The document discusses cooperative learning, providing details on: 1. Types of cooperative learning including formal, informal, and base group learning. Formal involves structured groups working on tasks, while informal uses temporary discussion pairs. 2. Techniques for cooperative learning like jigsaw, think-pair-share, and reciprocal teaching that involve student interaction and teaching each other. 3. Elements that define cooperative learning including positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, and developing social skills. Research shows cooperative learning improves learning outcomes and skills compared to traditional methods.

1. ONLINE ASSIGNMENT
TOPIC: CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING
Submitted By:
BHAGYALEKSHMI. K
ENGLISH
REGI. NO.: 13975006

2. Index
Sl No Content Page
No
1 Introduction 1-2
2 Type of Co-operative learning 2-4
3 Techniques 5-7
4 Elements of co-operative learning 7-9
5 Results of Co-operative learning 10
6 Limitations 10-11
7 Conclusion 12-13
8 References 14

3. INTRODUCTION
Cooperative learning stands for some flexible instructional techniques and
strategies known as methods. These methods mostly aim at the development of
cognition , which includes thinking , remembering ,concept formation ,problem
solving ,and logical reasoning in social context. Most of these methods focus upon
not only deleting some damaging problems of traditional group work like social
loafing ,so as to enhance the effective use of CL groups but also develop social
skills and individuals capabilities for more effective inter personal relationships
thereby empowering them to succeed both academically and socially.
Several definitions of cooperative learning have been formulated. The one most
widely used in higher education is probably that of David and Roger Johnson of
the University of Minnesota. According to the Johnson & Johnson model,
cooperative learning is instruction that involves students working in teams to
accomplish a common goal, under conditions that include the following elements ;
1. Positive interdependence. Team members are obliged to rely on one another to
achieve the goal.
If any team members fail to do their part, everyone suffers consequences.
2. Individual accountability. All students in a group are held accountable for
doing their share of the work and for mastery of all of the material to be learned.
3. Face-to-face promotive interaction. Although some of the group work may be
parceled out and done individually, some must be done interactively, with group

4. members providing one another with feedback, challenging reasoning and
conclusions, and perhaps most importantly, teaching and encouraging one another.
4. Appropriate use of collaborative skills. Students are encouraged and helped to
develop and practice trust-building, leadership, decision-making, communication,
and conflict management skills.
5. Group processing. Team members set group goals, periodically assess what
they are doing well as a team and identify changes they will make to function more
effectively in the future.
TYPES OF CO-OPERATIVE
LEARNING
1. Formal cooperative learning
It is structured, facilitated, and monitored by the educator over time and is used to
achieve group goals in task work (e.g. completing a unit). Any course material or
assignment can be adapted to this type of learning, and groups can vary from 2-6
people with discussions lasting from a few minutes up to an entire period. Types of
formal cooperative learning strategies include:
1. The jigsaw technique
2. Assignments that involve group problem solving and decision making
3. Laboratory or experiment assignments
4. Peer review work (e.g. editing writing assignments).
Having experience and developing skill with this type of learning often facilitates
informal and base learning. Jigsaw activities are wonderful because the student
assumes the role of the teacher on a given topic and is in charge of teaching the
topic to a classmate. The idea is that if students can teach something, they have
already learned the material.
2. Informal cooperative learning
It incorporates group learning with passive teaching by drawing attention to
material through small groups throughout the lesson or by discussion at the end of

