2. Case Study
• A class of secondary education students were
asked to implement the basic principles of
cooperative learning to a class of general
English.
• The lesson of the day was conditionals. We
tried to include in the course of the class both
theory as well as some exercises using two
different types of co-operative learning.
3. For the theory:
• We divided the 23 pupils into six groups of about
four students each. We tried to include in each
group both students who might have more
aptitude in the theory of grammar, as well as
students who would benefit both academically
and socially by the interaction.
• Each group was given a piece of the theory. The
division was logical following the course I would
follow if we were to teach Conditionals in the
traditional way.
4. The division was done as follows:
• Group1: if+present simple+present simple
• if+imperative
• Group2: if+past simple+would
• Group3: unless/ other uses of would for
politeness,request,offering,refusing
• Group4: conditional sentences without if, if I
were you
• Group5: if+past perfect+would have
• Group6: modals in conditional sentences
5. • The students were allowed ten minutes to familiarize
themselves with their piece of the theory. The time margin
might seem a bit narrow for two reasons.
• First, they had to limit the time so that it would not exceed
by much the usual time of traditional teaching, thus
rendering the method totally counter cost-effective.
• Second, they relied on the fact that they had already been
taught the phenomenon in previous years, and they were
more or less familiar with the specifics of conditional
sentences, some more than others.
Steps
6. • In turn, when time for preparation was up, each group
was coming up to the board.
• They were allowed the freedom to deal the roles of
each member of the group in their own discretion. This
was the sociologically intriguing procedure of the
process, from teachers part.
• Once more it was proven that we have to give pupils
credit for their organizational skills, especially when
they are being given the initiative.
• Each member was allocated a “post”, whether that was
presentation on board, or verbal explanation that
suited them the most.
7. • Some time was allowed for everybody to clear
up with the appropriate group any questions
or blanks they were left with.
8. For the feedback exercises:
• Three feedback exercises were given to each
group: a multiple choice one, a blank filling
one and a sentence transformation one.
9. • The checking was done by using a different
approach of cooperative learning, namely the
chain correction.
• Each group handed their exercise sheet to the
group closest to them in a chain, the last one
handing it to the first.
• The sheets were corrected by the neighbouring
group.
10. • The solutions were presented and discussed on the board.
• Anyone who felt like it contributed to the solution and the
ensuing discussion (although the teacher had some more
active participation in managing the activity).
• The groups no longer existed, yet it was still a cooperative
procedure, as the results shared to the whole class were a
product of teamwork, any individual contribution being
merged to the commonly acquired knowledge and the
whole class took credit for the successful teaching of
Conditionals in English.
