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Katyukha L.O.
Using Cooperative Method to Integrate
and Develop Creativity
Cooperative learning can be defined as a range of concepts and
techniques for enhancing the value of student-student interaction. Cooperative
learning promotes effective instruction of thinking skills and creativity.
Thinking skills and creativity are promoted when students interact with their
peers to brainstorm, explain, question, disagree, persuade, and problem-solve.
Research on cooperative learning across a wide range of academic subject
areas and age groups suggests that the use of cooperative learning may be
associated with gains on the following variables: achievement, liking for
school, inter-ethnic relations, thinking skills, self-esteem and enjoyment.
According to some scholars such as Hythecker
and Dansereau, Johnson & Johnson and Webb cooperative
learning promotes thinking and creativity. It is done in many ways:
1. Compared to a whole class format, in cooperative learning, students
have more opportunities to talk and to share ideas. This interaction with groupmates encourages students to restructure their ideas.
For instance, they may need to summarize, elaborate, exemplify, defend, and
explain their ideas. Disagreement, if carried out constructively, pushes
students to clarify and rethink their ideas, potentially leading to cognitive
restructuring.
2. By working in groups, students enjoy more opportunity to see how
their peers think and create new ideas. Witnessing this process can provide
useful models.
Discussing, creating, and thinking in a group, rather than in a whole
class context, can provide a less anxiety-producing context. If groupmates feel positively interdependent with one another,
a supportive atmosphere can develop. In such an atmosphere, students may feel freer
to try out new ideas.
The multiple perspectives of others in their heterogeneous groups may
spark new ideas in students' minds.
3. The greater achievement that cooperative learning can foster provides
students with a stronger knowledge base from which to explore concepts.
Cooperative Learning has been proven to be effective for all types of
students, including academically gifted, mainstream students and English
language learners (ELLs) because it promotes learning
and fosters respect and friendships among diverse groups of students. In fact,
the more diversity in a team, the higher the benefits for each student. Peers
learn to depend on each other in a positive way for a variety of learning
tasks.
Cooperative Learning is particularly beneficial for any student learning
a second language. Cooperative Learning activities promote peer interaction,
which helps the development of language and the learning of concepts and
content. To achieve positive result it is important to assign ELLs to different teams so that they can benefit from
English language role models. ELLs learn to express
themselves with greater confidence when working in small teams. In addition to
'picking up' vocabulary, ELLs benefit from observing
how their peers learn and solve problems. If you decide to assign each student
in a team a role (such as reporter, recorder, time keeper, and materials
manager) you might want to rotate roles each week or by activity. This prevents
what typically happens if students select their own roles - the same students
wind up performing the same tasks. By rotating, students develop the skills
they most need to practice.
There are some popular strategies that can be used with all students to
learn content and to enhance students’ creativity. However, they are
particularly beneficial to ELLs for learning English
and content at the same time. Most of these strategies are especially effective
in teams of four:
Round Robin - present
a category (such as "Names of Mammals") for discussion. Have students
take turns going around the group and naming items that fit the category.
Roundtable - present
a category (such as words that begin with "b"). Have students take
turns writing one word at a time.
Writearound - for creative
writing or summarization, give a sentence starter (for example: If you give an
elephant a cookie, he's going to ask for...). Ask all students in each team to
finish that sentence. Then, they pass their paper to the right, read the one
they received, and add a sentence to that one. After a few rounds, four great
stories or summaries emerge. Give children time to add a conclusion and/or edit
their favorite one to share with the class.
Numbered Heads Together - ask
students to number off in their teams from one to four. Announce a question and
a time limit. Students put their heads together to come up with an answer. Call
a number and ask all students with that number to stand and answer the
question. Recognize correct responses and elaborate through rich discussions.
Team Jigsaw - assign
each student in a team one fourth of a page to read from any text (for example,
a social studies text), or one fourth of a topic to investigate or memorize.
Each student completes his or her assignment and then teaches the others or
helps to put together a team product by contributing a piece of the puzzle.
Tea Party - students
form two concentric circles or two lines facing each other. You ask a question
(on any content) and students discuss the answer with the student facing them.
After one minute, the outside circle or one line moves to the right so that
students have new partners. Then pose a second question for them to discuss.
Continue with five or more questions. For a little variation, students can
write questions on cards to review for a test through this "Tea
Party" method.
After each Cooperative Learning activity, it is advisable to debrief
with the children by asking questions such as: What did you learn from this
activity? How did you feel working with your teammates? If we do this again,
how will you improve working together?
Bibliography:
1.
Bossert,
S.T. 1988-1989. Cooperative activities in the classroom. Review of Research in
Education, 15, 225-252.
2.
http//iteslj.org/Techniques/Tan-Cooperative.html
3.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/content/cooperative