What is cooperative learning?

‘Cooperative learning is group learning activity organised in such a way that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups. Each leaner is held accountable for his or her own learning, and is motivated to increase the learning of others.’

R.E.W-B Olsen and S. Kagan. [In Kessler, 1992].Cooperative learning is group learning activity organised so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups and to which each leaner is held accountable for his or her own learning, and is motivated to increase the learning of others.R.E.W-B Olsen and S. Kagan. [In Kessler, 1992].Cooperative learning was started and developed predominantly in the USA, Israel and Germany. It can be defined as an approach to learning in small groups, organised in such a way that effective learning takes place and is maximised by a combined exchange of information among individual components of a group as well as between groups. Each learner in a cooperative class is not only responsible for his or her own learning but also for his or her peers’ learning.

A typical feature of this type of approach is a genuinely collaborative classroom climate that develops within the institutional context in which it is implemented.

The educational efficiency of interaction among peers as compared to either competitive or individualistic learning modes has been repeatedly demonstrated [and often experienced].

However, asking learners to sit in small groups, having them work on specific tasks, and creating opportunities for interaction, in itself does not make a lesson cooperative. It merely creates group work. Structuring a cooperative lesson means understanding and carefully putting into practice five essential components of cooperative learning.

Positive Interdependence

This must be created by providing a task and a goal in which every learner is involved, both individually and as a member of the group.

Individual and Group Accountability

This is necessary for the successful performance of the task and for the achievement of the agreed [or stipulated] goals and objectives. Nobody can let themselves be carried or dragged along by the rest of the group. And the group cannot tolerate this.

Positive and Active Interaction

The way that groups and teams are formed and behave is an essential element in cooperative learning. The criteria for grouping trainees may vary but they are always closely related to a cooperative perspective.

Deployment of Social Skills

It is essential to teach group skills explicitly and to develop the group dynamic. These are skills that are aimed at facilitating managerial capacities, at developing the ability to negotiate and to resolve problems and conflicts, and at developing the ability to communicate in public.

Group Evaluation

This entails a guided reflection both on the linguistic and cognitive procedures followed by the whole group and on the group members’ perceptions of individual and group performance and progress.

Further Reading

Rebecca Oxford: Co-operative learning, collaborative learning and ınteraction: three communicative strands in the language classroom

Sachs, Candlin and Rose: Developing Cooperative Learning in the Efl/Esl Secondary Classroom (link coming)

Ghazi Ghaith: Effects of the Learning Together Model of Cooperative Learning on English as a foreign Language Reading Achievement, academic Self-Esteem, and Feelings of School Alienation (link coming)

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