Deona's Minute Paper

I reviewed the book Cooperative Learning and the Collaborative School. It was very interesting, although it is geared for grades k-12. It described group learning where students are placed in groups of four: one of high ability, two of medium, and one low. The teacher would give a lesson on a subject and then the groups would work together to learn the material. As a group they would complete worksheets or other similar activities. Then the students are individually quizzed, and the totals compiled to make a group score.

The authors argue that the traditional classroom makes it hard for everyone to succeed. This is due to the use of the grading curve, higher expectations a teacher may have due to the achievements of stronger students, and the peer pressure by students who do not wish to be "nerds." These writers argue that students learn better from other students who speak "kidspeak," and that all of them benefit from teaching others.

In order for this form of cooperative learning to work, two things must happen: There must be a group goal in place, including a reward system, and all group members must learn. The goal needs to be the sum of the group work, not just the group's resulting worksheets, activities, etc.

I had several questions after reading this book: This book is geared toward K-12. How can these strategies be applied to the college level? How do we teach students to work together to achieve our goals? Doesn't the reward system defeat one of [my] purposes of education: to encourage individuals to desire learning for the sake of learning? How do you prevent high end students from doing all the work? [The book does address this issue, but I still questioned it.] If the group goal is needed,what kinds of classroom activities would achieve this? How can I use group choice [ie. students choose what essays to read, what topic to write about, etc.] to raise student interest and encourage participation?

Brandt, Ronald S., ed. Cooperative Learning and the Collaborative School. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1991. Read more about this book . . .

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