CIRTL Class Meeting 6: Cooperative Learning

What do you see?
1
Peer Instruction
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu
2010–2011 Higher Education Research Initiative (HERI)
Faculty Survey of 23,824 full-time faculty at 417 four-year
colleges and universities [1]

The College Classroom – Spring 2015
Class Meeting 6: Cooperative Learing
Dave Gross
dgross@
biochem.umass.edu
Thursday, March 5, 2015
1:00-2:30p ET, 12:00-1:30p CT, 11:00a-12:30p MT, 10:00-11:30a PT
Peter Newbury
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca

Objectives for Today
Peer Instruction - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu3
By the end of today’s session you will be able to
 explain to a colleague what constitutes collaborative
learning
 outline the different levels of collaborative learning in
the classroom
 design teams for collaborative learning
 describe how collaborative, peer learning fits into the
scheme of backward design

active learning
cooperative
learning

What do you see?
5
Peer Instruction
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

What do you see?
6 Peer Instruction - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

Cooperative Learning[3]
Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so
that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s
learning.
(Rique Campa)
Cooperative Learning requires 1) multiple students
learning the same material and 2) a positive social
interdependence of the students’ learning efforts.

Uses of small groups
 Casual Use
 Frequent Use: Cooperative Learning
 Transformative Use:Team-Based Learning
L. Dee Fink,“Beyond Small Groups” in Team-Based
Learning, Ed. L.K. Michaelson,A. B. Knight, & L. D.
Fink, Stylus Publishing, Sterling,VA (2004)

 Casual Use
 “Turn to the student next to you and talk about…”
 Ad hoc, little or no advance planning
 No grading, group composition, fit to course
structure

 Casual Use
 Carefully planned and structured group activities
 Small group activities added to preexisting course
materials
 Attention to: accountability, group formation,
student roles, etc.
 No structural changes for the course are necessary

 Casual Use
 Transformative Use:Team-Based Learning
 Small group work is the primary in-class activity
 Procedures are needed to support “groups” into
higher performing “teams”
 Employ teams to enhance in-class learning
 Often requires a change in the course structure

Keys to successful cooperative learning
If you choose to use cooperative learning so that students
learn how to work effectively as a team,
you need to teach the students
how to work effectively as a team

Keys to successful cooperative learning
If you choose to use cooperative learning so that students learn
how to work effectively as a team,
you need to teach the students
how to work effectively as a team
You can’t leave it up to them to figure out
 positive and negative team member traits
 team-building, management, conflict-resolution skills
 how to remain inquiry-based: asking questions of each
other, making recommendations, receiving feedback
 how to make effective, professional presentations to the
whole group

Constructive & Destructive Group Behaviors
Cooperating: Is interested in the views and perspectives of the other group members and is willing to adapt for the good of the
group.
Clarifying: Makes issues clear for the group by listening, summarizing and focusing discussions.
Inspiring: Enlivens the group, encourages participation and progress.
Harmonizing: Encourages group cohesion and collaboration. For example, uses humor as a relief after a particularly difficult
discussion.
RiskTaking: Is willing to risk possible personal loss or embarrassment for the group or project success.
Process Checking: Questions the group on process issues such as agenda, time frames, discussion topics, decision methods,
use of information, etc.
Dominating:Takes much of meeting time expressing self vies and opinions.Tries to take control by use of power, time, etc.
Rushing: Encourages the group to move on before task is complete. Gets “tired” of listening to others and working as a group.
Withdrawing: Removes self from discussions or decision making. Refuses to participate.
Discounting: Disregards or minimizes group or individual ideas or suggestions. Severe discounting behavior includes insults,
which are often in the form of jokes.
Digressing: Rambles, tells stories, and takes group away from primary purpose.
Blocking: Impedes group progress by obstructing all ideas and suggestions.“That will never work because…”
Brunt, Facilitation Skills for Quality Improvement, Quality
Enhancement Strategies, MadisonWI 53715 (1993)

Team building
We’ll model a team-based class today. First we will form
out teams randomly. (That’s bad.)
Then let’s find out what sorts of group behaviors our team
members have.
Break out into rooms and discuss your own constructive
and destructive behaviors. Spend about 6 minutes doing
this.
Remember your room – that’s your team for the day.

