another. We can only reach our goal in life…. In education, if we let each child inside the classroom hold the hands of the other children in his journey…. In his quest for knowledge and excellence.
According to Ma. Cristina P. Magtutol, student, College of Education, University of the Philippines, Cooperative learning today include the identification of cooperative learning elements, role of teachers and students, situations that require group work and its philosophies.
Cooperative learning has five elements: Positive Interdependence, Face to Face Interaction, Individual Accountability, Interpersonal and small group skills and Group Processing. In a cooperative learning environment, the teacher is no longer seen as the authority who dispenses knowledge to students who merely absorb information. Students become more important resources for one another in the learning process. They work together, helping each other integrate prior knowledge and new knowledge and discover their own meanings as they explore, discuss, explain, relate and question new ideas and problems that arise in the group.
The teacher’s role is now seen in a different angle. His or her tasks have been modified in decision making, setting tasks, monitoring and intervening, and evaluating and processing. Students are expected to interact with each other, share ideas and materials, support and encourage academic achievement, orally explain and elaborate the concepts being learned, and hold each other accountable for learning.
In cooperative learning, the child has more academic-social contact with peers. The quality of contact depends on the specific organization of the learning task, reward system, the particular children, and the teacher attitudes.
By: Vilma S. Sumaguio | Teacher III | Diwa Elementary School | Diwa, Pilar, Bataan
