Cayabyab, E. C., & Jacobs, G. M. (1999). Making small groups work via
cooperative learning. The ACELT Journal, 3(2), 27-31. [corresponding
author:
[email protected]]
Making Small Groups Work via
Cooperative Learning
I. WHAT IS COOPERATIVE LEARNING?
Improving the strategies in teaching English has always been
prioritized in the Philippines. The Department of Education, Culture and
Sports through the language experts both local and foreign, have introduced
new innovation and current trends in teaching which gradually resulted to
the improvement of pedagogical strategies. Though most teachers still
adhere to the traditional chalk and talk method, there are also teachers
who are more than willing to try better strategies. These teachers
welcome new methods to answer the learners' demands at a certain point of
time. The classroom, being the teaching field is the final recipient of
these methods which are theoretically based on sound teaching.
The traditional classroom is ordinarily pictured as teacher-centered
dominated by whole class discussions. Then, as teaching turns to be more
complex and challenging the principle of encouraging maximum participation
in the classroom emerged. This results to the increasing demand in the use
of group which include pair and group work.
Using groups in the language classroom primarily makes the students
to talk together in order to learn from one another. The cogent principles
that support the use of groups are:
1.The students can seat closely to each other to communicate at the same
time develop their collaborative or social skills.
2.The students develop the sense of commitment as they take responsibility
in performing specific roles and functions.
3.Class activities can be accomplished in much shorter period of time since
almost everybody is involved in performing the tasks.
The principles in using group work can be culled from the article
written by Puente and Tajonera in the ACELT Journal, Vol. 2 , 1998 "Using
Small Groups Work in the English Language Classroom". This article
presented practical views on how to manage the class using small groups and
the benefits derived from using it. The said authors may not have mentioned
the term cooperative learning but what they explained touched on some
features of cooperative learning, such as positive interdependence,
individual accountability, simultaneous interaction and equal
participation. The said features of cooperative learning will be explained
in the succeeding portions of this article. And to enrich our ideas on how
to manage group works, this article is very timely to introduce what
cooperative learning is and how it structures group work to make the
students learn more effectively.
What is cooperative learning? Obviously, the keyword is cooperation.
Cooperation is the powerful tie that binds people in groups regardless of
the social structure. Social structure refers to the groupings in the
society such as family, community, tribe, district, regional division,
club, organization, team and etc. These groups would not have emerged
successfully without cooperation. By nature, humans use cooperation as a
basic survival tool. Groups have existed for as long as there have been
humans, and society has used groups to attain its goals. A small school
society like the classroom can make use of cooperation to realize its goals
and improve learners' performance. Therefore, the capacity to learn by
working with others is built within every human and can be reinforced in
the classroom through cooperative learning. In the school context,
cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals; thus,
cooperative learning in the instructional use of small groups so that
students work together to maximize their own and each other learning.
According to Kagan (1992), cooperative learning has four essential
elements and they are explained below:
1. Positive Interdependence- is the heart, the first and most important
element of cooperative learning. Positive Interdependence makes the members
feel that they are linked with each other so they sink or swim together. If
one fails, all fails. If one succeeds, everybody succeeds. Group members
realize that each members' efforts benefit not only himself/ herself but
all the group members as well. Positive interdependence spells commitment,
and if there is no commitment there is no cooperation.
2. Individual Accountability- means that the group must be accountable for
achieving its goals; thus, each individual member must be accountable to
learn and contribute his/her fair share of work. In other words, no one
can hitchhike or free ride on the efforts of other. The purpose of
cooperative learning is to make each member a stronger individual in his or
her right.
3 Simultaneous Interaction – is evident in cooperative learning. Working
in groups enables specific members in every team to communicate
simultaneously at the same time. Unlike the traditional classroom, only one
student responds to the teachers question at a time, in cooperative
learning there is maximum participation due to simultaneous interaction
among the members.
4. Equal Participation- is encouraged in cooperative learning because every
member has the chance to communicate at a pre-determined amount of time.
In the traditional classroom so many students stay silent the whole period,
in cooperative learning all the students will have equal participation in
terms not only in terms of the amount of time in speaking but also the
chance to perform different roles.
The features discussed above are not simply characteristics of a
cooperative learning group, they are disciplines that have to be applied
consistently to produce conditions for a true cooperative action.
Cooperation spells commitment which is fundamental in any cooperative
learning group.
II. SOME COOPERATIVE LEARNING METHODS WITH SUGGESTED LESSONS
1.Three-Step Interview (Kagan, 1992)
Students form groups of four members. The four members will
have
designated letters as in A, B, C and D.
