(^)
learning was to provide a supportive environment to help students abandon their novice
problem-solving strategies and adopt more “competent” approaches.
Cooperative Learning Theory and Practice
Cooperative learning is an educational strategy for personal and cognitive change
that can be contrasted to competitive or individualistic strategies of learning (Johnson and
Johnson, 1987). Much of the research on cooperative learning in science education has
focused on elementary or secondary school children. This suggested to me that research
was definitely needed on cooperative learning in college science instruction. Moreover,
because of the emphasis on problem solving and laboratory work, college physics classes
provide excellent contexts for cooperative learning research.
At its most basic level, cooperative learning methods require students to work in
groups. Although working in groups is a primary requirement, it is not sufficient.
Cooperative learning must be structured. The instructional strategy in the courses used in
this research relied on the Johnson Model (Johnson, Johnson and Holubec, 1988), and its
application by Karl Smith (1989) to college teaching. There are five elements in this
model of cooperative learning. Examples of how these elements are implemented in a
classroom will serve to explain their use.
(^) is dependent on one another. Group members 1. Positive Interdependence links students together so that their success in a course work together, striving for consensus on
goals, problem solving strategies and answers.common rewards. One method to facilitate positive interdependence gives a group only Frequently there are shared resources and
one set of materials needed to solve a problem or answer a question.
- necessary to have a classroom where student Face-to-face Interaction promotes students' support for s can physically face each other ("eye to eye one another to learn. It is
and knee to knee"). Traditional lecture halls necessary. will not work because moveable furniture is