Collaborative/Cooperative Learning

"Collaborative or cooperative learning can be defined as learning tasks or activities where students work together in a group small enough for everyone to participate on a collective task that has been clearly assigned. This can be either a joint task where group members do different aspects of the task but contribute to a common overall outcome, or a shared task where group members work together throughout the activity. Some collaborative learning approaches also get mixed ability teams or groups to work in competition with each other, in order to drive more effective collaboration."
(Education Endowment Foundation)

My Practice

This year, I have begun to develop my practice specifically towards cooperative learning. In my classroom, students work together in small 'pods' (3 or 4 students) where the goal is to help and support each other to develop their learning and understanding.

(source: National Wildlife Federation)

Within each pod, I try to mix gender, ability and other factors. When needed, students have changed pods during the year. For a small minority students, it has been more of a challenge to settle them to work collaboratively within a pod and to find the most effective pod for them to work in. I have found older students are more likely to create a stable and effective pod which stays in tact for the whole year. I would suggest this is probably because their friendships with other students is more secure. Younger students are generally happy to work within pods, but these have to be altered more frequently throughout the year to achieve balance and harmony within the class.

I have not imposed a competitive element into my system yet. I am considering it carefully for next year and I'm thinking of trialing it with my KS3 classes (11-14). I am aware of the importance of getting this right so will need to do more research over the next couple of months.

I actively encourage students to work closely within their pods. Specific tasks are created to encourage discussion within the pod. When an individual seeks help from me, I tend to talk and involve the pod as a group, thus encouraging them to work and think as a team. This often ensures quieter members of the pod also get support. On this note, both introvert and extrovert students seem to work well within this system and neither type dominates. I encourage higher ability members to support their pod with explicit praise, both verbal and written.

Evidence

"Evidence about the benefits of collaborative learning has been found consistently for over 40 years and a number of research studies have been completed. In addition to direct evidence from research into collaborative learning approaches, there is also indirect evidence where collaboration has been shown to the effectiveness of other approaches such as mastery learning or digital technology. It appears to work well for all ages if activities are suitably structured for learners’ capabilities and positive evidence has been found across the curriculum."
(Education Endowment Foundation)

Reflections

Collaborative/Cooperative learning has helped to develop a positive atmosphere within my classroom. I have found the vast majority of students work well within the pods and this has helped to develop independent learning skills as they tend to ask each other first and only ask me if confusion or uncertainty remains. To help students, I move between pods, rather than individuals, which is more time-effective. This strategy seems to work very naturally with Mathematics.

For more information:

• Concept to Classroom
• Education Scotland
• Behaviour Advisor
• Carlton University
• Collaborative Learning Project