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Another viewpoint
Cooperative learning: Training for ‘real world’
Sunday, April 13, 2008
By SUSAN SHEARER -
Tim, a former student of mine, dropped by during Christmas break because he wanted to thank me for making him work in groups in the classroom. Tim had transferred to Neumont University in Utah after his work at PHCC to continue his education in computer software development. Neumont is graduating some of the brightest software developers in the world. Tim said that several of his courses required students to work cooperatively in groups, and they often kept the same group from course to course as they worked on projects for different software applications. While working in groups was not something Tim enjoyed doing at first, he said his experience at PHCC had prepared him for working with different personalities, including a few difficult ones, in a variety of situations. Tim understood and appreciated that the work we did in the classroom helped prepare him to work in a “real world” setting.
Isn’t this what business and industry leaders want today in employees? Most will agree they need employees who can critically think, problem solve, and work constructively in groups. Cooperative learning provides a training ground for these skills. Cooperative learning is a formal instructional approach in which students work together in small teams to accomplish a common learning goal. Cooperative learning correctly implemented improves high-level thinking skills, interpersonal and communication skills, and self-confidence.
Patrick Henry Community College is transforming its classroom culture through cooperative learning and other active learning strategies in an effort to become a learning centered college. This transformation began when Patrick Henry Community College became a recipient for Achieving the Dream (AtD) funding. The AtD initiative is a nationwide program for community colleges directed particularly at low income and minority students. The goals of this initiative are to promote retention and academic success for students. Community colleges serve almost half the undergraduate students in the U.S. today. Yet many community college students never complete their academic program. Retention is a key.
The AtD program is data driven. That is, colleges must use data to support academic change. Currently, PHCC has found that students who take a number of courses in which cooperative learning is used tend to be retained longer than those who do not. Cooperative learning is a strategy that benefits all students, regardless of academic strengths. Historically, college faculties have used passive teaching-learning strategies, that is, the old “chalk and talk” method. To engage learners in the learning process and make them more accountable for their learning, faculty are using more active teaching-learning strategies, such as cooperative learning.
Being a sociology faculty, I have seen the topic of the “silent classroom” emerge in sociology textbooks as a concern in higher education. The silent classroom refers to college students compulsively taking notes and then later regurgitating these notes on a test, never having had an intellectual discussion about the topic. The responsibility for this student passivity does not belong to the student alone. Outside the classroom, college students are talking, laughing, and yes, even arguing. Students need an opportunity to process course content with each other to gain problem solving and critical thinking skills by using cooperative learning skills.
Cooperative Learning has made a comeback in higher education. In Terry O’Banion’s book, A Learning College for the 21st Century, he proposes a new community college paradigm based on several key principles. Two of these principles suggest the community colleges need to “engage learners as full partners in the learning process, with learners assuming primary responsibility for their own choices” and “assist learners to form and participate in collaborative learning activities.”
Cooperative learning has been around for quite some time. Public school teachers may have used a form of cooperative learning in the 1980s. Most educators have done some type of “group” learning but as faculty at PHCC have found, there is a distinct difference between group learning and effective cooperative learning. The model Patrick Henry Community College has chosen to use is based on the research of Dr. David Johnson and Dr. Roger Johnson with the Cooperative Learning Institute at the University of Minnesota. Both have been using and conducting research on cooperative learning since the mid 1960s. There is massive research supporting the role of cooperative learning in both improving student persistence and academic success.
Cooperative learning differs from group learning in that there are five key elements which must be built in to learning activities when students are placed in groups. These five key elements are positive interdependence, individual accountability, an opportunity for group members to explain and discuss material face-to-face, the use of effective group skills and finally the opportunity for group members to process if they are meeting their learning goals and working effectively as a group. The first two elements are essential if students are doing a formal cooperative group activity in which they will receive a group grade. Positive Interdependence is created when the learning goal or outcome is well defined for example, with a rubric so that all members have a clear idea of what is expected. Most faculty and students find the second key element the most challenging. Creating a sense of individual accountability to avoid group slackers is critical. Activities must be structured so that each member feels that he or she must contribute and not ride on the coat tails of others.
The faculty at Patrick Henry Community College is on a journey which involves risks and has occasional potholes in the road. Holding students more accountable for their learning will require a letting go of classroom control to some extent.
However, in the end, the rewards are great. The quietest student is now speaking out (in small groups). Faculty are finding more time to interact with each individual student. We are no longer watching the clock wondering if the class will ever end. And just as my student Tim discovered, skills being learned here are valuable tools to aid students’ success personally and professionally when they leave here.
(Susan Shearer is an associate professor of psychology and sociology at Patrick Henry Community College.)
