Cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals. Within cooperative activities, individuals seek outcomes that are beneficial to themselves and beneficial to all other group members. Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning. It is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the activity until all group members successfully understand and complete it.

These cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members:

• Gain from each other’s efforts. (Your success benefits me and my success benefits you.)
• Recognize that all group members share a common fate. (We all sink or swim together here)
• Know that one’s performance is mutually caused by oneself and one’s team members. (We cannot do it without you.)
• Feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement. (We all congratulate you on your accomplishment!).

There are a number of key elements that set cooperative learning apart from other grouping techniques (Cochran 1989, Johnson and Johnson 1999).

 These elements include the following:

■ Heterogeneous grouping (mixing levels of student abilities especially ELLs)

■ Positive interdependence (sinking or swimming together)

■ Face-to-face supportive interaction

■ Individual accountability (requiring each group member to contribute to the group’s achievement of its goals; typically each member is assigned a specific role to perform in the group)

 ■ Interpersonal and small group skills (communication, trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution)

 ■ Group processing (reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how it can function even better)

In a classroom of an effective teacher you will find these strategies employed, particularly during investigations. However, these same cooperative-learning strategies can be used throughout all subject areas and are not just for science instruction.

Designing and delivering effective science instruction takes a coherent and aligned curriculum designed around the big ideas of science. This curriculum must be strategically built in order not to teach lots of pieces of science knowledge. To deliver this curriculum effectively teachers need to deepen their content and pedagogical knowledge. And for this curriculum to be effectively delivered in the classroom it needs to be supported with the appropriate tools and materials. Teachers cannot just put students into groups to have them complete activities and think they will be successful. Grouping and group skills must be specially taught by the teacher to guarantee success of all the group members.

REFERENCE: http://books.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E01100/VasWebSam3_3_08.pdf

By: Rachelle Ann A. Enriquez