Cooperative Learning: Differentiated Instruction Cooperative Learning, Which

Cooperative Learning: Differentiated Instruction Cooperative learning, which often includes students teaching other students or groups of students working in teams, can enable stronger students to act as a support structure for their less apt colleagues. Students need to feel willing and able to ask for help, and creating a cooperative learning environment normalizes seeking help. Students do not feel 'stupid' when they need assistance when they realize making mistakes is part of the learning process.

Cooperative learning uses the natural desire of students to feel connected to their peers and channels that impulse to create a learning environment. From a student perspective, cooperative learning is valuable because it enables weaker students to keep pace with stronger colleagues, so they do not fall behind. This is particularly critical in a subject area like math, in which learning must build upon previous learning. Without a foundation, the learning structure of the class can easily fall apart. Stronger students gain confidence in ability as they instruct their peers.

By encouraging gifted students who know the answer to explain the answer, the learning of the gifted child and the less gifted child is both enhanced equally by the process. This enables gifted students to gain multiple skill sets -- both mathematical and social ones. However, a supportive enough atmosphere must be created that all students do not feel stigmatized when talking about what they do not understand.

Learning in a team-based environment is often foreign to students and they must learn how to focus, ask questions, and how to guide others effectively. Teachers must learn not to stigmatize weaker learners, as Mr. Ortiz does with encouraging and emotionally-sensitive language. Teachers must also exercise enough oversight over students to ensure that one student does not do all of the work and that students remain focused on their work and do not simply 'socialize' with one another.

Through cooperative learning, teachers have the potential to create students who truly 'own' their learning. Teachers can use cooperative learning to encourage weaker students who have a negative conception of themselves to tackle challenging subjects and to remain interested and involved in the classroom because they enjoy working with their friends. In a subject like math, bringing a student 'back up to speed' once they get 'lost' can be nearly impossible.

Students are, by and large, social 'animals' and cooperative learning exercises like Ortiz's fishbowl uses this natural tendency to the teacher's advantage. While a cooperative learning environment may be potentially more chaotic than a standard classroom, it has greater potential to accomplish the teacher's ultimate goals of encouraging students to learn and getting students excited about learning. One useful cooperative group task is asking students to prepare for a debate on a controversial issue.

This can be exciting, because students must work together in a competitive environment, pooling their resources to create an effective presentation. Students.