A Piece of the Puzzle

In my previous blog, I described the Cooperative Learning Method of Instruction. However, now having been an active member of a Jigsaw group, I will discuss in further detail a particular Cooperative Learning exercise, Jigsaw.  

Having already learned that students retain 90% of the material they teach to others, which is a higher retention percentage than any other learning process (reading, observing demonstrations, listening to lectures, etc.), I know Jigsaw's aim to have students become the experts and share their knowledge with each other accurately represents the research associated with the learning pyramid. A Jigsaw lesson requires students to be active contributors to group learning. 

In class, when I was given an opportunity to experience Jigsaw firsthand, the activity was structured differently than what the provided "How to do a Jigsaw- TeachLikeThis" video describes, however, the social learning outcomes were maintained. This shows that small alterations to the structure of a Jigsaw can be actualized while still maintaining the important aims of the lesson (i.e. the five elements of cooperative learning). In our class, two home groups were established, each consisting of three members. The three members then had to divide the required areas of research among themselves for deeper study. At that point, the people in charge of each research topic from both home groups, partnered to become the expert group. For example, utilizing the image above for help, I was in Home Group A with two other people. Then, I became in charge of Research Topic 3. The person in charge of Research Topic 3 from Home Group B partnered with me so that together the two of us formed Expert Group 3. Together, our task was to explore the Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan and more specifically how it differentiates from the Direct Instruction Lesson Plan. To accomplish this exploration, our professor, Dr. Smirnova, already had resources for us to consult which she made available to us electronically. It became our job to analyze these resources and then create our own presentation, in the form of a direct instruction lesson, which we would present to the entire class. This is a slight derivation from traditional jigsaw in which, as discussed in the video, students are only responsible for presenting the information to their original home group after having worked in expert groups. Then, teachers may elect to have the home groups deliver presentations to the entire class or may design another form of assessment to ensure students achieved the learning outcomes.    

In the expert group, Christine (my fellow expert) and I chose to create a Google Presentation that delineated the differences between a Direct and Cooperative Lesson. By using this technology, we were able to complete the assignment at the same time, watching what the other was doing, despite being in different locations. Adding a technological element to the Jigsaw activity allowed for us to become more fluent with technology and allowed for easier interaction between partners. However, that is not all, technology helped to solve another potential problem as well. The video above spoke to the reality that some uneasiness felt by teachers in regards to indirect strategies of instruction is due to losing some control and the possibility that students may not receive all the crucial information that a teacher would be sure to cover in direct instruction. In a Jigsaw activity, the fear is that some struggling students may not provide their home groups with all of the information that they need to know. The video suggested that teachers should partner struggling students, or inject another safeguard like consulting with other groups, to ensure all students are privy to the important information. However, by infusing technology into the activity as such, we were able to share our Google Presentation with our professor for feedback prior to the presentation to the whole class. This allowed for us to better complete the assignment and for our professor to monitor our progress and encourage us to add information and make corrections so that the entire class would receive the proper instruction from us. In addition to just improving content, our professor was also able to help us design a proper presentation in lesson plan format, specifically leading us to reduce wording and include more images and animation. 

                        

Finally, through the presentations, expert groups shared with the class in-depth analyses of the elements of cooperative learning and the cooperative learning lesson plan. Having learned this information, I can confidently say that Jigsaw aligns with the elements of cooperative learning in the following ways:

1. Positive Interdependence: Students have to rely upon their group members to learn the necessary information. The only way they are supposed to be able to gain all of the knowledge that will be assessed later is by communicating with group members.

2. Individual Accountability: When split into expert groups, students are aware that they alone are responsible for ensuring that their home group receives the information they uncover. Additionally, by making students aware that they will be assessed again individually following the Jigsaw activity, they know that they must have a firm grasp on all the material and cannot rely on teammates to "bail them out."

3. Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction: Students are forced to talk to one another to ensure that everyone receives all of the necessary information. Every student is given a sense of confidence for the aspect that he or she will teach to the rest of the group. Students are then able to practice how to express ideas clearly to peers and to check that their peers understand them through conversation. 

