Co-operative learning

Co-operative, because I'm not fond of the double 'o's in cooperative.

Any-hoo. Today I attended a meeting where one of the focuses was on co-operative learning strategies. As a group we were privileged to participate in three very different co-operative learning activities: the doughnut, bus-stop and continuum.

As an adult learner I enjoyed each of these activities. As a teacher I believe in using co-operative strategies regularly in the classroom.

But (you saw that coming), I'm not sure how I can feasibly introduce these particular methods into some of my classrooms. I get nervous. I get nervous about chaos, about students talking about everything but the task at hand, and even worse, about students sitting in silence.

I'm nervous because of experience. Last week, Year 9 groups were asked to brainstorm everything they knew about two things in preparation for a new unit study. Some did it. Those who were with the T.A did it well. In other groups, I saw maybe one or two people coming up with suggestions. In one group, the focus seemed to be the novelty of using a thick permanent marker.

I spent hours preparing resources for a cooperative study of themes in the film my Year 11's have been studying. I was, I think, justifiably proud of the result, and for the first period or so, the student worked together well. Next period, a couple of people were away - and of course they had one of the group's resources (note to self: take these back in each period!). By the end of this period, students were pretty much working independently. Success with engagement, success with student work, but not a successful co-operative learning approach.

There are successes. My Year 11 class has done co-operative learning through Google Docs (I love this source). They can work in pairs on the same document, and support each other's learning in the process. I 'publish' individual work on our class website to share with others. I've developed 'expert groups' who share aspects of a text (theme, character etc) with the class before I teach the rest. Students have worked together to research and present information on posters etc. One class has moved themselves around the room on a treasure hunt to fill in a table of key terms. Another have played games of 'pictionary' or memory to practice their understanding of key texts. And so forth.

I guess what make me particularly apprehensive about these particular activities is that students need to move! Actually physically out of their seats, moving around the room AND discussing/staying on task/listening/participating...

Which one to have a go with first?


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