Integrated Curriculum and Cooperative Learning

Integrated Curriculum and Cooperative Learning

The primary purpose of this study is to highlight how encompassing curriculum setups that utilize the phenomenon of collaborative learning (CL) can allow the students to attain a more astute, intelligent, appropriate and evocative educational standard. The paper will highlight different case studies that have been carried out under different circumstances and with different approaches of CL and will then highlight how these support or refute the statement that the use of CL helps build a stronger and widened educational horizon. But before we analyze the case studies, it is important that we understand what CL is and how it works (Dyson, 2001).

Collaborative learning is basically a general term that is used to incorporate all those cooperative and group activities that are undertaken by teachers and/or students in order to attain a higher academic goal. To put it more simply and clearly CL allows the growth and sustenance of situational settings that support and instigate the students to work together for a similar goal in similar conditions with elements of individual responsibility and group cooperation having equal weight. Usually what is understood as a CL effort is when the student body is divided into groups that strife to comprehend, analyze, identify, define or solve an academic problem or dilemma. This can be done through the collaborative writing projects, individual and group assignments, etc. (Dyson, 2001).

Over the years CL has been adapted into numerous different categories. These include the Collaborative Networked Learning category which is mainly a CL methodology that is adopted by the independent and older student. There is also the Youth Directed Collaboration category which is similar to Collaborative Networked Learning but it is a lot more futuristic and drastic and encompasses the entire body of youth. Then there is Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) which has been a very recent addition and includes experimental teaching methods in numerous faculties like cognitive sciences, sociology, computer engineering. As the name suggests, it involves the use of or familiarity with computer and technology-literacy on the part of both the teachers and the students to be successful (Dyson, 2001).

Collaborative Learning is a useful element in terms of the dimension it adds in the overall Learning Management Systems. This simply highlights all the mechanisms and tools (visual or numeric) that come along in support of the CL setup that can allow the students to better identifying and understanding the problem at hand. A good and recent example of this is the Virtual Classrooms which are basically physically divided classrooms that are connected through the use of audio-visual systems like chat rooms, blog sites, dialogue sequences etc. Basically what CL does is bring together all the individuals to work as a single body and system which allows them to develop and enhance their information database within academic boundaries (Dyson, 2001).

Overview of the Cooperative learning and Curriculum development

When looking at cooperative learning we can see five clear methodologies in which cooperative learning can take place as highlighted by Johnson, Johnson, and Johnson-Houbec in 1988 (Dyson & Rubin 2003). These five methodologies include:

Interpersonal and small-group proficiencies

Supportive face-to-face communication,

Constructive inter-reliance,

Individual responsibility, and Group management.

Interpersonal and small-group proficiencies include individual characteristics like listening to all members, mutual decision-making, allocating and taking liability, a two-way response structure, and shared support. These can be instigated in the students by developing methods where the children can work cooperatively and in a united manner. The supportive face-to-face communication as the name suggests is a very personal nose-to-nose discussion that takes place within every team and amongst its members. Usually this discussion is done on relevant and related subjects. Constructive inter-reliance basically means trusting your teammates that you work with to attain a specified goal. Individual responsibility as the name suggests is taking responsibility for one's own contribution in the attainment of a task. Group management in its fundamental form is mainly a monitoring and evaluation process of the level and degree of success that the group is achieving in the attainment of its goal. Many researchers have highlighted the following elements as also influential in creating a successful CL experience:

Innovative and thoughtful division of the student body,

Creation and facilitation of the relevant and opportune social settings and communication,

The constant recognition of the importance of individual responsibility, and Consistent and regular evaluation of all teams and teammates to analyze the overall input of the students (Dyson & Rubin, 2003).

Many researchers believe that the influence of the peers or contemporaries on the method of learning and approaching one's education is extremely vast. The team acceptance, sense of belonging and team support are all elements that can instigate a positive influence on the learning of the students as well as his/her overall social contact and attitude. For example, in a Vygotskian perception, the researchers have explained the numerous behaviors or methods of the peers that can instigate or support the enhancement of the overall learning strategy and output of the students. Many researchers have also positively highlighted the constructive results that are attained when the teachers support peer influence and increase social communication between students (Dyson & Rubin, 2003).