4. Interpersonal Skills: Jigsaw is only successful if all of the students contribute to its success. Understanding this, the students are more likely to encourage one another and invite others to share as much knowledge as they have. The structure prevents one person from taking ownership of the whole task, and teaches students to value the contributions of everyone in the group.

5. Group Processing: Teachers have to ensure that group processing occurs after the Jigsaw Activity. In my personal experience with Jigsaw, this was the element that was most lacking as time constraints prevented our class from discussing what we could improve upon for the next experience. However, group processing can easily be incorporated into the activity especially at the end when the home groups have come back together. After discussing content, they can discuss what information was easily understood and remembered, but also where there were difficulties in teaching one another and make suggestions as to how they can improve for the next experience. 

Additionally, Christine and I were in charge of teaching the Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan to our classmates. Knowing that I would have to present the information, I dedicated time to researching and reviewing the material to ensure that I understood it fully and would be prepared to entertain any questions from my peers.  

 Implications for My Future Classroom

When my professors utilize active learning exercises, I know that I have to prepare differently than with passive learning exercises. With this Jigsaw activity, I had to ensure that I truly had mastered the material, because otherwise I would not have been able to deliver a presentation of value to the rest of the class. If instead, my professor had asked me to read an article on how to create a Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan, I would have read the article and came away with a sense of how to do so. In the next class, I would have reiterated the main points. However, with this passive assignment, I would certainly not have gained as deep of a grasp as when I am focusing for the purpose of teaching others, and more importantly, I would not have retained the material long-term. Understanding how my approach to the material changed with the type of assignment and the realities of the research associated with the learning pyramid, I will want to use Jigsaw and other active learning activities in my future classroom so that my students can truly master both academic and social learning outcomes. 

Works Cited

5 Basic Elements - Cooperative Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from https://sites.google.com/a/pdst.ie/cooperative-learning/5-basic-elements

How to do a Jigsaw - TeachLikeThis. (2013, October 14). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfSKkCVFXfM

Puzzled jigsaw puzzle. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://thejigsawpuzzles.com/People/Puzzled-jigsaw-puzzle

Cooperation for the Win!

Why Cooperative Learning?

Unarguably, it is the responsibility of teachers to promote civic competence, the ability to survive and thrive in the larger world. More specifically, teachers must prepare students for higher learning institutions, careers, and the responsibilities that come with being a member of a larger democratic society. Johnson and Johnson (1988), in their article, "Cooperative Learning: Two Heads Learn Better than One," assert that students can interact with each other in three ways: competitively, individualistically, and cooperatively. Historically, education has been more competitive (e.g., ranking, norm-based grading, the overly popular Spelling Bee), but a necessary shift to cooperative learning is slowly taking place. This shift to cooperative learning needs to occur for two reasons: research shows that students learn more and better employ reasoning and critical thinking skills in small groups and cooperative skills are requirements of the twenty-first century job market. In October of 2013, Forbes Magazine in an article titled, "The 10 Skills Employers Most Want in 20-Something Employees," listed the following skills as needed "in the order of importance":

Not only does this list emphasize the importance of all of the models of instruction that were pinpointed in the previous blog, the integration of technology, and the ability of students to move up Bloom's Taxonomy to higher-order thinking skills, it emphasizes social skills above all other skills. The "ability to work in a team" is the number 1 necessity of this century's workforce, closely followed by the "ability to communicate verbally." For this reason, it is imperative that teachers not only structure their lessons to incorporate social interaction, but also that they devote time to teaching the social skills that students will need throughout their lives. 

What is Cooperative Learning?           

I think that the first important distinction that needs to be made is that cooperative learning is not just group work. It is more than that, it is the minds of students reasoning and thinking together so that more ideas can be generated, deeper levels of thought can be actualized, and students can learn how to work with others, being sensitive to different perspectives and resolving conflict. Additionally, placing students into heterogeneous groups allows students who normally would not interact with each other to have meaningful conversations. 

