Name and briefly describe four principals of cooperative learning

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Essay should include a brief discussion of the following:
• Heterogeneous groups. Researchers (Lou,1996) have found that although, medium-performance students learn best in homogeneous groups and high-performance students do well in either homogeneous or heterogeneous groups, low achieving students perform best in heterogeneous groups. Furthermore, mixing students by both performance and status traits (like ethnicity, group affiliation, or gender) is likely to yield other benefits, such as improved interethnic and interpersonal understanding. Because of these reasons, many educators prefer to create heterogeneous teams when using cooperative learning strategies.
• Group accountability. Students in teams should know that their team has a specific goal or goals that each member is working to achieve. Without a clearly expected outcome in the form of a product or performance, teams drift.
• Positive interdependence. Group goals, usually in the form of a group reward, and accountability are connected with team interdependence. Activities are designed so that team members must swim together or sink together as they work toward a common objective. If one person can float on the work of others, something is amiss with the activity's design.
• Individual accountability. Each team member must be held accountable for his or her participation in the team's work. Individual accountability arises from specifically tailored jobs (individual task specialization) for each team member or from holding each member accountable for performance on a test of knowledge or skills learned in the team but tested independently.