Classroom Environment and Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is an important tool to use in any classroom. It can be used in all grade levels and in all subject areas. In a world that is relying more and more on a collaborative work environment, it is important that students gain the valuable skills necessary to succeed in a collaborative environment. According to the book, there are two essential components to make cooperative learning successful. The first is positive interdependence. Positive interdependence emphasizes that all the students in the group are in this together and one person's success does not come at the expense of another student's success. Teachers must also ensure that the workload of each individual is reasonable and equal to the other team member's. The other key element for cooperative learning is individual accountability. This refers to the need for each member of the team to receive feedback on how his or her personal efforts have helped the team reach their goal. Teachers can use assessments to determine the contributions that each group member made to the group and the overall product. It is important to keep the group sizes small (no more than five) and to use cooperative learning consistently and systematically.

Cooperative learning would support a classroom like the one described in the Tomlinson article. Cooperative learning has shown to increase motivation because students develop a sense of obligation to their group and a strong kinship to their peers that leads to greater motivation and increased achievement. When teachers, like the one described in the article, use positive interdependence and individual accountability, students learn to be more responsible for their own learning as well as helping other students in the group learn as well. They also gain the ability to demonstrate what they know, understand, and are able to do. In small groups, students have the chance to process information at a slower pace as opposed to a lecture where all of the information is sort of thrown at them while the teacher hopes that they will understand and remember all of it. The teacher in the Tomlinson article ensured that each student was learning the material. She catered the curriculum to each student. Instead of focusing on labels, she focused on different interests and needs. Instead of focusing on deficits, she focused on strengths and how she could use those strengths in her classroom. I think that she would probably use cooperative learning in her classroom because it would help to build a better sense of classroom environment and the students would be held accountable to themselves, their peers, and the teacher.

The article that I read was titled, "A Tip for Teaching Tenacity and Teamwork." This article gives teachers a valuable teaching tool for when students are working in groups. Each group gets two plastic cups, one green one and one red one. When the students need help, they put the red cup on the middle of the group and when they are doing fine on their own, they leave the green cup showing. Not only does this allow the teacher to see when students need help, but the article also discusses how this technique helps develop self-determination and collaboration. At first, one student might be more likely to give up and change cups to signal for help, but other students in the group will usually protest and then help the student solve the issue within their group. This ties into the chapter that we read because it talks about how students can learn from each other and cooperative learning helps build a collaborative environment where students are willing to help everyone in their group succeed.