This week's module has shown me how cooperative learning can be incorporated into the classroom in small, less time consuming ways, and in longer, more developed cooperative learning projects. Some examples of brief cooperative learning exercises that can become regular staples in the classroom are six thinking hats, inside/outside circles, numbered heads together, and think-pair-share. These options can be used for students to discuss concepts and review material all while practicing social skills. I had never heard of six thinking hats prior to now, so I will choose this exercise to go into greater detail. 

In this video, Dr. Edward de Bono discusses his six thinking hats tool for social interaction. He explains how six thinking hats can be used to consider a variety of perspectives at the same time. 
By having students come together and take on different attitudes through the hats, many ideas are generated and conversation must ensue. For the most part, it is impossible that only one idea could be offered and everyone agree without deeper conversation. In sum, six thinking hats is a means for students of all different personalities to look at information from six different perspectives without being argumentative. 


Beyond these relatively more simple exercises, teachers can and should elect for students to engage in more complex, and time-consuming, cooperative learning projects. In order for them to reach their full potential, teachers should not only adhere to the five key elements of cooperative learning in structuring the task, but also emphasize both the content and social goals of the lesson to the students. 

5 Keys Elements of Cooperative Learning Chart adapted from Johnson, Johnson, & Smith (1988)

Reflecting on Cooperative Learning in Action 

I feel that the best way to explain the elements and purpose of cooperative learning is to look at an example of a large, multifaceted cooperative learning lesson in the classroom. Although this video was primarily meant to show a variety of assessments, I think that the California Missions project in Mr. Rubio's class will allow me to pinpoint both positive elements at work and some missing elements of proper cooperative learning instruction (I am not able to provide this video as it is part of Annenberg Learner's Social Studies in Action collection, however you can click on the video link above and start viewing it at 22:20 to view Mr. Rubio's lesson). 

Mr. Rubio's introduction to the task also functions as a pre-assessment. He explains to the students that they will be working in groups to research and present a certain California mission to the rest of the class. He asks the students to think of questions that would need to be addressed to adequately cover the important aspects of the mission. The students compile a list of necessary elements. Then, the teacher explains that the presentation will have to include a written description, a piece of art (drawing or painting), a poster of geographic location, an aspect of technology (imovie or slideshow), and a model of the mission. Then, Mr. Rubio explains that each group will be responsible for incorporating all of those elements into a five to ten minute presentation (Positive Interdependence) but that each person should be in charge of one or two of the elements (Individual Accountability). In addition to explaining the academic goal of gaining a better understanding of California Missions, Mr. Rubio also indicates that he expects his students to work through the project cooperatively. Specifically, he states: "One or two people should not be doing everything; I want to see everyone involved as part of the team." Through this statement, he starts to address the element of Interpersonal Social Skills, but I think he could have taken it to further to say, I want to see you challenging one another without being derogatory, and I want to see you take in multiple opinions and turn around ideas before making a decision. When the students began working together, they were able to have promotive, face-to-face interactions, however, interestingly, when monitoring, it appeared that Mr. Rubio provided more scaffolding and directive in terms of the academic goal, and not so much the social goal. Lastly, the element that was absent as far as the video showed was Group Processing. The students did not discuss how they could have better accomplished the goals in hindsight, which is important because recognizing what works will help them to better achieve the goals of the next cooperative lesson.    

Overall, I really enjoyed how Mr. Rubio established the lesson, incorporating many disciplines- history, religion, geography, arts - and infusing technology. In my future classroom, I would want to utilize similar cooperative learning assignments that integrate many disciplines but provide students with the freedom to also apply creativity to the project to make it their own. Understanding the importance of social skills and self-evaluative skills to developing civic competence, I would want to emphasize Interpersonal Social Skills and Group Processing in my lessons as well. 

Works Cited 

Adams, S. (2013, October 11). The 10 skills employers most want in 20-something employees. Forbes.

Edward de Bono - discusses the Six Thinking Hats. (2008, July 4). Retrieved February 2, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3ew6h5nHcc

Johnson, R.T., & Johnson, D. W. (1988). Cooperative learning: Two heads learn better than one. Transforming Education, 18, 34.

