Engaging Students

Through Cooperative
Learning:
Ideas for Success
Laura Schulz
Talent Development High Schools

Three Musketeers:
A TEAM Building Activity
1. Find three things that everyone on the team likes
2. Find three things that everyone on the team
dislikes
3. Find one thing that is unique to each of the team
members
4. Decide on a team name that has something to do
with your collective likes and dislikes
5. Write your TEAM name on your Table Tent

What makes a TEAM

different than a
group?

What is a Team?
Teams differ from groups because
they include the following basic
elements of cooperative learning:
Goals are shared
Information is circulated
Roles are assigned
Materials are managed
Teammates depend on each other to
complete tasks successfully
Students gain respect for each others
contributions to the team

Goal Setting:

Why are we here

today?
Think about what your expectations
are for the professional development
session today

Pair with another team member to

discuss expectations

Share as a team your expectations

Set 3 goals your team wishes to
accomplish during our session today
Write those 3 goals on the back of
your teams table tent

Why Cooperative
Learning?

We Learn:
10% of what
20% of what
30% of what
50% of what
70% of what
others
80% of what
personally
95% of what

we read
we hear
we see
we both see and hear
is discussed with
we experience
we teach someone else
William Glasser

Expectations in the
Workplace:
How have things
Changed?
Organizational
Effectiveness
Reading
Problem Solving
Teamwork
Interpersonal Skills Writing
Computation Listening
Creative Thinking
Leadership
Oral Communication
Career Development/Motivation

According to Fortune 500

Companies: The Top Skills
sought by employers
1970
2000
3. READING

3. INTERPERSONAL
SKILLS
2. COMPUTATION 4. PROBLEM SOLVING
1. WRITING

1. TEAMWORK

Thinking about the

subject or subjects you
teach
(Knowing the skills that are in demand in the workplace today)

What jobs or careers are you

preparing your students to
hold?
(Use chart paper to share some examples)

BREAK TIME

A History of Cooperative
Learning

Cooperative learning is not a new idea.

The Talmud clearly states that in order to learn you
must have a learning partner.
In the first century, Quintillion argued that students
could benefit from teaching one another.
The Roman philosopher, Seneca advocated
cooperative learning through such statements as,
"Qui Docet Discet" (when you teach, you learn twice).
Johann Amos Comenius (1592-1679) believed that
students would benefit both by teaching and being
taught by other students.

A History of Cooperative
Learning

In the late 1700s Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell

made extensive use of cooperative learning groups in
England, and the idea was brought to America when a
Lancastrian school was opened in New York City in
1806.
Within the Common School Movement in the United
States in the early 1800s there was a strong emphasis
on cooperative learning.
In the last three decades of the 19th Century, Colonel
Francis Parker brought to his advocacy of cooperative
learning enthusiasm, idealism, practicality, and an
intense devotion to freedom, democracy, and
individuality in the public schools. Parker's advocacy
of cooperation among students dominated American
education through the turn of the century.

A History of Cooperative
Learning
John Dewey promoted the use of cooperative
learning groups as part of his famous project
method in instruction.
In the late 1930's, however, interpersonal
competition began to be emphasized in
schools
In the late 1960s, individualistic learning
began to be used extensively.
In the 1980s, schools once again began to
use cooperative learning.

What is Cooperative
Learning?
Cooperative Learning refers to a set of
instructional methods in which students
work in small, mixed-ability learning
teams.
The students in each team are
responsible not only for learning the
material being taught, but also for
helping their teammates learn.

Cooperative learning is the instructional

use of small groups so that students work
together to maximize their own and each
other's learning (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1993).

Within cooperative learning groups students

discuss the material to be learned with
each other, help and assist each other to
understand it, and encourage each other to
work hard.

Cooperative learning groups may be used to

teach specific content (formal cooperative
learning groups), to ensure active cognitive
processing of information during a lecture
or demonstration (informal cooperative
learning groups), and to provide long-term
support and assistance for academic progress
(cooperative base groups) (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec,
1993).

Any assignment in any curriculum for any age

student can be done cooperatively.

Benefits of Cooperative
Learning
Increased Achievement
Increase in Positive Relationships
Greater Intrinsic Motivation
Higher Self-Esteem
More On-Task Behavior
Better Attitudes Toward Teachers
and School

Additional Benefits of
Cooperative Learning
Students take responsibility for
their own learning
Students translate teacher talk
into student speak for their peers
Students engage in cognitive
collaboration. They must organize
their thoughts to explain ideas to
classmates
Students have FUN learning
Students social nature is used to
their advantage

Bonuses for High

Achievers

Higher levels of achievement

Even greater retention of information
due to cognitive rehearsal
Development of key skills:
Social
Leadership
Communication
Decision Making
Problem Solving
Conflict Resolution

Basic Elements of
Cooperative Learning
Positive Interdependence
Face-to- Face Interaction
Individual Accountability
Interpersonal And Small Group
Skills
Group Processing
Taken from: Circles of Learning: Cooperation in the Classroom (Revised
Edition) D.W. Johnson, R.T. Johnson and Edythe Johnson Holubec.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986