5. a lesson, and typically involves groups of two (e.g. turn-to-your-partner
discussions). These groups are often temporary and can change from lesson to
lesson (very much unlike formal learning where 2 students may be lab partners
throughout the entire semester contributing to one another’s knowledge of
science).
Discussions typically have four components that include formulating a response to
questions asked by the educator, sharing responses to the questions asked with a
partner, listening to a partner’s responses to the same question, and creating a new
well- developed answer. This type of learning enables the student to process,
consolidate, and retain more information.
In group-based cooperative learning, these peer groups gather together over the
long term (e.g. over the course of a year, or several years such as in high school or
post-secondary studies) to develop and contribute to one another’s knowledge
mastery on a topic by regularly discussing material, encouraging one another, and
supporting the academic and personal success of group members.
3. Base group learning
(e.g., a long term study group) is effective for learning complex subject matter
over the course or semester and establishes caring, supportive peer relationships,
which in turn motivates and strengthens the student’s commitment to the group’s
education while increasing self-esteem and self-worth. Base group approaches also
make the students accountable to educating their peer group in the event that a
member was absent for a lesson. This is effective both for individual learning, as
well as social support.
The five basic elements to cooperative learning are ;
1. Positive interdependence
1. Students must fully participate and put forth effort within their group
2. Each group member has a task/role/responsibility therefore must
believe that they are responsible for their learning and that of their
group
2. Face-to-face promotive interaction
1. Members promote each other's success
2. Students explain to one another what they have or are learning and
assist one another with understanding and completion of assignments
3. Individual and group accountability

6. 1. Each student must demonstrate mastery of the content being studied
2. Each student is accountable for their learning and work, therefore
eliminating “social loafing”
4. Social skills
1. Social skills that must be taught in order for successful cooperative
learning to occur
2. Skills include effective communication, interpersonal and group skills
1. Leadership
2. Decision-making
3. Trust-building
4. Communication
5. Conflict-management skills
5. Group processing
1. Every so often groups must assess their effectiveness and decide how
it can be improved
In order for student achievement to improve considerably, two characteristics must
be present:
1. When designing cooperative learning tasks and reward structures, individual
responsibility and accountability must be identified. Individuals must know
exactly what their responsibilities are and that they are accountable to the
group in order to reach their goal.
2. All group members must be involved in order for the group to complete the
task. In order for this to occur each member must have a task that they are
responsible for which cannot be completed by any other group member.

7. TECHNIQUES
There are a great number of cooperative learning techniques available .some of the
well known methods are group investigation, think pair share , jigsaw ,jigsaw11,
reverse jigsaw, reciprocal teaching ,constructive controversy
 GROUP INVESTIGATION (GI)
Sharan and Sharan have developed this method .it is one of the rare CL methods
that gives considerable freedom to students.
 Think Pair Share
Originally developed by Frank T. Lyman (1981),Think-Pair-Share allows for
students to contemplate a posed question or problem silently. The student may
write down thoughts or simply just brainstorm in his or her head. When prompted,
the student pairs up with a peer and discusses his or her idea(s) and then listens to
the ideas of his or her partner. Following pair dialogue, the teacher solicits
responses from the whole group.
 Jigsaw
Students are members of two groups: home group and expert group. In the
heterogeneous home group, students are each assigned a different topic. Once a
topic has been identified, students leave the home group and group with the other
students with their assigned topic. In the new group, students learn the material
together before returning to their home group. Once back in their home group, each
student is accountable for teaching his or her assigned topic.

8.  Jigsaw II
Jigsaw II is Robert Slavin 's (1980) variation of Jigsaw in which members of the
home group are assigned the same material, but focus on separate portions of the
material. Each member must become an "expert" on his or her assigned portion and
teach the other members of the home group
.
 Reverse Jigsaw
This variation was created by Timothy Hedeen (2003).]It differs from the original
Jigsaw during the teaching portion of the activity. In the Reverse Jigsaw technique,
students in the expert groups teach the whole class rather than return to their home
groups to teach the content.
 Reciprocal Teaching
Brown & Paliscar (1982) developed reciprocal teaching. It is a cooperative
technique that allows for student pairs to participate in a dialogue about text.
Partners take turns reading and asking questions of each other, receiving
immediate feedback. Such a model allows for students to use important
metacognitive techniques such as clarifying, questioning, predicting, and
summarizing. It embraces the idea that students can effectively learn from each
other.

