Cooperative Learning Groups

Cooperative Learning is a key way to tie social emotional learning to the content in my classroom.The 5 essential  cooperative learning:.Positive Interdependence,.Individual Accountability,.Face to Face Promotive Interaction,.Interpersonal and Social Skills, and Group Processing all support social emotional learning. This allows students to develop deeper empathy and see others as human beings. Students need these skills to be 21st century workers and global citizens.

Cooperative learning increases student motivation because of the social interaction and working together. In the first video, he also mentions that human interaction can help students become better human beings because they can learn to better understand others, be able to function in a group, and learn the importance of working with others as well. He states, and I agree, that the outcome of all is creating better human beings to function in this world beyond school. There are many roles in cooperative learning tasks that can help to foster more participation out of students who may not otherwise participate much. The individual accountability part of cooperative learning is huge as well. The group processing of cooperative learning goes right into 21st century skills, norms of collaboration and skills employers will want. Social skills will be huge for the workplace and functioning as an adult. The second video gave great tips for how to make it work, starting with baby steps and small size groups to begin. All of this ties into the SEL teaching we are adding into our daily schedules, as well as weekly “Sown to Grow” check-ins from each student. It encourages collaboration between students, and practicing the emotional and social skills they need to develop and perfect in using.

I really enjoyed the videos and the article. Cooperative learning experiences offer ways for students to learn 21st Century skills because they are working with others and being truly dependent on their group to complete a task. This mimics the real world because employees will have to work with all kinds of people in different situations to achieve a goal, so developing the social skills necessary to make this happen is a life-long skill. In the video, the author encouraged random group selection to simulate what real jobs can be like. Sometimes people have to work in groups with others who are very different from them, and other times they work in homogenous groups. The random selection keeps things interesting. Groups creating their own norms is also a cooperative experience as they determine what is acceptable and achievable for them. The team member evaluations are tools that real businesses use to hold each other accountable in a group, and using these tools in the classroom prepares students to not only be responsible for their own part, but also prepares them for the kind of evaluation tools they may see in the future. 

What Skills/Norms Cooperative Learning Addresses

Social Skills: Students are explicitly taught highlighted social skills that could be transferred to the workplace (e.g. how to propose an idea, how to give feedback, etc.). Furthermore, students are than able to practice the social skills taught, as well as receive feedback from the teacher at the end of the activity. Students are also able to practice these social skills face-to-face, similar to a workplace environment.

Diversity: Students should be placed in random groups. This randomization will help to simulate the diverse people, backgrounds, and values that students will someday encounter in the workplace. Not all people will be friends, but they must find a way to work along side each other civilly, respectfully, and productively.

Self-reflection/Taking in Feedback: For developing individual accountability, students will evaluate themselves and other group members at the end of a cooperative learning activity. By doing this, students are practicing they type of self-initiation and self-reflection that employers will look for. By receiving feedback from other group members, students will learn how to take constructive criticism as feedback to improve, not a personal attack.

Structured cooperative learning experiences offer many opportunities for students to develop necessary skills.  It allows for students to work on specific tasks, have structure, and designated roles.  Working in a situation like this is very much like the environment they will encounter with a future job.  The students also will have to talk with, and understand, each other.  This will take a lot of communication back and forth, to teach, clarify, and question each other.  Within each group, there will also be norms as to who speaks when, how conflicts are settled, how to help a struggling group member, etc.  Speaking and responding to each other in productive ways is necessary for a successful experience.  Students are able to apply and learn social skills through their cooperative learning experience.  Students also are part of working towards a shared goal.  They learn what it means to work as part of a team.  Through their shared experience in the group, they will succeed or fail together based on their individual contributions.  Employers are often looking for people who are "team players", and cooperative learning helps to teach that concept.

Creating a Cooperative Learning experiences take time and baby steps. Some of the strategies used would be giving parts to each student in the group based on knowledge, experience, and skills. This will help build the leadership roles within. The group work helps build social skills and creating interactions with one another. There are some students who have a hard time with social skills. Building accountability and responsibility is highly important with Cooperative Learning - check-ins, individual grades/scores, and surveys will show the growth and places that need improvement. Teamwork will help bring encouragement to one another, offer support, and provide feedback. After the task is complete, reflection works wonders - what the student can build on next time, what growth the students saw, and how the group worked as a whole.  

-Students learn to work with people of various viewpoints and in a variety of social dynamics, particularly when groups are randomized

-No one is left behind, students become responsible for the well being of the community by ensuring that people are not allowed to fail

-Students experience accountability to a community within their assigned role

-Activities can be structured with time for students to reflect not only on the content knowledge which they have gained, but also upon the effectiveness of their communication and social interactions. Students can be guided towards awareness of areas for improvement in their social interactions. 

In Cooperative learning, groups, students need to be able to work together in order to complete a task.Students learn to work together and motivate each other. In order for these groups to be successful they need:

- Positive interdependence and individual accountability: each student is given a specific job or task to complete. In the workforce, employees are constantly being given a job to do and are held accountable for completing it.

- Individual accountability: at work, everyone is responsible for one part and at some point, is responsible for their part. 

- Group processing: reflection is a skill that everyone should posses. It allows you to evaluate how well you worked in a group and what needs to be worked on for future projects.

- Social skills: everyone should feel respected by being given undivided attention in order to share ideas and to work well together. 

- Specific task: employees will often be given specific tasks to complete for example: a retail worker will need to reach a certain amount of money before their shift is over. 

- Face to face interaction: this is extremely important in order to work cooperatively in a group. 

Students learn to work together and motivate each other. In most jobs, this is a required skill. They learn positive interdependence when everyone has to do their part in order to be successful. They are all held accountable for their part and must reflect and assess what worked and what didn't work in specific projects. Structured cooperative learning also teaches them the social skills employers want by interacting face to face and providing all their attention. In the workforce, the boss doesn't tell an employee to "go clean". They give them specific rooms or areas to clean. This also goes for working in a restaurant, school and pretty much everywhere. This is something learned from cooperative learning since each person is given specific tasks to complete for a common goal, and keeps them on task to complete their part.