Cooperative Learning References

Cooperative Learning
from the perspective of Theresa Overall

What is Cooperative Learning?

"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)." [Johnson and Johnson] To me, the biggest difference between cooperative learning and old-fashioned "group work" is the structures. In cooperative learning, the teacher/leader provides structures to insure cooperation for that event and to teach behaviors that will lead to cooperation in other situations.

Where can I learn more about Cooperative Learning?

The two leading expert organizations in the field of Cooperative Learning are The Cooperative Learning Center at The University of Minnesota (led by Roger T. Johnson and David W. Johnson) and Kagan Publishing and Professional Development (led by Spencer Kagan). I am personally more familiar with Kagan because that is what I learned through professional development workshops at The Lamplighter School where I taught for 21 years. For acquiring information on the topic on your own, The Cooperative Learning Center is a non-profit organization and much of their information is available on-line. Kagan Publishing and Professional Development probably has more materials available in a wider and deeper variety of fields and applications. But at Kagan Publishing, you have to buy the books.

A real nice overview of Cooperative Learning that compares Kagan and the Johnsons is from the "Active Learning Center" web page. I know nothing of this group, but the overview of cooperative learning is great!

I've copied the information from two of web pages that used to be on the Kagan Publishing website that I felt were most informative to beginning users of cooperative structures and have linked them below.

10 Most Frequently Asked Questions About Cooperative Learning

Listing of Some Cooperative Structures

This chart lists some of the structures we've used in class and describes ways you might be able to use it in your classes. Please help me out and remind me if I forget an activity or if you can think of other applications.

Which
structure(s)
were used What we did Purpose Other applications/ benefits of this structure

Swap 'n Stop
Line Up (or Loop) Everyone filled out an index about themselves. We walked around and "swapped" cards, then when I said, "stop," everyone did. One person called out the name on his/her card, that person came and stood next to person #1. Person #2 called out the name on his/her card, etc. until someone had Person #1 on their card and that was the loop. Then we went around the loop and told a fact about the person who was on our card. Our purpose was to simply get to know more about each other. If you're studying the presidents of the United States, create index cards for each president. Swap, then stop. Students arrange themselves in chronological order of the presidents (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison,...).
Swap 'n Stop is also an effective cooperative structure to use with Mix 'n Match. (Do Swap 'n Stop to do the "mixing" then the students find their match.):
Have pairs of index cards that go together--a Spanish word and an English equivalent (one card says "casa" one says "house") or 2 math sentences that are equal (one card has 6 x 7, another has 50 - 8). After you stop, everyone holds their card in front of them so others can see it and silently tries to find his/her partner.

Pair-Share
When you and a partner compared your "organizer" about a learning theory, you had a chance to add to or correct your work.
It was a chance for you to confirm your answers in a non-threatening environment.
Oh my goodness, once you discover pair-share you'll do it all the time and your students will learn to prefer it over anything else. A common usage is to ask a question and instead of one person telling the class, one person from each pair tells the partner. Then on the next question, you switch.

Pair-Square
After you and your partner shared your organizers, you acted as a unit and shared with another set of partners. There are other ways to pair-square if you read Kagan's materials, this is just one.
Just in case you and your partner had any common misconceptions, the likelihood of their being shared by another set of two people was fairly slim. This was the second step in the confirmation process, plus it gave you yet another opportunity to talk about your learning theory before you had to teach it to someone.
This is an organized way to do small group discussions. You can even time it and say, pair A talks for a set time, then pair B talks for an equal amount of time.

There's a fancy name for this that I need to look up; it's basically having experts share their new knowledge
Once all four people in the pair-square group were "experts" on their learning theory, you were individually buddied up with someone who was an expert in a different learning theory. Then the two of you taught each other.
Each person only has to invest a lot of time in one topic and then learns the other topics from a peer. Everyone gets a chance to be both learner and teacher.
"To teach is to learn twice" (attributed to Joseph Joubert, a French moralist, 1754 - 1824). Think about the power of that sentence. Then think about the power of this learning/teaching technique.

Which structure(s) were used	What we did	Purpose	Other applications/ benefits of this structure
Swap 'n Stop Line Up (or Loop)	Everyone filled out an index about themselves. We walked around and "swapped" cards, then when I said, "stop," everyone did. One person called out the name on his/her card, that person came and stood next to person #1. Person #2 called out the name on his/her card, etc. until someone had Person #1 on their card and that was the loop. Then we went around the loop and told a fact about the person who was on our card.	Our purpose was to simply get to know more about each other.	If you're studying the presidents of the United States, create index cards for each president. Swap, then stop. Students arrange themselves in chronological order of the presidents (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison,...). Swap 'n Stop is also an effective cooperative structure to use with Mix 'n Match. (Do Swap 'n Stop to do the "mixing" then the students find their match.): Have pairs of index cards that go together--a Spanish word and an English equivalent (one card says "casa" one says "house") or 2 math sentences that are equal (one card has 6 x 7, another has 50 - 8). After you stop, everyone holds their card in front of them so others can see it and silently tries to find his/her partner.
Pair-Share	When you and a partner compared your "organizer" about a learning theory, you had a chance to add to or correct your work.	It was a chance for you to confirm your answers in a non-threatening environment.	Oh my goodness, once you discover pair-share you'll do it all the time and your students will learn to prefer it over anything else. A common usage is to ask a question and instead of one person telling the class, one person from each pair tells the partner. Then on the next question, you switch.
Pair-Square	After you and your partner shared your organizers, you acted as a unit and shared with another set of partners. There are other ways to pair-square if you read Kagan's materials, this is just one.	Just in case you and your partner had any common misconceptions, the likelihood of their being shared by another set of two people was fairly slim. This was the second step in the confirmation process, plus it gave you yet another opportunity to talk about your learning theory before you had to teach it to someone.	This is an organized way to do small group discussions. You can even time it and say, pair A talks for a set time, then pair B talks for an equal amount of time.
There's a fancy name for this that I need to look up; it's basically having experts share their new knowledge	Once all four people in the pair-square group were "experts" on their learning theory, you were individually buddied up with someone who was an expert in a different learning theory. Then the two of you taught each other.	Each person only has to invest a lot of time in one topic and then learns the other topics from a peer. Everyone gets a chance to be both learner and teacher.	"To teach is to learn twice" (attributed to Joseph Joubert, a French moralist, 1754 - 1824). Think about the power of that sentence. Then think about the power of this learning/teaching technique.