MY REPORT(FINAL GRADING) Lesson 13: COOPERATIVE LEARNING WITH THE COMPUTER by Wendy C. Pitallano

COOPERATIVE LEARNING WITH THE COMPUTER

The creativity of the teacher will have to respond to the situation, and so cooperative learning will likely be the answer to the implementation of IT supported learning in our schools.But the situation may not be that bad since there are motivational and social benefits to cooperative learning and these can compensate for the lack of hardware that educators face.

What is cooperative Learning?

Cooperative or collaborative learning is learning small groups of students who work together in a common learning task.It is often called group learning but to be truly cooperative learning. 5 elements are needed:

1. a common goals

2. interdependence 

3. interaction

4. individual accountability

5. social skills

Therefore not every group work is cooperative learning since students working on their work sheets physically sat around a table may be working together without these features of cooperative learning.

From several studies made on cooperative learning, it is manifested that cooperative learning in its true sense is advantageous since it:

a. encourages active learning while motivating students

b. increases academic performance

c. promotes literacy language skills

d. improves teacher effectiveness

COOPERATIVE LEARNING AND THE COMPUTER

Researchers have made studies on the learning interaction between the students and the computer. The studies have great value since it has been a long standing fear that the computer may foster student learning in isolation that hinders the development of student's social skills.

Now this mythical fea has been contradicted by the studies which shows that when students work with computers in groups, they cluster and interact with each other for advice and mutual help. And given the option to work individually or in a group, the students generally wish to work together in computer-based and non-computer based activities. Reflecting on this phenomenon, psychologist think the computer fosters this positive social behavior due to the fact that it has a display monitor- just like a television set- that is looked upon as something communal.

Therefore researchers agree that the computer is a fairly natural learning vehicle for cooperative(promotive) learning.

components of cooperative learning:

1. assigning students to mixed-ability teams

2. establishing positive interdependence

3. teaching cooperative social skills

4. insuring individual accountability 

5. helping groups process information

These are in addition to assigning a common work goal in which each member of the group will realize that their group will not succeed unless everyone contributes to the group success. It is also important for the teacher limits learning group clusters (six is the ideal number of group) so that there can be closer involvement in thinking and learning.