1. WORKSHOPTWO
LEARNING OUTCOME:
Experience co-operative
learning and consider
the impact this could
have for student
learning

2. You will:
 Experience
 Reflect upon experience
 Learn structures
 Think about how to apply these in the classroom
EXIT CARD:
Show your understanding of the benefits of co-operative
learning in the classroom by participating in a group placemat
exercise
“What children can do together today they can do alone
tomorrow.”
- Vygotsky 1962
BY THE END OF THE WORKSHOP…

3. HUMAN CONTINUUM
• Mixed ability groupings
• Gives the ability to gain an
indication of the student’s
prior knowledge or level of
confidence

4.  Positive Interdependence
 Students feel responsible for their own and the group’s effort
 Individual and Group Accountability
 Each student is responsible for doing their part; the group is
accountable for meeting its goal
 Group Processing
 Group members analyse their own and the group’s ability to work
together
 Small-Group and Interpersonal Skills
 Group members gain direct instruction in the
interpersonal, social, and collaborative skills needed to work with
others
 Face to Face Interactions
 Students encourage and support one another; the environment
encourages discussion and eye contact
PIGSF

5.  Your task is to work as a co-operative group to
produce a visual or kinesthetic representation of the
PIGSF guidelines for co-operative learning
 You will have paper, pens and yourselves
 You will have 20 minutes to come up with a final
summary of the principles of co-operative learning
 You will have roles in your group…
VISUAL OR KINESTHETIC
REPRESENTATION

6. Choose someone in your group
who is strong in reading English
and can make sure the group
has the main points
Summariser: is given research and
ensures the representation reflects that

7. Choose someone who can
communicate positively with
everyone in the group
Interaction checker: checks everyone
is involved and contributing

8. Choose someone who is not
afraid to remind the group to
remain on task and who
watches the time and worries
about being finished on time!
Project Manager: keeps an eye on time
frames for task completion

9. Choose someone who can
check that the ideas are clear
and can question the group to
make sure everyone
understands and agrees
Info Checker: rephrases and clarifies
understanding

10.  Think, Pair, Share is a way of providing increased wait time so
that students have time to think before they speak or write. It
also provides opportunities for repetition and for practising
and polishing language.
 The teacher directs students to think individually about the
question or idea, then discuss their thinking with a partner
(pair), and then share with another pair or with the whole
class. It is important that students need to be able to share
their partner’s ideas as well as their own.
 This strategy is very easy to use and takes no preparation and
it can be used across all learning areas.
THINK PAIR SHARE

11. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CO-
OPERATIVE LEARNING AND PUTTING
PEOPLE IN A GROUP TO LEARN?

12. THINK PAIR SQUARE

13. PIGSF IN PRACTICE
• Not knowing if I will be called
upon to answer means I always
need to know what’s going on
?Which elements of PIGSF are being used?

14.  Number off
 You will be given a question
 You come up with an answer as a group and everyone must be
familiar and understand
 A number will be called
 The person with that number answers for the group
You as a teacher can add to this by:
 Asking one number to nominate a number from another group to
answer the question
This moves the questions around the classroom in an
unpredictable way
Everybody is accountable
NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER

15. HOW COULD YOU USE PIGSF AND GROUP
ROLES TO ENCOURAGE LEARNING IN
YOUR CURRENT TEACHING?

16. WHAT DID THE USE OF PIGSF AND
GROUP ROLES DO TO THE LEARNING?

17. HOW DID THIS FEEL AS A LEARNER?

18. EXIT CARD
Benefits of Co-operative
Learning
How did it feel?
What was the impact on my learning?
What effect
will this have
on planning?
What effect will this have on student learning and interaction?

19. In a survey of 390 high school students, students were asked if
they helped others to learn, if they got help from others and if they
tried to make sure their other group members learned as well as
they could:
“It made me try harder when doing a task”
“Other people in the group were able to help me to better
understand the topic. It helped me also to be teaching other
people because it helps me to remember a large amount of work.”
“The skilled person helped others to learn ways of obtaining higher
grades if we wanted to earn them”
“…being able to get other people’s ideas and then talking about
the different ones. Changing them about to get a conclusion that
suited all”
Co-operative Learning in New Zealand Schools (Brown and Thomson)
FINAL WORD