Cooperative Learning
Reviewed: January 2008
This page has been kept for reference.
It will no longer be updated by ICVET.
Cooperative Learning is a relationship in a group of students that requires positive interdependence (a sense of sink or swim together), individual accountability (each of us has to contribute and learn), interpersonal skills (communication, trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution), face-to-face promotive interaction, and processing (reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how to function even better).
Cooperative learning exists when students work together to accomplish shared learning goals (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). Each student can achieve his or her learning goal if and only if the other group members achieve theirs (Deutsch, 1962). Students involved in cooperative learning groups usually become more socially skilled and more productive than students who are engaged in competitive and individualistic efforts. Through cooperative learning students learn to work together, modelling how many tasks are accomplished in the 'real' work world.
Be aware that the borders around collaborative and cooperative learning have merged and the two terms can be interchangeable.
Websites
The Cooperative Learning Centre at the University of Minnesota
An information filled website where you will find an overview of cooperative learning, cooperative learning methods, discussion on cooperative versus traditional, cooperative learning and assessment, cooperative learning in the culturally diverse classroom and copies of current and past newsletters. Check out the 2005 newsletter for a comparison of cooperative learning to democracy.
The Cooperative Learning Network
An information-rich website maintained by an association of colleagues who model, share, support, and advocate for the use of cooperative learning.
Office of Research - Cooperative Learning
While this webpage is now archived information as it is dated June 1992, it is informative, easy to read and understand. Here you will find cooperative learning defined as ‘a teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject.’
Five Levels of Cooperative Learning Activities for Adult Learners
Linda Thistlethwaite believes that cooperative learning is natural practice for the adult education classroom. She argues that group problem-solving is how adults handle most real-world problems and being able to work cooperatively contributes to an individual's success as a member of the workforce. See the links to the Five Levels of Cooperative Learning Activities for Adult Learners.
Active and Cooperative Learning
This website of Dr. Richard M. Felder (Hoechst Celanese Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University) contains links to several of his writings on active and cooperative learning principles and strategies. Dr Felder has contributed to over 200 publications and here you will find links to several of his writings along with links to other active/cooperative learning web sites.
Kennesaw State University - Cooperative Learning
Visually, a clear, concise website that communicates in plain English what is cooperative learning and what it can achieve, reasons why to use it, the five elements of cooperative learning along with a descriptive list of activities that incorporate cooperative learning.
Digital Library and Archive - Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking
This academic writing is based on research into the results of collaborative learning compared to skill and drill learning. It contains a definition of collaborative learning and a host of information that could help you to persuade others collaborative learning will improve trainer skills in delivering training.
Cooperative Learning In Technology Education
There is more to cooperative learning than 'just having students work in groups.' This paper explains that cooperative learning strategies should differ based on the characteristics of the group and the task at hand, and that there are times when cooperative learning is not appropriate.
Publications
GILLIES, RM & Ashman, A (Eds) 2003, Cooperative learning: The social and intellectual outcomes of learning in groups, Routledge Falmer, London.
Written for educators, educational psychologists, and researchers, this book discusses the importance of co-operative learning as an effective teaching approach. Providing key insights to its practical application, the book examines how co-operative learning experiences can promote socialisation, friendships and facilitate learning.
SLAVIN, RE 1990, Cooperative learning: Theory, research and practice, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
This book presents a concise guide to research on the subject of cooperative learning. It includes recent developments that point to essential elements of cooperative methods, intergroup relations, positive mainstreaming outcomes and self-esteem.
JOHNSON, D W & Johnson, R T 1994, Learning together and alone: Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning, 4th Edn, Allyn and Bacon, Boston.
An interesting book that covers group work in education, individualised instruction, interaction analysis in education and lesson planning.
JOHNSON D & Johnson, R 1996, Meaningful and manageable assessment through cooperative learning, Burgess Publishing Company.
The authors provide a practical, comprehensive coverage of assessment procedures. This is demonstrated with forms and instructions on how these procedures become more meaningful and manageable with cooperative groups.