Other studies also support that the CL in the form of peer communication and relations instigates stronger motivational directions when designing the aims and choosing the principles as well as the use of the abilities that help in the self-evaluation and self-management of the individual along with critical thinking and social skills (e.g., Wentzel, 2002). All of the researches show intricate connections between social comfort or interaction and the education that the students get. Furthermore, they highlight the fact that the enhancement and the implementation of learning facilitating strategies has to be avidly supported by the attributes of and prospects that are brought forth in the generalized subject matters being used for the educational procedures (Wentzel & Watkins, 2002).

Numerous researches have combined peer associations and CL in different educational or academic breakthroughs for different levels or grades in schools. Numerous studies that have analyzed peer association have concluded that this form of CL shows higher academic performance and problem solving skills when the peer associations are higher and constructive and the opposite when the peers associations are limited or negative. These studies also show the same result for the overall class achievements and marks gained by students, and peer healthy associations have also been recognized as influential in the context of higher IQ levels (Wentzel & Watkins, 2002) and test scores marks.

Another advantage of CL is that it also allows students to communicate and associate with each other beyond academics and allows them to strengthen their social contacts. Not all social contacts are related to the phenomenon of friendship however, some are merely based on academic goals while others can be based around extra-curricular activities. Many practitioners confirm that the cooperative format of finding solution to various problems acts as a facilitator of healthy social contacts of students as well as their overall intelligence, awareness and academic performance (Wentzel & Watkins, 2002).

The main focus of most studies has been the development of communication and interpersonal relations between and amongst students through the use of CL and a relevant curriculum outline and for that the different ways that CL can be employed has been explained below. These include: a) informal learning groups setting, b) formal learning groups settings and c) study teams settings (Wentzel & Watkins, 2002).

The informal learning group is basically a random, temporary and spontaneous grouping of students that lasts only for one class or period. These are usually very unofficial and mainly signify an effort from the teacher to instigate a comfort level of communication between students under casual settings (Wentzel & Watkins, 2002).

The formal learning group is a more official grouping of the students where the attainment of a goal is given to each group. Of course the formal learning group element has the flexibility to have both short- and long-term life i.e. It can only be a one-period effort or it can be a project that can take up several classes. Usually, the groups that have worked together for the attainment of the task are marked a group as well (Wentzel & Watkins, 2002).

The study team is mainly a durable grouping of the students that can last over the entire semester. This setting usually supports a consistent participation from all members as well as highlights elements of cooperation, organization, sustenance and help between and among the group members till they attain their short-term aims and their overall collective goal. There is cohesiveness and unity in the study teams and an obvious academic assistance when a teammate requires it. Usually the study teams are most useful if there is a larger student body (Wentzel & Watkins, 2002). In this paper we will analyze case studies that have used CL under the formal learning group and study team format where the communication between the members is free flowing and consistent.

Case Studies in support the use of cooperative learning:

Case study 1:

In this particular case study, the researchers analyzed all the subject matter that was already available on the phenomenon of Cooperative Learning and then compared all the results and deductions made. The main concentration of this study was on the various approaches that were adopted in numerous educational institutes and universities and how their incorporation of cooperative learning strategies proved constructive. The demographics or spectrum of this study was very vast and carried out analyses and comparisons of universities from Australia, UK and the U.S.A. This particular study highlighted the CL strategies employed in the RMIT Graduate School of Business and the potential paths that the future practitioners can take when they choose to focus on the academic functioning of similar CL tools. The results of this study showed that, in comparison to other educational techniques, the students' regular participation in a group activity results in higher understanding and comprehension of a subject or problem even when the subject at hand is not of their interest. Furthermore, student performance, student satisfaction with their education and social communication/interaction is higher after the implementation of CL group activities. However, researchers suggest that further investigation needs to be done one the techniques used in a collaborative classroom setting as well as the teaching routines employed and all the latent regulations that are exercised (Beckman, 1990).

Case study 2:

In this particular case study, the researcher incorporated the opinions and reactions of the first-year microeconomics students on the CL strategy that was used in their instructional classes. The study used the questionnaire methodology to get the reactions from the students and the general consensus was in favor of the use of CL strategies as most students said that the CL methodology was more influential in enhancing their social, educational and critical thinking or problem solving skills more so then any other conventional teaching technique.

Some of the main questions that were asked in the questionnaires were mainly designed around whether collaborative learning: assisted in adjusting to the University life easily and promptly; enhanced the interaction between them and their teachers; supported and facilitated their interest in the subject at hand; enhanced and sharpened their interaction efforts in small and large groups; assisted in highlighting other point-of-views, attitudes and angles to a problem; lucidly understand the dynamics of a subject after a healthy debate on it; made the difficult and intricate subjects simpler and easier to grasp.