Step 1. Student A interviews B; student C interviews D.
Step 2. Student B interviews A; student D interviews C.
Step 3. Student A tells C and D about B.
Student B tells C and D about A.
Student C tells A and B about D.
Student D tells A and B about C.
All the interviews and sharings will be done for two-three minutes
each.The
three-step interview can be used in the selection "Courage" by Bienvenido
Santos p. 94
in the English I SEDP Series published by the Department of Education,
.Culture and
Sports. The following questions can be used as interview questions:
1. Have you ever seen someone courageous? What did he/she do?
2. What is an example of a time you were courageous or wish you had been ?
3. Ask your partner your own question about courage
2. Numbered Heads Together (Kagan, 1992)
Procedure:
Step 1. The teacher has students number off within groups, so that
each student
is 1,2,3 or 4.
Step 2. The teacher announces the question.
Step 3. The students/members literally put their heads together.
Step 4. Teacher calls a number.
This cooperative learning method can be used in the post-
reading lesson. In this example, the selection written by Tayao et. al in
1994 about Contemporary Life will be used. This selection is found in the
book published by Rex Bookstore, English Fourth Year Series , page 118.
Step 1. Students form groups of four. In every group of four, each member
has a designated number: 1,2,3, or 4.
Step 2. The teacher asks a question about the topic and states the time
limit for the groups to answer. the question is directed to everybody so
that all the members will be encouraged to think. There are questions with
multiple answers, in that case, every group representative has the chance
to give different but correct answers and to explain how they got their
answers. Written below are the sample questions
What are the demands of contemporary life that people have to face?
What are objective ways of coping with problems and pressures?
What are drastic ways of solving problems?.
( All the answers to the questions are found in the reading passage.)
Step 3. The members put their heads together. They discuss and explain the
reasons for their individual answer until they finally arrive at a common
answer. The group makes sure that everybody knows and can explain the
correct answer.
Step 4. the teacher calls a number at random. Students having the same
number raise their hands and the teacher calls someone to answer. The
student who answers explains to the group reasons for their answer. Team
scores can be noted on the board to inspire the students to do well in then
activity.
III. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THREE-STEP INTERVIEW AND NUMBERED
HEADS TOGETHER AS COOPERATIVE LEARNING METHODS
THREE-STEP INTERVIEW
Positive interdependence is promoted because the students need to
listen to everybody's sharing because they will share in the group/class
what they learned in the interview. Individual accountability is manifested
because everyone is accountable to share and contribute. There is
simultaneous interaction. In ten groups of four, there are two members per
group who are interacting in steps 1 and 2. That means 20 students are
interacting at the same time. In step 3, one member per group interacts;
thus, 10 members are simultaneously interacting at the same time. Equal
participation is evident because each member shares at a pre-determined
amount of time with varying roles as interviewer and interviewee.
NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER
Positive interdependence is encouraged because the members become
intellectually and socially active to participate and contribute to arrive
at the correct answer and to be sure each member can explain the answer.
Individual accountability is emphasized because once the student's number
is called, her/his answer represents the team. inefficiency of one member
negatively affects the team's performance. Simultaneous interaction is
enhanced because once the teacher announces the questions, all the members
will join their heads together. There is equal participation since all the
members have the chance to be called as the teacher calls the numbers
(1,2,3,4) at random using a number wheel or any other device that can be
improvised by the teacher.
IV. WHY DO WE NEED TO USE COOPERATIVE LEARNING?
Multitudes of documented studies and research have attest to the
benefits
derived in using cooperative learning. The benefits of using cooperative
learning can
also be culled from the 600 experimental and over 100 correlated studies
since 1898
(Johnson et al. ,1994). Below are some of its advantages.
Cooperative learning prepares the students to have higher-level
thinking, communication, and social skills (Solomon, Solomon and Davidson
in Davidson Worsham ,1992) which are requisites for participating in an
increasing complex, interdependent and cosmopolitan society because
cooperative learning diverts the class rule from autocratic by the teacher
to more democratic rule. It is no longer a teacher-dominated classroom
because the students are given opportunities for more equal participation
just like in a democratic society. Further, research suggests that
cooperative learning fosters academic gains, improved race relations among
students in integrated classrooms, and improved social and affective
development (Kagan,1992).
Another advantage of cooperative learning is that teamwork,
interaction, and communication characterizes the workplace of the future
and cooperative learning
prepares youth for such cooperative interactions (Kagan, 1992).
Eleonor C. Cayabyab
Teacher-II,Regional Science High School III
SBMA, Olongapo City
