psucitw2010 - Cooperative Learning

Positive interdependence
1. The group is responsible. Either everyone is successful or everyone is not.
2. It can produce negative feelings when grades are involved.
Face-to-face promotive interaction
1. Recognizing and celebrating successes and efforts
2. Students supporting other students' learning
3. Remember to set the students up for success and not for failure. We have to be aware of students who sabotage the groups.
Individual and group accountability
1. Having multiple checkpoints throughout the project in order to give students who may not be performing at their best level to do better before getting the grade.
2. Students can self assess and assess their peers.
Interpersonal and small group skills
1. Modeling
Group processing
1. Group self assessments

Heterogeneous grouping vs Homogeneous grouping

Both should be done sparingly in order to benefit all students
Low-achieving students benefit the least from homogenous grouping, but medium-ability students benefit the most.
Groups should be small in order to be manageable.
Groups of 3-4 produced the most percentile gain. Larger groups than these actually produced a negative effect on the learning.
Do NOT over use it!
Apply it consistently and systematically

Types of Groups