9.  STAD (or Student-Teams-
Achievement Divisions)
Students are placed in small groups (or teams). The class in its entirety is presented
with a lesson and the students are subsequently tested. Individuals are graded on
the team's performance. Although the tests are taken individually, students are
encouraged to work together to improve the overall performance of the group.
Elements of Cooperative Learning
Over the past twenty years different approaches to cooperative learning have been
proposed by different individuals. The three most popular are those of David
Johnson and Roger Johnson (Johnson et al., 1994), Robert Slavin (1994, 1995),
and Shlomo Sharan and Yael Sharan (Sharan, 1995; Sharan & Sharan, 1994). To
give you a general sense of what cooperative learning is like and to avoid limiting
you to any one individual's approach, the following discussion is a synthesis of the
main features of each approach.
1. Group Heterogeneity
The size of cooperative-learning groups is relatively small and as heterogeneous as
circumstances allow. The recommended size is usually four to five students. At the
very least, groups should contain both males and females and students of different
ability levels. If possible, different ethnic backgrounds and social classes should be
represented as well.
2. Group Goals/Positive Interdependence

10. A specific goal, such as a grade or a certificate of recognition, is identified for the
group to attain. Students are told that they will have to support one another because
the group goal can be achieved only if each member learns the material being
taught (in the case of a task that culminates in an exam) or makes a specific
contribution to the group's effort (in the case of a task that culminates in a
presentation or a project).
3. Promotive Interaction
This element is made necessary by the existence of positive interdependence.
Students are shown how to help each other overcome problems and complete
whatever task has been assigned. This may involve episodes of peer tutoring,
temporary assistance, exchanges of information and material, challenging of each
other's reasoning, feedback, and encouragement to keep one another highly
motivated.
4. Individual Accountability
This feature stipulates that each member of a group has to make a significant
contribution to achieving the group's goal. This may be satisfied by achieving a
minimal score on a test, having the group's test score be the sum or average of each
student's quiz scores, or having each member be responsible for a particular part of
a project (such as doing the research and writing for a particular part of a history
report).
5. Interpersonal Skills
Positive interdependence and promotive interaction are not likely to occur if
students do not know how to make the most of their face-to-face interactions. And
you can safely assume that the interpersonal skills most students possess are
probably not highly developed. As a result, they have to be taught such basic skills
as leadership, decision making, trust building, clear communication, and conflict
management. The conflict that arises over differences of opinion, for example, can
be constructive if it is used as a stimulus to search for more information or to
rethink one's conclusions. But it can destroy group cohesion and productivity if it
results in students stubbornly clinging to a position or referring to each other as
"stubborn," "dumb," or "nerdy."
6. Equal Opportunities for Success

11. Because cooperative groups are heterogeneous with respect to ability and their
success depends on positive interdependence, promotive interaction, and individual
accountability, it is important that steps be taken to ensure that all students have an
opportunity to contribute to their team. You can do this by awarding points for
degree of improvement over previous test scores, having students compete against
comparable members of other teams in a game- or tournament-like atmosphere, or
giving students learning assignments (such as math problems) that are geared to
their current level of skill.
7. Team Competition
This may seem to be an odd entry in a list of cooperative-learning components,
especially in light of the comments we made earlier about the ineffectiveness of
competition as a spur to motivation. But we're not being contradictory. The main
problem with competition is that it is rarely used appropriately. When competition
occurs between well-matched competitors, is done in the absence of a norm-referenced
grading system, and is not used too frequently, it can be an effective
way to motivate students to cooperate with each other.