Positive
Interdependence
Students must feel they need each other
in order to complete the groups task
Mutual Goals
Joint Rewards
Shared Materials and
Information
Assigned Roles

Face-to-Face Interaction
Discussing
Summarizing
Explaining
Elaborating
Receiving Feedback

Individual Accountability
Teams succeed when:
Every member has learned the material
Every member has helped complete tasks
Frequently teachers assess individual
learning

Interpersonal and Small

Group Skills
Communication
Leadership
Decision-making
Conflict Management
Active Listening
Challenging Ideas Not People
Compromising

Group Processing
Giving students the time and the
procedures to analyze how well their
teams are functioning with:
Learning tasks
Social skills
Self-assessment

Sample Types of Activities

Direct Instructional Activities
present information to students or demonstrate skills
Activities for Student Practice
after direct instruction
Cooperative Learning Instructional Activities
brainstorming, note-taking pairs, cooperative writing and
editing pairs
Whole Lesson Formats
involves teacher-directed and student directed strategies
without other lesson components
Movement Oriented Activities
corners
jigsaw

Cooperative Note-taking Pairs

Objective:
To enable students to take something from one
anothers notes to improve their own
Directions In Brief:
1. Assign or allow students to select partners.
2. Teach
3. Stop every 10 minutes for sharing of notes.

Cooperative Note-taking Pairs

Check - in
Directions in Brief
1. While teaching, stop periodically for
a check-in.
2. Instruct students to skim their
partners notes looking for:
information they missed
information partners have incorrectly
noted

3. Students retrieve their own notes

and make any needed changes.

Objectives:
To move students in a purposeful way
To gather data in a quick, visual way that is
engaging

Directions:
1. Identify the kind of data you want to gather.
2. Post four multiple choice responses, one in
each corner.
3. Students select their responses.
4. Members of groups discuss their choices.
5. Spokespersons summarize/present group
members thoughts.

SCARED

Fearless

Cautiously Optimistic

Othe
r

CORNERS
Go to the corner

THINK WRITE PAIR COMPARE

Objectives:
to give rehearsal time, engage more students, and
promote thoughtful responses

Directions:

Present a problem, idea or question to be

discussed
Pair students randomly
Allow time for individuals to think in silence
Allot time for students to write responses
(independently)
Give time for partners to compare their responses
Give the whole class time to discuss responses

THINK WRITE PAIR COMPARE

Think of one way you could apply

4 CORNERS
in your subject area(s).

What are the Pros and Cons of

using 4 Corners?
PRO

CON

Formations
Objectives: to make abstract concepts
more concrete while incorporating
Directions
movement in Brief:
1. Identify an abstract concept
2. Translate it to a living model
3. Compose steps in the process of
constructing the model
4. Engage students in construction of the
model
5. Engage students in processing the concept

Formations
1. Meet with others in your
subject area
2. Decide upon one abstract
concept and a formation that
makes it concrete.

Note: Every member of your group

does not have to be a part of your
formation
3. Be prepared
to present your

Designing an 18 Week
Plan
Identify essential skills and
information to be taught using a
variety of resources
Hawaii Standards
Curricula Frameworks from a variety of
sources
In house resources such as teacher
lessons, textbooks, etc

Restructuring does not mean

throwing out everything from
before block scheduling.
Incorporate the best of the tried
and true methods, build adapt
and reincorporate them in the new
time frame.

 List the most important concepts/skills

you want students to understand before
the end of the course
List effective activities now used to
address each goal
Indicate which concepts you wish to
address in more depth
Think of ways to contextualize each goal
with reality based activities
Consider various strategies you might
add to address each goal

Design Weekly Lesson

Plans
Provide a detailed outline of
activities for each unit including
possible materials, resources,
strategies

Design Daily Lesson Plans

Include at least three activities
which allow for:
The incorporation of movement
The inclusion of time for whole class,
individual and group work
Changes in media

Traditional Lesson Design

Warm up/ Problem Solving
Homework Review 10
New Material 25-30
Practice Activity
15-20
Closure
10
Writing
5-10

10-15

Lesson Plan With Cooperative

Groups
Warm-Up 10
Direct Instruction 10-15
Work in Small Groups
20-25
Small Group Presentations 20-25
Large Group Interaction 15
Closure/Writing/Assignments10

Allocation of Test Related Time

Test Review
Test

15-40
60-85

What is a ROTATING REVIEW?

Topic
Something I learned
today. . .
Students walk around the
room to each piece of
chart paper and write
something about what they
learned that day.
Sheets are posted and used
as a review.

 Objective:
to get students to recall, summarize or
brainstorm
Directions:
State the problem, topic or issue
Distribute one sheet of paper to each group
Give a time limit and ask students to begin
to write

Round Table
Each person at your table should write one
thing he/she has learned about cooperative
learning.