Cooperative Learning

1. Cooperative learning

As I mentioned before, it is through interaction that learners can share ideas and learn. Therefore, cooperative learning has become a popular teaching strategy lately. Nevertheless, success in implementing cooperative learning in the foreign language classrooms requires that teachers understand its real meaning, its benefits, and its components. If the teacher is not really aware of these elements, he will hardly ever apply this technique in his lessons (Hereida-Arriaga and Campbell 3).

Some teachers have many years of experience using a quite variety of techniques in order to facilitate students’ learning. Other teachers have claimed to use the cooperative learning strategy in their classrooms by claiming that they assign students in teams. However, it is important to underline that cooperative learning involves more than just assigning students in teams. The following section attempts to explain what cooperative learning consists of (Hereida-Arriaga and Campbell 3).

1.1. What is cooperative learning?

Cooperative learning is defined as a teaching strategy that involves students working together in teams in order to reach a common goal. All the students in each team help each other to learn and they also become responsible for their own learning. “Cooperative learning occurs when each student strives for a learning outcome that will be beneficial to all members of the group” (Schmuck and Schmuck 272).

However, in cooperative learning, students not only acquire knowledge but also social skills. Through conversations, students learn from each other and get to know and respect the members of the team. In addition, in cooperative learning, students develop their social, higher level thinking, and communication skills (Palmer et al. 2).

Talking about cooperative learning requires talking about a group that learns. Schmuck and Schmuck point out: “A group may be defined as a collection of interacting people with some reciprocal influence over one another” (262). Schmuck and Schmuck also argue that physical proximity does not determine a group; as a consequence, people who travel in the same bus or people who attend the same concert are not necessarily a group. A group involves students interacting among them and influencing on each other (262).

As a matter of fact, some teachers do not distinguish between cooperative groups and groups. That is, they claim that they are using cooperative learning strategies in their classrooms because they believe that it only involves assigning students into teams. However, how many times teachers assign students into teams and the latter do not seem to work together but individually? (Díaz-Barriga 106).

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