Mr. Holland claims to use cooperative learning. He groups students, gives them math assignments in the book, and allows them to decide whether they work with group members or work independently. Mr. Holland needs your help to understand true cooperative learning and revise his practice to achieve it

Question

Describe how Mr. Holland should set up his groups for cooperative learning.

What does Mr. Holland need to do to turn his math assignments into true cooperative learning? Be sure to include all five elements of cooperative learning in your answer.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Suggested Response:
Mr. Holland needs to set up groups to encourage interaction and participation. For most math assignments, groups of three or four should work well. The mixed-ability groups should be balanced in the number of boys and girls, and shy or non-participative students should be mixed with tolerant students.
Tasks should require students to work together to solve the problems. They develop interdependence by sharing knowledge and coming to conclusions together.
Tasks should promote interaction among group members. Assigning roles may help students learn and ensure everyone's participation. Students are likely to hold one another accountable for carrying out assigned tasks for their roles.
Mr. Holland needs to hold students accountable for learning by assessing them individually. The assessments might be tests taken individually or other demonstrations of learning. With individual assessments, students are less likely to "loaf."
Tasks need to provide opportunities for students to collaborate. The collaborative aspects of the process require social skills that Mr. Holland needs to teach and reinforce. For example, he needs to teach students to give constructive feedback.
The group task needs to involve group processing. Students need to discuss, share ideas for solutions, take turns contributing, and work with every group member to complete the task.
Text Reference: Applying Constructivist Perspectives