The result of the study confirmed that the CL strategies were welcomed by the majority of the students. Most students felt a vast growth in their social, communication, intellectual, academic, critical thinking and problem solving abilities. The results showed that some students were more enthusiastic than others like the ones who saw an obvious improvement in their marking and ranks, females, those who saw an obvious improvement in their communication and social comfort (Becker, 2004).

Case study 3:

In this case study, the researcher analyzed the incorporation of CL methods in the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. The University of Strathclyde has one of the most advanced and a leading Department of Mechanical Engineering in the UK with nearly 500 undergraduates and 80 postgraduates out of the total student body of 14,500. The heads of this department decided to use an electronic voting method called the Inter-write TM PRS (Personal Response System) in order to boost the level of student-to-student and student-to-teacher communication in the classrooms. The experiment was started with choosing four big lecture halls that had the infra-red voting mechanisms installed in them and the seating arrangement was changed so that the students, while still facing the front of the hall, were also facing each other in a way that effective communication and discussion could be carried out. The results showed that allowing the students to carry out discussions on the possible conceptual questions within the lecture halls allowed the students to feel more comfortable with the subject they were studying as well as instigated more academic activities and enhanced the overall communicational skills of the students. Furthermore, the results showed that the recollection and comprehension of the different aspect of a subject were at higher levels in all the students involved in the discussions (HEFCE, 2005a).

Case study 4:

This particular case study concentrated on the results attained after the implementation of a unit development project on an online collaborative learning component. This unit development procedure was implemented in the University of New England for the 2001 first year Bachelor of Education course. Initially, the study aimed to analyze the results that were attained in terms of student performance and student communication after the use of bulletin boards as platforms for the student to interact, argue and discuss subjects that were important to them. The use of CL strategies in the bulletin board structure was also incorporated as part of the analysis so that the instructor's task could be designed as the catalyst of communication as opposed to a supervisor of communication. In this study, the researchers used the Activity System Model designed by Engestrom and Cole (1993) and later modified by Hewitt (2001) in order to choose the mechanism of CL. The researchers chose the Online Jigsaw as the main mechanism of CL and also used the Activity System Model to select, devise and modify all methodologies. The results of the paper were also given a thorough outlook as the Activity System Model allowed the researchers to use the standardized groups for student assessment of the behaviors that were being exercised. The sample size included a total of 68 first year Bachelor of Education (BEd) students who had applied for the yearlong unit of 12 credit points at the University of New England (Hansford & Wylie, 2001).

The overall analysis was made up of the following processes:

Personally choose design and present an essay;

Present a suggestive essay on the characteristics and method of teaching that were being used as well as the academic approaches based upon their personal opinions and encounters;

Write, submit and represent two separate seminar essays in front of the class as well as give a final test that included a written paper with unrevealed and specified examination conditions (Hansford & Wylie, 2001).

The students were to submit answers to six questions that were given to them at the beginning of their second semester. These answers would be used as the foundation to build the final examination around. Furthermore, three of the six questions would be given again in the form of a test. While the students were asked to choose one of the three questions to give an answer to, they had to in reality study all six topics covered in the questions so as to gain understanding of the subjects as well as get acquainted with all the appropriate, relevant and related notions, troubles, principles ethics and explanations resulting from the nature of these questions and subjects. The main reason for the inclusion of the Online Jigsaw activity was to increase the level or degree of the comprehension, explanation and aspects that the students could incorporate from the subject that they were studying. The main advantage of using the Jigsaw methodology as supported by numerous researchers is that it helps in the growth of constructive inert-reliance between and amongst students. The Jigsaw approach allows every student on the team to work on one specified aspect of the main goal, interact and share information or results with students from other teams that were handling the same aspect as well as developing on and enhancing the overall subject matter gathered before submitting or presenting it in front of the team (Hansford & Wylie, 2001).

Case study 5:

In this particular case study, the researcher has focused on the incorporation of technology with CL at the North Hertfordshire College which is based in Stevenage, Hitchin and Letchworth and is made up of a student body that includes 15,000 part-timers and 2,500 full-timers annually. The main purpose of this study was to analyze how the college's incorporation of the 21st century technology was working out for the students. Most of the classrooms in the college were normally equipped with technological equipment like computers, DVD players, power points, interactive whiteboards, video data projectors and digital cameras and were readily available for use of students. Furthermore, every classroom had individual Internet access so as to develop and exploit the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) facility and the wireless network admission. The college is also aiming to incorporate the use of the mobile or cell phones as another academic tool within the classroom (HEFCE, 2005b).

