Chapter 6 – Activating Students

as Instructional Resources for

One AnotherRegina Crawford & Tamara Linares

Chapter 6

“Even though there is a substantial

body of research that demonstrates

the extraordinary power of

collaborative and cooperative

learning, it is rarely deployed

effectively in classrooms.” (p. 133)

Cooperative Learning

4 main reasons why cooperative

learning has a profound effect

1. Motivation – higher rates of effort

2. Social cohesion – care about the

group, so higher rates of effort

3. Personalization – peers address

difficulties

4. Cognitive elaboration – think

through ideas

Studies

When group rewards depended on the collection of the learning of individuals within the group, members produced four times the impact on learning versus when a group was rewarded on a single group product

When peer help is elaborated explanations, both the giver and receiver benefitted by increasing learning by 50% versus peer help in giving answers or helping with procedures had no benefit for those giving help and had a drop in the achievement of the receiver.

Studies continued

Students participating in student-led

groups benefitted almost as much as

getting one-on-one instruction from a

teacher. Plus, they learned more than

students in teacher-led groups.

Under right conditions, peer tutoring can

be more effective than having 1:1

teacher-student ratio

Teacher language. Students pretend

to understand

Girls worried about teacher time

Boys didn’t want to look foolish

When working with peers, students

are willing to ask one another to slow

down or repeat something.

2 elements should be present for

effective cooperative learning 1. Group goals – students working AS

a group, not just working IN a group

2. Individual accountability – students

can’t ride in on the coattails of others

If both are present, cooperative

learning is equally effective for high

and low achievers

Teachers rarely practice true

cooperative learning even though they

are incorporating it. 93% of 85 elementary teachers in 2

districts said that they practiced

cooperative learning.

In follow-up interviews with 21 of those

teachers, on 5 teachers practiced true

collaborative learning to facilitate both

group goals and individual

accountability.

Useful Techniques

C3B4ME

Peer evaluation of

homework

Homework help

board

Two stars and a wish

End-of-topic

questions

Error classification

What did we learn

today?

Student reporter

Preflight checklist

I-You-We checklist

Reporter at random

Group-based test

prep

If you’ve learned

it, help someone

who hasn’t

C3B4ME

Students must have asked 3 other

students for assistance before coming

to the teacher for help.

Peer evaluation of homework

Involve students in checking.

Teacher decides method. Might get a rubric to grade their own, or swap notebooks with another student and grade it. Sometimes, this applied to whole groups of students.

If students didn’t have the work, could not participate in group evaluation.

Students didn’t like being excluded.

Work was neater

Homework help board

At the beginning of day or

lesson, students write any questions

they may have had on the previous

night’s homework on the help board.

Students who think they “got” the

homework and can help other

students can provide help to those

who indicated difficulties on the board.

Two stars and a wish

Peer assessment

If a student gives feedback on another student’s work, he or she must give them 2 things they thought were good (2 stars) and 1suggestion for improvement (wish).

Comments are on sticky notes (can be removed if not helpful.

Can take a picture of the feedback and show to students so that they can decide whether the feedback was helpful or not

End-of-topic questions

At the end of lesson, topic, etc., instead of saying any questions, ask them to discuss in their groups if any questions need to be answered. More likely to get response because students don’t want to look foolish in front of others.

Can even tell students that each group needs to generate at least 1 question.

Teacher collects questions, sorts them, and deals with like questions at the same time.

Error classification

Used when student errors are

straightforward

Can combine like

strengths/weaknesses for corrections

What did we learn today?

At the end of a lesson, groups

generate a list of items they learned

during the lesson

Each group reports one thing

# of items in the list needs to be the

same as the # of groups so each

group can mention at least 1 thing not

mentioned by another group

Student reporter

At the beginning of a lesson (or end of

a previous one) a student is selected

as a reporter.

Teacher stops 10 minutes before the

end of the lesson and student reporter

summarized main points of the lesson

and attempts to answer questions

students may have. If can’t

answer, asks other classmates to

help.

Preflight Checklist

Before an assignment is submitted, it

has to be signed of by a buddy, who

checks to make sure the assignment

met all the requirements

Works well when there are several

requirements for the assignment

(science lab report)

Buddy is accountable

I-You-We checklist

At the end of an

assignment/lesson, students writes

something about their own

contribution to the lesson, something

about another student’s

contribution, and something about the

quality of work of the group as a whole

Reporter at random

When assigning roles in groups, not a

good idea to assign reporter at the

beginning. Other students feel that

they are off the hook and can back off.

Individual accountability is lessened.

Group-based test prep

When preparing for a test, organize in groups and assign each member an aspect to review. Each student given a task card and suggestions on how to do it.

Next day, each member presents task to the group. Rest of group responds to presentation using colored cups (green, yellow, red).

Group decides if anything needs to be added to the explanation

If you’ve learned it, help

someone who hasn’t Remember, if students are giving

elaborated explanations (instead of just an answer), both giver and receiver benefit.

High achieving students might resist peer tutoring for fear of being held back and think they’re doing the teacher’s job (especially math)

To counter, emphasize that getting the right answer isn’t enough. Need to be able to communicate findings.

continued

Cultural norms – In Japan, teacher keeps class together. If a student understands something but others don’t, teacher’s job is to help those who need help

Those students in middle can become spectators. Half-ability groups (weak with middle and middle with strong). As many students as possible are engaged in learning

Some teachers concerned it’s not fair. Primary purpose of assessment not to sort and rank and grade students. Be careful to not create incentives for students to create low-quality work.

Assessments should be used to adjust instruction