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Essential Readings
Cooperative Learning
by David and Roger Johnson, Cooperative Learning Center, University of
Minnesota
What Is Cooperative Learning?
Cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals. Within cooperative
activities individuals seek outcomes that are beneficial to themselves and
beneficial to all other group members. Cooperative learning is the instructional
use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own
and each other's learning. The idea is simple. Class members are organized
into small groups after receiving instruction from the teacher. They then
work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand
and complete it. Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for
mutual benefit so that all group members gain from each other's efforts (Your
success benefits me and my success benefits you), recognizing that all group
members share a common fate (We all sink or swim together here), knowing
that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's colleagues
(We can not do it without you), and feeling proud and jointly celebrating
when a group member is recognized for achievement (We all congratulate you
on your accomplishment!). In cooperative learning situations there is a positive
interdependence among students' goal attainments; students perceive that
they can reach their learning goals if and only if the other students in
the learning group also reach their goals (Deutsch, 1962; Johnson and Johnson,
1989). A team member's success in creating a multi-media presentation on
saving the environment, for example, depends on both individual effort and
the efforts of other group members who contribute needed knowledge, skills,
and resources. No one group member will possess all of the information, skills,
or resources necessary for the highest possible quality presentation.
Why Use Cooperative Learning?
Students' learning goals may be structured to promote cooperative, competitive,
or individualistic efforts. In contrast to cooperative situations, competitive
situations are ones in which students work against each other to achieve
a goal that only one or a few can attain. In competition there is a negative
interdependence among goal achievements; students perceive that they can
obtain their goals if and only if the other students in the class fail to
obtain their goals (Deutsch, 1962; Johnson and Johnson, 1989). Norm-referenced
evaluation of achievement occurs. The result is that students either work
hard to do better than their classmates, or they take it easy because they
do not believe they have a chance to win. In individualistic learning situations
students work alone to accomplish goals unrelated to those of classmates
and are evaluated on a criterion-referenced basis. Students' goal achievements
are independent; students perceive that the achievement of their learning
goals is unrelated to what other students do (Deutsch, 1962, Johnson and
Johnson, 1989). The result is to focus on self-interest and personal success
and ignore as irrelevant the successes and failures of others.
There is a long history of research on cooperative, competitive, and
individualistic efforts. Since the first research study in 1898, nearly
600 experimental studies and over 100 correlational studies have been
conducted (see Johnson and Johnson, 1989 for a complete review of these
studies). The multiple outcomes studied can be classified into three
major categories: achievement/productivity, positive relationships, and
psychological health. The research clearly indicates that cooperation,
compared with competitive and individualistic efforts, typically results
in (a) higher achievement and greater productivity; (b) more caring,
supportive, and committed relationships; and (c) greater psychological
health, social competence, and self-esteem. The positive effects that
cooperation has on so many important outcomes makes cooperative learning
one of the most valuable tools educators have.
What Makes Cooperative Groups Work?
Educators fool themselves if they think well-meaning directives to "work
together," “cooperate," and "be a team," will be
enough to create cooperative efforts among group members. Placing students
in groups and telling them to work together does not in and of itself result
in cooperation. Not all groups are cooperative. Sitting in groups, for example,
can result in competition at close quarters or individualistic effort with
talking. To structure lessons so students do in fact work cooperatively with
each other requires an understanding of the components that make cooperation
work. Mastering the essential components of cooperation allows teachers to:
- Take existing lessons, curricula, and courses and structure them
cooperatively.
- Tailor cooperative learning lessons to meet the unique instructional
circumstances and needs of the curricula, subject areas, and students.
- Diagnose the problems some students may have in working together
and intervene to increase the effectiveness of the student learning
groups.
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