Kagan, S. (1989). Overview of selected cooperative learning strategies. From "the structural approach to cooperative learning." Educational Leadership. 

Social Studies In Action: Assessing Students' Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2015, from http://www.learner.org/workshops/socialstudies/session7/index.html

Triangles of Education

How many triangles does it take to understand the field of education?

Information Coming Together

Within any professional field, it is common to have many perspectives and theories that come together and influence how professionals behave. The field of education is no exception. Through my classes and research articles, I have learned of many psychological schools of thought and educational methods. However, this past week's classes, in particular Dr. Smirnova's PowerPoint,  "Teaching to Learn through Multiple Assessments and Evaluation," and the article, "Approaches to Instruction," I came to better understand how all of the theory fits together (i.e., the relationship between models, strategies, methods, and assessment). 

The Triangles in Question

At first all of the triangles seem overwhelming, but upon closer examination it becomes clear that all of the ideas complement, not contradict, one another. 

    

These triangles above indicate that instruction moves from more factual knowledge which is taught through direct strategies consistent with the behavioral model, and then moves up through information-processing, including the inquiry method, to form concepts, to the social-interactive model, housing the cooperative learning method, to help create generalizations through group analysis, and then the personal model to develop meta-cognitive skills. Furthermore,  this instructional hierarchy directly parallels the thinking processes and assessment methods in the triangles below. Understanding the learning pyramid's assertion that students retain the most information when they have taught it to others and practiced by doing, and the least from lecture, helps to explain why the hierarchy of both instruction and assessment is arranged with the behavioral model on the bottom. Bloom's taxonomy, in line with the other triangles, shows how assessing students' knowledge and understanding moves from lower-order thinking skills to higher-order thinking skills. Overall, the way I try to make sense of this plethora of information is to think of the interrelated instruction and assessment hierarchies as a continuum for teaching students. On the one side, a teacher can utilize the behavioral model, based on an essentialist educational philosophy, and provide a lecture to students to provide them with facts and then test their knowledge by asking them to remember certain details on a paper-and-pencil test, after which students will only retain five to ten percent of the information. On the other side, students can be led to build meta-cognitive strategies in which they evaluate their own thinking while creatively completing projects and portfolios and retaining almost 90% of information through authentic tasks based on the real-world when their teacher embraces the reconstructionist educational philosophy and thus utilizes the personal model. In the middle of course are the information processing and social interaction models which allow students to problem-solve and work with their peers to understand, apply, and analyze information. 

 

A strong teacher will utilize all of this information in planning his or her lessons, incorporating all models, strategies, methods, and assessment options to ensure that students can successfully achieve all of the levels of achievement proposed by Bloom and Bruner and retain information long-term. As the movie below shows, teaching has and will continue to move up the triangular hierarchy to meet the needs of students:

Into the Future: Triangles at Work

It is my hope that by learning the different options available for instruction and assessment, and the theories that converged to form them, that I will be able to teach from a vast toolbox of methodologies and will not be a single method teacher. Furthermore, I want my unit plans to follow the guide presented so that students have the chance to progress through the hierarchy and learn problem-solving, social, and self-evaluation skills that might not be actualized if only the behavioral model is implemented. I understand that by providing students with the opportunities to work within all of the models, I will better prepare them for civic competence, the ability to function within a society that requires them to do more than just remember (the first stage of Bloom's taxonomy). 

Works Cited

Bloom's Taxonomy. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

Delafosse, S. (2011, October 24). Teaching in the 21st Century. Retrieved February 2, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=075aWDdZUlM

Saskatchewan Education. Instructional Approaches: A Framework for Professional Practice. Regina, SK: Saskatchewan Education.

Smirnova, L. (2015). Teaching to learn through multiple assessments and evaluation [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/a/my.msmc.edu/presentation/d/1H_P9vuT9lCHPhfpPWC8Hj9uW1v5dOa6V0TRIlvlQTg0/present?slide=id.p14