I am taking a masters class this semester and we are doing research on cooperative learning. If you have any information or how it has helped/not helped you in the classroom, that would be wonderful! Thanks!

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I have been granted over $13,000 CND dollars to research cooperative learning structures in class by the Ontario Ministry of Education this year. Please visit my wiki site where I have posted some of my work. http://iiactionresearch.wetpaint.com
Of particular interest would be my journal section (Mirjan's journal), where I have some detailed comments about cooperative learning. I also have an edublog, http://mkrstovic.edublogs.org

Hope this helps. I love sharing my work with others. This semester I had excellent results with my students. Something to celebrate for sure!

Mirjan Krstovic, oct
Thank you so much for replying and for the websites! I found your journal very interesting and saw you used Kagan's. When researching, I have found alot of them. Have you taken any of their seminars? If you have any other information for me, please send it my way! Thanks for your help!

Lynn Soneson
I am glad that you found my journal interesting Lynn. Yes, I do use Kagan, but I have not take any of thier seminars. However, I have training in Instructional Intelligence by Barrie Bennett, who is one of the gurus of differentiated instruction/intelligent instruction here in Ontario. My journals are just a way for me to quickly document some of the things that I observed while implementing cooperative learning structures in my class. I am trying to make a point that cooperative learning structures are essential elements for fully cooperative class. A class of students that does not know how to "talk" to each other, how to paraphrase, how to LISTEN, how to agree to disagree, to say thank you and please, to be respectful, etc, cannot function successfully in a more complex cooperative learning strategies, such as Jig-Saws, or Academic Controversy. Little reseach exists on the effect of cooperative learning structures on the academic success, which is why I am focusing my work/action reseach on this particular teaching tactic.

Mirjan
Before I started doing research on the topic, I thought you just kids in a group and they worked together to come up with the final project. The more I read and find about it, it is an amazing thing. There are so many different ways to group the students and you can also assign different tasks so all of them have a job and not one or two peopel are just doing the work. Your journals are interesting and I enjoyed reading them. Its fun to see the results and thoughts of someone else on the subject! Thanks so much for sharing. Keep me posted on updated posts!
It is really a wonderful form of learning. The class can be divided into different groups in which memebers can discuss and also exchange ideas with more students. Also, it is a good chance for them to learn cooperation and ways of talking. Cooperative learning makes study more colorful and break the limitation of studing alone.

I find an online book relating to cooperative learning here.
Thanks for the post! I have found so much great information about cooperative learning. I was wondering have you read this book and was it helpful for you in the classroom? I feel that cooperative learning is a great way for students not only to learn together but to learn to socialize and learn how to work with each other!
I use cooperative learning a lot.

In my language arts classes, we use literature circles to study novels. Right now, my students are developing a test over their literature circle novel.

In Reading Improvement, we use the Read180 program. Students work in small groups. I facilitate, guide, and mediate.

Cooperative learning is difficult for teachers who are unwilling to let go of controlling the classroom and learning. Cooperative learning can be difficult when planning lessons because the teacher is not in control of everything in the classroom. Cooperative learning can be noisy which sometimes bothers other classrooms.

cooperative learning = controlled chaos
Thanks so much for your post. It is always interesting hearing different opinions on the subject! I can really see how it can get out of hand and the teacher loses control of the class. I love literature circles! What do you do with the other students who you are not working with? Also what is Read180? I have never heard of that before.
Students who aren't with me are teaching themselves. :)

Read180 is a reading program for students who are reading below level. It breaks down into 20-minute intervals where students rotate through stations to foster reading skills. In general, they spend 20 minutes on the computer, 20 minutes in small groups, and 20 minutes reading silently.

In reality, I add in a fourth rotation where students work cooperatively to complete assignments. This week students are creating Photostories based on a poem they read. Next week, they will use that poem as the foundation for creating a poem about themselves.
I have used cooperative learning methods with my students and they have yielded good results. Learners take responsibility of their own learning and make their own discoveries, they develop team spirit through working together in groups, they become confident and feel that the teacher trust them for finding information on their own instead of the teacher becoming the source of information. This does not take away the teacher's role in teaching the students but it increases interaction between the teacher and the learners, and between the learners and other learners. Check out this web:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/CLC...

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