UNIT 3 - COLLABORATIVE VS. COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Cooperative and collaborative learning happens when students work in small groups to solve the tasks assigned, each of them having a role and a responsibility in the creation of the final product. It is a modern take on education and class work which relies on student-centered teaching, active participation and the social nature of learning.

What’s the difference between collaborative and cooperative learning? ➡️ While COLLABORATIVE learning can take place any time students work together (ex.: when they help each other with homework), COOPERATIVE learning only takes place when students work together in the same place, in a small group, on a structured project. Mixed-skills groups can be especially helpful to students in developing their social abilities.

Some of the elements which are part of/developed with cooperative learning are face-to-face interaction, positive interdependence (students need from the work of others, and others need of their work), individual accountability (students depend on the group but each of them are important in order to success), collaborative skills, and group processing (how we work in groups).

Cooperative learning in small groups provide a place where…

1. Learners actively participate.
2. Teachers become learners at times, and learners sometimes teach.
3. Respect is given to every member.
4. Projects and questions interest and challenge students.
5. Diversity is celebrated (different opinions, activities and outcomes), and all contributions are valued.
6. Students learn skills for resolving conflicts when they arrive (idea: worksheet to record each student’s involvement time).
7. Members draw upon their past experience and knowledge (it’s interesting to share each person’s previous experience).
8. Goals are clearly identified and used as a guide.
9. Research tools such as Internet access are made available - the teacher doesn’t give them the answer, they come together to research.
10. Students are interested in their own learning.

BENEFITS FROM SMALL-GROUP LEARNING IN A COOPERATIVE/COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT

1. Celebration of diversity

• Students learn to work with all types of people.
• During small-group interactions, they find many opportunities to reflect upon and reply to the diverse responses fellow learners bring to the questions raised.
• Small groups also allow students to add their perspectives to an issue based on their cultural differences. This exchange inevitably helps students to better understand other cultures and points of view.

2. Acknowledgement of individual differences

• When questions are raised, different students will have a variety of responses. Each of these can help the group create a product that reflects the wide range of perspectives and is thus more complete and comprehensive.

3. Interpersonal development

• Students learn to relate to their peers and other learners as they work together in group enterprises.
• This can be especially helpful for students who have difficulty with social skills, as they can benefit from structured interactions with others.

4. Actively involving students in learning

• Each member has opportunities to contribute in small groups.
• Students are apt to take more ownership of their material and to think critically about related issues when they work as a team.

5. More opportunities for personal feedback

• Because there are more exchanges among students in small groups, your students receive more personal feedback about their ideas and responses.
• This feedback is often not possible in large-group instruction, in which one or to students exchange ideas and the rest of the class listen.

JIGSAW FORMAT IN COOPERATIVE LEARNING 

The jigsaw technique is a way of working within cooperative learning in which students are divided in “home groups” but also “expert/jigsaw groups”.

1. The home group is the original cooperative learning group. They’re given a main topic and some sub-topics, and these are divided among them: member 1 is assigned one sub-topic, member two another…
2. Then the home groups separate and students gather in “expert/jigsaw groups”: they get together with the other students who were also assigned that sub-topic and research on it to become experts. They read texts and ask each other questions, and then they choose the key aspects they will report back. They reflect these key aspects in a poster, a graphic, a list, etc.
3. When the expert groups are done, they come back to the home group and each member reports to the others about their sub-topic. That way, they all learn about each sub-topic and have a corpus of knowledge of the main topic based on each member’s expertise. In the end, the whole class comes together and shares each group’s discoveries, and they build a common product.

• An example of an activity in the jigsaw format can be found below, after the theoretical content.

ISSUE: the jigsaw works best in small group classes, but it’s difficult in large and mixed-ability classes. The key aspect is PLANNING AHEAD to facilitate the process.

PEER CORRECTION

• The best way to correct mistakes is to have students correct themselves.
• When a student is unable to self correct, peer correction might be appropriate. Especially with challenging questions, this is a good method because then it is unknown who in the class has the right answer and who does not 
• The teacher should repeat and emphasise the correct answer by writing on the board and explaining why it is correct. This is a good method of correcting mistakes because it shifts focus away from the student that provided the original incorrect answer. 

Providing the “correct answer”: the last resort

• Sometimes individual students as well as entire classes have no idea what the answer to your question is. If providing hints and examples does not lead them to the correct answer, the teacher will have to provide it.
• Generally, this is a last resort and means that a lot of review activities may be in order, but keeping a positive attitude and explaining the answer good-naturedly will do a lot to keep students positive about learning English.
• Asking similar questions in a simple form will build confidence again so that the lesson can continue smoothly. 

Let’s see a real example of a cooperative learning activity…

FOODS OF THE WORLD

This activity is designed for a class of 4^th grade (9-10 years old) with an expected A2 level of English. The main goal is working on the intercultural competence through food, taking advantage of the different nationalities of the students in the class. The activity will be developed in the jigsaw format of cooperative learning. 

The 24 students of the class will be divided in 6 HOME GROUPS of 4 students each. Each student of the group will be assigned one national cuisine: Spanish, Romanian, Moroccan and Colombian.

Before they separate into their home groups, the students brainstorm the features of traditional cuisine that can be researched: usual dishes, seasonal/traditional dishes, most popular ingredients, types of fruit, reasons for using certain ingredients, historical origins,… the teacher will write down all their suggestions on the blackboard.

1) The home groups get together. They can chat about their expectations, if they already know anything about their assigned topic, what they think it will be like, what ingredients do they think are most popular in that country... They will also think of 4 features to research about among all the suggestions, and curate a list of items.

2) Then, they go to their expert groups (4 groups of 6 people each). At first, they can share which elements their groups decided to investigate. For example: group 1 decided to investigate ingredients, usual dishes, seasonal dishes and their origin; group 2 decided on usual dishes, ingredients, fruits and vegetables, etc. Putting interaction skills to use, they create a common list of research that contains all the desired items. Then, they divide the list in tasks, and each expert investigates their task. 

3) When they have all the information, they create a summary of each item. For example, if the person in charge of searching ingredients has found 20, and the person in charge of seasonal dishes also has 20, it might bee too much content, and they need to choose the key aspects. After this is done, each student will fill a worksheet with expert information to report back to their group.

4) Back in the home groups, each student shares the expert’s summary and tells them all about the food of their assigned country. It is expected that most of the items have been covered. They will mainly focus on the items they had originally selected, but they can share information about others as well. For example, if the group had originally decided to investigate usual dishes, ingredients, fruits and vegetables, but the expert also had to research on seasonal dishes, they share this too.

5) After all four students have shared their information, they have to further discuss some questions the teacher writes on the blackboard: do any of the countries have ingredients/dishes in common? Are the fruits/vegetables the same? Are the festivities similar?

6) With all the information from the experts and their new discussion, the group creates a poster with their findings. They have to include what they think are the key aspects of each country’s cuisine and their reflections on similarities, differences, wish to try some of the dishes,…

The teacher’s role is of facilitator and guide. She provides with all the necessary information and examples, but she acts more like a prompter of discovery. She is also responsible for the timing of each task. She walks around the classroom, seeing the groups work, answering questions and controlling the correct development of the activity.