Learning About Cooperative Learning

After seeing this post by my friend (who I used to work with when I was still teaching English to Koreans) I thought taking the concept of this teaching tool and applying it to a small company like ours can and will yield a lot of results. But before we go into that let’s start with the basic first.

So what is Cooperative Learning?

Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning. Class members are organized into small groups after receiving instruction from the teacher. They then work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it. In cooperative learning situations there is a positive interdependence among students’ goal attainments; students perceive that they can reach their learning goals if and only if the other students in the learning group also reach their goals (Deutsch, 1962; Johnson & Johnson, 1989). No one group member will possess all of the information, skills, or resources necessary for the highest possible quality presentation. Many studies have shown that when correctly implemented, cooperative learning improves information acquisition and retention, higher-level thinking skills, interpersonal and communication skills, and self-confidence (Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1998).

Pretty straight forward right? I’m pretty sure that at one point in your life you’ve been part of a group presentation and have had lab partners, so the concept of working together is not alien to you. And to put it more simply, it just means you don’t know everything. Repeat after me. I don’t know everything.

But applying it as a system (dare I say culture? Gasp.) in a company is quite a different thing. First off, everybody thinks they know everything. And I’m not just talking about in our industry, but in general really. Know-it-alls is the death of cooperative learning. And this is the first thing that I think we have to overcome to make the most out of cooperative learning even before satisfying its five elements.

The Five Elements of Cooperative Learning Explained

• Positive Interdependence

It’s like a ventriloquist and his puppet. It won’t be as funny without one or the other.

• Face-to-Face Interaction

Because these days you just don’t know what people online are talking about anymore.

• Individual and Group Accountability

And memories of 2K7’s Christmas Party comes back to me.

• Interpersonal and Small-Group Skills

All you need is for one person to think you’re cool, and you’re in. Everyone else will be scared to question it.

• Group Processing

This is why group processing is needed. Or else you’ll end up with a lot of time machines.