In forming cooperative groups, there are many things that need to
be decided upon. The following list contains some of the issues that
need to be addressed. It is important to emphasize that the questions
raised do not have unique answers. How you structure your cooperative
classroom will vary depending on what you are teaching, the nature
of the room, the time available to you, the nature of the participants,
etc. The active learning teacher must be, above all, observant, sensitive,
and flexible in his or her approach, be willing to change strategy
depending on the situation, and be able to learn from prior experiences.
In arriving at the guidelines given here, I have been strongly influenced
by certain books that have been written on the topic, as well as my
own experiences with this kind of teaching. For further information,
the interested reader is referred to the bibliography at the end.
Like everything else, cooperative learning can be carried too far.
It should not be the only mode of learning that students experience.
In real life, one is most frequently working in a group mode so learning
to do so successfully in the classroom is an important educational
goal. But there are occasions when one needs to work independently
of others and even compete against others. So the well-rounded active
learning classroom should use all three modes of learning. Traditional
classrooms are mostly independent or competitive, and hence this manual
focuses on developing the ignored collaborative skills.
Dealing with opposition to group work
What if a student is adamantly opposed to working with others in
groups? This is usually because in the past they have felt exploited
by others in the group who did not do their fair share of the work,
or because they feel that they can do the work better by themselves.
In such cases, I talk to them and suggest that this experience might
be different because of the precautionary structures in place. I suggest
that they try it out for a few weeks. If at the end of that time,
they still feel uncomfortable working in a group, I will let them
work alone, although they are still responsible for all the assignments.
I have never had a student come back after the time interval and
ask to work alone.
Age appropriateness
The nature of the groups and the tasks they are assigned depends on
the age of the participants. Older participants tend to be more resistant
to being assigned roles. While they may have more entrenched personality
traits that make some of them hard to work with, you are also more
likely to have people in the groups who have highly developed small
group skills and who can thus resolve tensions without outside (i.e.,
instructor) intervention. Hence unstructured groups are more likely
to be used with older persons than younger children.
Physical resources
The arrangement of the room and furniture plays an important role
in successful group work. Ideally, you should have tables with chairs
that can be moved around and in which the students in groups can sit
and face each other while working. The size of tables is important.
If they are too small, students can feel a little constricted but
it is worse if the tables are too large. Then the groups will subdivide
with students talking only to the one next to them and not with those
across the table.
Management of groups
It takes a while for people to develop the skills of working together
harmoniously. Inevitably there will be friction amongst group members.
Since the goal of the active learning classroom is to make people
independent learners, the instructor should avoid the trap of rushing
in whenever there is a problem and thus over-managing the groups.
As far as possible, the group members should learn how to resolve
the issues amongst themselves. If the instructor has to intervene,
the occasion should be used not just to solve the immediate problem
that caused the conflict, but also to model to the members of the
group how to resolve issues.
Frequency of group changes
There is no fixed rule about the frequency of group changes. They
can occur at agreed upon time intervals (every week or month or semester)
or at the beginning of a new curriculum topic. Groups can also be
changed because of problems within the groups but this should be used
only as a last resort.
Group transitions
Groups bond together and develop group loyalties surprisingly quickly!
Announcing group changes without advance warning can produce unhappiness.
Hence, group transitions should be notified well in advance and there
should be opportunities given for the old group to make their farewells
and for the new group to get to know each other, using ice-breakers
if necessary.
Grading philosophy
Collaborative group work succeeds only if everyone perceives a benefit
in getting all group members to succeed. Hence it should be apparent
that any grading scheme that assigns grades on a norm-referenced basis
(i.e., 'on a curve' where the number of high grades is limited) will
work against successful group work. After all, why should one student
help another to learn if the latter’s success will work against
the former? I strongly believe that collaborative groups will succeed
only if grades are criterion-referenced (i.e., a student’s grade
only depends on what he or she can do and not on how the rest of the
class performs).
