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