The results showed that the use of the computers in the form of network learning processes helped the students get more techno-literate as well as grow more confident and reliant on their own skills to either move forward on their own or offer assistance to anyone else in the class. Also the entire process helped breakdown the workload and responsibilities into basic instructions which made the project attainment seem more methodical and feasible for the students. Research also showed that this incorporation of technology allowed students to sharpen their abilities in both the mental and technical genres as they became more accustomed with the various ways that problems could be solved. Also the students were given access to numerous recreational websites that allowed them to grow more accustomed to each other in non-academic setting and improve their social and communicational skills (HEFCE, 2005b).

Case studies 6:

This next case study was held at a municipal University in the Eastern part of the United States. The University's student body is mainly made up of individuals who are full-time workers and who are looking to complete their studies which is why they also conduct their classes in the evening. The demographics or sample for this study was restricted to graduate students and those undergraduates who had completed at least 56 credit points. None of the students had any idea of the aim of the study but all of them belonged to the four sections of Statistics for Social Sciences. This was actually taught by the researcher for a timeline of two successive fall sessions. Some of these students were criminal justice majors who had to take this particular subject as a compulsory subject for the completion of the degree. Other 25% students took the subject to increase their own horizons on the subject or had taken this subject to increase their credits scores, while other still were taking the subject to complete an undergraduate requirement (Potthast, 1999).

This study mainly analyzed the results of the small-group cooperative learning or educational strategies after they were implemented in undergraduate introductory statistics programs. The researcher used one of the first two sessions of the semester course to initiate four particular cooperative learning techniques that took up nearly one-fourth of the total class time. He introduced these techniques in four separate issues and then conducted comparisons of the extent of understating of the students in this session and the extent of understanding in the next session where he taught the same issues without the cooperative learning techniques. The generalized results showed that the overall grades of the students had improved when they studied the four issues or areas under the cooperative learning techniques. Also, the practical implications were more constructive for students more so on two of the issue out of the four when they used the cooperative learning techniques. Also the results showed that the confidence, communication and comfort levels on the social platform for students all improved when they used the CL techniques (Potthast, 1999).

More specifically, the study showed that there were certain facets of the statistics course that could have improved students performances with the implementation of the CL techniques. The CL techniques helped the students come to quicker and clearer decisions on the scales of measurements that they needed to use in different statistical problems. Furthermore, the overall group activity in areas of computing and interpretation of the variance and standard deviation helped the students get acquainted with the common difficulties that they were facing and then as a group bring in their individual inputs to numerous possible solutions and explanations (Potthast, 1999).

Case study 7:

The main aim of this case study was to assess the affect of using CL techniques to after-school experiences of students as well as how the use of CL techniques helped in developing their real life abilities. The demographics for this case study included the sample size of children from kindergarten to the sixth grade. The main purpose of carrying out this study was to provide a platform for future researchers in the realm of student growth and child development. The main focus of the study was to identify the numerous ways that the after-school programs and activities help in the development of both educational and social skills in children. The results were also aimed to help the parents develop a structure and schedule for their children that would facilitate the most growth and development (Junge, Manglallan & Raskauskas 2003).

The ulterior aim of the study was to asses the 4H After-school and whether its curriculum and teaching technique choices helped the students develop the real life skills that they would need to survive in the multicultural world of today. All the information was first collected and then results were presented in categories that were divided by the age, the student performance, the culture, ethnicity and/or gender of the student (Junge, Manglallan & Raskauskas 2003).

The sample that was used from the 4h After-school comprised of 354 children between the ages of 5 and 13, average age being 7.5 years that had at least been registered in the schools for 6 months. 49.4% of these children were male while the rest i.e. 50.6% of the children were female. The ethnic distribution showed 2.3% of the children to be Asian/Pacific Islanders, 8% of the children to be African-Americans, 11.3% of the children to be Hispanics, 67.8% of the children to be White/Caucasians and 3.1% of the children to be American Indians while 14.7% of the children deemed themselves to be racially mixed. 57.3% of the children at the time of the study were either second graders or younger (Junge, Manglallan & Raskauskas 2003).