12. Results of cooperative learning
Increased higher level reasoning
 Increased generation of new ideas and solutions
 Greater transfer of learning between situations
Limitations
 Cooperative Learning has many limitations that could cause the process to
be more complicated than first perceived. Sharan (2010) describes the
constant evolution of cooperative learning as a threat. Because cooperative
learning is constantly changing, there is a possibility that teachers may
become confused and lack complete understanding of the method. The fact
that cooperative learning is such a dynamic practice means that it can not be
used effectively in many situations. Also teachers can get into the habit of
relying on cooperative learning as a way to keep students busy. While
cooperative learning will consume time, the most effective application of
cooperative learning hinges on an active instructor. Teachers implementing
cooperative learning may also be challenged with resistance and hostility
from students who believe that they are being held back by their slower
teammates or by students who are less confident and feel that they are being
ignored or demeaned by their team.
Students often provide feedback in the form of evaluations or reviews on success
of the teamwork experienced during cooperative learning experiences. Peer review
and evaluations may not reflect true experiences due to perceived competition

13. among peers. Students might feel pressured into submitting inaccurate evaluations
due to bullying. To eliminate such concerns, confidential evaluation processes may
help to increase evaluation strength.

14. CONCLUSION
Cooperative learning refers to work done by student teams producing a product of
some sort (such as a set of problem solutions, a laboratory or project report, or
the design of a product or a process), under conditions that satisfy five criteria:
(1) positive interdependence ,
(2) individual accountability ,
(3) face-to face interaction for at least part of the work,
(4) appropriate use of interpersonal skills, and
(5) regular self-assessment of team functioning.
Extensive research has shown that relative to traditional individual and
competitive modes of instruction, properly implemented cooperative learning
leads to greater learning and superior development of communication and team
work skills (e.g. leadership, project management, and conflict resolution skills).
The technique has been used with considerable success in allscientific disciplines,
including chemistry.The benefits of cooperative learning are not automatic,
however, and if imperfectly implemented, the method can create considerable
difficulties for instructors, most notably dysfunctional teams and student
resistance or hostility to group work. This paper offers a number of suggestions
for forming teams, satisfying the five defining criteria of cooperative learning, and
minimizing the problems. Instructors who have never used the approach are
advised to move into it gradually rather than attempting a full-scale
implementation on their first try, and to increase the level of implementation in
subsequent course offerings. To an increasing extent, they should see the learning
benefits promised by the research, and as their expertise and confidence in
implementing the method continue to grow, student evaluations of the team
experience should improve concurrently. Most importantly, instructors who are
successful in using cooperative learning in their classes will have the satisfaction
of knowing that they have significantly helped prepare their students for their
professional careers .Some years ago, one of us taught five chemical engineering
courses in consecutive semesters to a cohort of students using cooperative
learning . The superiority of their performance and attitudes relative to a
comparison group that was taught traditionally was consistent with the many other

15. results reported on earlier in this chapter. Five years after most of the students had
graduated they were surveyed and asked to reflect on what in their undergraduate
college experience best prepared them for their post-graduation careers .Of the 50
respondents (out of 72 surveyed), 25 mentioned the problem solving
and time management skills they acquired by working on so many long and
difficult assignments, 23 mentioned a variety of benefits gained from working in
teams on homework, and no other feature of the curriculum got more than eight
mentions. In their open comments, almost every respondent spoke
positively about group work, mentioning its learning benefits and/or the
interactions with classmates that it fostered.
For example, “I formed very close relationships with my group members that
remain today. I
realized that I wasn’t alone in struggling with new concepts and could garner
support and help from
teammates.” and “Being forced to meet other students through required
groupwork…kept me in the
course long enough to develop the skills and self-confidence necessary to continue
on in the CHE
curriculum.” No one said anything negative about group work, although two
respondents indicated that
they disliked it initially and only later came to see its benefits. We don’t guarantee
a retrospective
evaluation this positive to everyone who uses cooperative learning, but we believe
the possibility of it makes the efforts worthwhile.

16. REFERENCES
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_learning
 http://www.co-operation.org/home/introduction-to-cooperative-learning/
 https://www.google.co.in/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=bxVBU5TzDKuW8QfOmYCY
DA#q=CO-OPERATIVE+LEARNING+
 http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/CLCha
pter.pdf
 http://www.ccsstl.com/sites/default/files/Cooperative%20Learning%20
Research%20.pdf