Cooperating: Is interested in the views and perspectives of the other group members and is willing to adapt for the good of the
group.
Clarifying: Makes issues clear for the group by listening, summarizing and focusing discussions.
Inspiring: Enlivens the group, encourages participation and progress.
Harmonizing: Encourages group cohesion and collaboration. For example, uses humor as a relief after a particularly difficult
discussion.
RiskTaking: Is willing to risk possible personal loss or embarrassment for the group or project success.
Process Checking: Questions the group on process issues such as agenda, time frames, discussion topics, decision methods,
use of information, etc.
Dominating:Takes much of meeting time expressing self vies and opinions.Tries to take control by use of power, time, etc.
Rushing: Encourages the group to move on before task is complete. Gets “tired” of listening to others and working as a group.
Withdrawing: Removes self from discussions or decision making. Refuses to participate.
Discounting: Disregards or minimizes group or individual ideas or suggestions. Severe discounting behavior includes insults,
which are often in the form of jokes.
Digressing: Rambles, tells stories, and takes group away from primary purpose.
Blocking: Impedes group progress by obstructing all ideas and suggestions.“That will never work because…”
Brunt, Facilitation Skills for Quality Improvement, Quality
Enhancement Strategies, MadisonWI 53715 (1993)

How would you characterize yourself?
A) Cooperating
B) Clarifying
C) Harmonizing
D) RiskTaking
E) Process Checking

How would you characterize yourself?
A) Blocking
B) Digressing
C) Dominating
D) Rushing
E) Withdrawing

Team creation
How should one form teams?
Should they be permanent?
What to do about the add/drop period early in the term?
Screen shot from “Teaching Untethered”, Olga Kyle, UMass IT
https://vimeo.com/114704516

Team creation
 Randomly
 Student-formed
 Instructor-designed

Team creation
Based on what the literature says:
1. Instructor-designed, maximizing diversity
2. Randomly

Team creation
Based on what the literature says:
2. Randomly
Based on what my preliminary in-class research says:
1. Student-formed
3. Randomly

Ways to design teams:
 Survey students prior to formation
 Gender (or gender ID)
 English as first language
 Ethnicity
 Course-relevant background
 Group style (leader, creator, organizer, facilitator)
 Obtain student data from the institution
 Conga line (first Seniors, then Juniors,..., then Chem
majors, then Biology majors,…) and count off

Teams in my two PChem sections
8:30 – Student-formed teams (73.0)
10:00 – Instructor-designed (65.5)
 Group style (leader, creator, organizer, facilitator)
 Course-relevant background
 Gender (no single-female teams)
 English (no single non-native speakers)

Team creation

Stages of team development
Stage 1: Forming (independence, group leadership)
Stage 2: Storming (conflict, fear of failure)
Stage 3: Norming (cohesion, shared leadership, data flow)
Stage 4: Performing (true interdependence, dynamic adjustment)
Stage 5:Adjourning (disengagement, minor crisis)
Tuckman, B. (1965) Developmental Sequence in Small Groups.
Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384-399.
Tuckman, B. & Jensen, M. (1977) Stages of Small Group
Development. Group and Organizational Studies, 2, 419-427.

