Implement cooperative learning with real problems, slow growth, team building, a safe environment, teacher modeling, mixed academic levels, and a teacher shift from directing to facilitating¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The handbook lists eight aids to cooperative learning for adult classrooms. It works best when real problems are assigned to be solved and when participants have been involved in team building activities so they learn to think as a team that will sink or swim together. "The environment needsto be safe: students must be able to make mistakes and take risks." Teachers must model techniques, social skills, and learning strategies; students must be encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning; academic levels need to be mixed; and roles must change, with the teacher moving from directing to facilitating and students from passive to active participation.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• The teacher needs to model the techniques, social skills, and learning strategies and encourage students to practice often
• Academic levels need to be mixed in the groups

Constraints¶

• The handbook cautions that cooperative learning is one instructional approach and is not intended for every group or situation

Target Learners¶

• Adult learners in ABE, ESL, and GED classrooms

Target Learning Goals¶

• Risk-taking and mistake-making in a safe environment
• Student responsibility for own learning
• Group effectiveness skills

Related Strategies¶

• Use named cooperative learning structures adapted to adult classrooms, including Student Team Learning, Think-Pair-Share, Jigsaw, Teaming Together, and Group Investigation
• Establish Group Norms
• Team-Building Through Problem-Based Learning

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• You Can Be in a Group and Still Not Cooperate: Collaborative Approaches and Cooperative Learning Activities for Adult Learners. (1993). Parma City School District. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED361492