We explain what cooperative learning is, its principles and its advantages. In addition, we tell you how it can be applied in the classroom.
What is cooperative learning?
Learning is the process by which people acquire new knowledge, beliefs and values as a result of dynamics of observation, practice and reasoning. Learning is a complex process, which can be approached from different perspectives, and this allows the design of different theories of learning, that is, different explanations and descriptions on the subject.
Learning theories, at the same time, allow the creation of different learning and teaching methods, which differ from each other in how they understand the fact of learning. One of these methods is cooperative learning.
Cooperative learning is a type of constructivist learning that considers academic experience as a social fact within the classroom, and therefore raises the need for teamwork and the exchange of information between students. In this way, students not only play an active role in their own learning, but also enhance that of others.
One of the great promoters and precursors of cooperative learning was the American educational psychologist John Dewey (1859-1952), leader in the progressive pedagogy of his country during the 20th century. His ideas proposed “child-centered” teaching, which would turn the classroom into a social environment of interaction and mutual help.
See also: Pedagogical approach
Principles of cooperative learning
The principles of cooperative learning can be formulated as follows:
- Learning is a social fact, which occurs in classrooms and which requires both individual effort and the appropriate group context. Cooperation and collaboration are its fundamental precepts, and its ideal dynamic is teamwork.
- Learning is constructivist, that is, requires the active participation of the student to be produced, and should not be relegated to the passive and monotonous role imposed by teaching models based on repetition and memorization.
- The teacher must act as a guide and companion in the learning process, providing the necessary guidance for it to occur. Its task is to promote comprehensive learning, focused on problem solving.
- Group learning must be based on synergy, positive interdependence, equitable participation and individual responsibility as well as in simultaneous and face-to-face interaction in problem solving.
- According to the American psychologist and educator Spencer Kagan, collective learning can be understood under the slogan that “the interaction of the parts exceeds the sum of the isolated parts ”.
Advantages of cooperative learning
Cooperative learning has the following virtues, above traditional educational models:
- Promotes teamwork negotiation and recognition of the other. In other words, it fosters the democratic spirit.
- Promotes solidarity and cooperation as fundamental values of existence.
- Promotes respect, tolerance and equality without detracting from the critical sense, the capacity for reflection and individual effort.
- Prepares the student for social situations complex in their future life.
How to apply cooperative learning?
Cooperative learning requires, as its name suggests, interaction between students, so His favorite method of working is in small groups of around four members, who must be as heterogeneous as possible. Each individual must have a specific objective which responds to a carefully designed system of interactions, so that it cannot be achieved without the collaboration and effort of others.
Of course, simply working in groups is not enough to achieve cooperative learning. The idea is to assign specific roles within each group, to promote internal organization and negotiated management of time and resources. It is vital that all members of the group fulfill some role and that all roles are equally important.
These study groups can be of three types:
- Formal groups which operate during a variable period between one hour and several weeks of class. The group's objectives must be common and students must ensure that each member of the group achieves the proposed goals. The approval of the group will depend on the approval of each of the students.
- Informal groups which operate during a variable period between a few minutes and an hour of class. They can be used for direct teaching activities (such as demonstrations or exercises), where rapid but sincere interaction, communication and collaboration is required.
- grassroots groups which operate long term, during the school year. Its members are permanent and must be as heterogeneous as possible, under the central motto of cooperating academically and socially with the educational progress of each colleague. The idea is that the members establish lasting and responsible relationships, which teach them to negotiate and respect each other, based on interdependence.
Broadly speaking, the work scheme of these groups must respond to work instructions, in which they are assigned active, leading and interdependent roles, which will be developed during a specific time. At the end of this period, the group must self-evaluate and evaluate the performance of each member, under the principles of constructive criticism and the promotion of individual growth.
Continue with: Problem-based learning
References
- “Learning theories” on Wikipedia.
- Cooperative learning” on Wikipedia.
- “Cooperative learning” (video) at UNED.
- “Cooperative learning in the classroom” at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain).
- “Notes on cooperative learning” by Elizabeth Gothelf in the Government of the Argentine Republic.