Team creation
Form teams after the first or second class meeting

Individual vs. team accountability
Grades provide a strong incentive for students, and can form
the best way to have individual students be accountable for
their learning, both individual and cooperative.
Individual grades
Exams
Classroom participation
Homework
iRAs
Team grades
Shared projects
Team presentations
Peer evaluations
tRAs“staged assessments”

Staged exams with teams
29
 A useful active learning assessment/learning tool in a
team-based classroom is the staged exam
 iRAT/tRAT – individual assessment followed by
same assessment done by the team
Activity Advantage Disadvantage
Clicker answers Rapid feedback Cost, forget clicker
Scan forms Rapid feedback Messy, costly for scanner
Paper Cheap, reliable Slow feedback, lost papers
Online quiz Rapid feedback Computing device necessary
IF-AT Rapid feedback Expensive, messy
Peer Instruction - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

Immediate Feedback Assessment
Technique (IF-AT)

The “Jigsaw”
 With permanent teams, it can be useful to alter the
team dynamic from time to time
 A technique to do that while providing a learning
activity is the jigsaw
 In essence, the teams rearrange themselves to become
expert in one area, and then reform to bring their
expertise together
A B Z…

Let’s do a jigsaw
 Go back to your original team rooms
 Start counting with the team room number
 Next person adds one
 And so on until you get to 7. Start over at 1.
 Then we’ll reassemble and you will go to the team
room that you have counted.

Course: “The National Parks”
Go to your new rooms and become experts on different
national parks
 Room 1: Gates of the Arctic
 Room 2: Isle Royal
 Room 3: Great Sand Dunes
 Room 4: Mammoth Cave
 Room 5:Wind Cave
 Room 6: DryTortugas
o What state?
o When created?
o Who created?
o Size?
o How many visitors annually?
o Primary attraction?
o Average temperature?
Spend 14 minutes or so to gather your
data, then we’ll return to the main room

Course: “The National Parks”
Go to your new rooms and become experts on different
national parks
 Room 1: Gates of the Arctic
 Room 2: Isle Royal
 Room 3: Great Sand Dunes
 Room 4: Mammoth Cave
 Room 5:Wind Cave
 Room 6: DryTortugas
Now go to your home team
rooms and write a question that
our class might have on an
exam. It should pull together
your expertise.
Aim high, Bloom’s-wise.
Take about 10 minutes, then
we’ll come back.

Monitoring the teams
 Let teams hash out their constructive and destructive
behaviors early on
 Teams write “contracts” that they sign
 Teams decide on good team member attributes early in
the semester
 Peer reviews that count for points that are based on the
attributes
 Revisit team expectations during the term

What to watch for
and what to do about it
 lack of group maturity
insufficient guidance and training from instructor about
how to work together
 “free-riding”
instructor hasn’t built in enough individual accountability
 loss of motivation
instructor needs to stay in touch with groups frequently
 lack of skills and abilities
instructor needs to create groups with more diverse
skills and abilities

Team activities

Next week: Peer Instruction part 2
Class Meeting 7
March 12, 2015

References
1. Hurtado, S., Eagan, M. K., Pryor, J. H.,Whang, H., &Tran, S. (2012). Undergraduate
teaching faculty:The 2010–2011 HERI Faculty Survey. LosAngeles: Higher Education
Research Institute, UCLA. www.heri.ucla.edu
2. Eagan, M. K., Stolzenberg, E. B., Berdan Lozano, J.,Aragon, M. C., Suchard, M. R.,
& Hurtado, S. (2014). Undergraduate teaching faculty:The 2013–2014 HERI Faculty
Survey. LosAngeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA. www.heri.ucla.edu
3. Derek Bruff, Henry (Rique) Campa, III,Trina McMahon, Bennett Goldberg (2014).
“An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEMTeaching” (coursera
MOOC) class.coursera.org/stemteaching-001
4. Brunt, Facilitation Skills for Quality Improvement, Quality Enhancement Strategies,
MadisonWI 53715 (1993)
5. National Research Council (2000). How People Learn:Brain,Mind,Experience,and School:
Expanded Edition. J.D. Bransford,A.L Brown & R.R. Cocking (Eds.),Washington, DC:
The NationalAcademies Press.
6. Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.

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