Classroom community and cooperative learning

We have been discussing the principles of Cooperative Learning, its characteristics and relations to Oral Skills. In addition to that, today I want to relate this approach to one of my main goals at teaching: the creation of classroom community. After some reading, I have discovered that these two concepts are closely related and that by implementing Cooperative learning, would easier to achieve the community I want in my classroom. 

To make clearer this relationship, let me introduce you to the concept of Classroom community. According to Ambrose Panico and Laurie Frank (2007), Classroom Community is a way of practicing peaceful conflict resolution that might influence students’ attitudes inside and outside the classroom. For reaching this community, it is relevant to celebrate and value the contributions of each member of the group, encouraging cooperation and social relationships. Although the creation of these types of communities requires time and effort, the results of it will be reflected on students’ attitudes towards their partners, their teacher, their classroom, and their learning. For working on classroom community, I am constantly focused on students’ strengths and talents, empowering them to value themselves as significant members of a community.

Likewise, Classroom Community might be beneficial to address the challenging behaviors that were observed in the classroom. By implementing routines and tasks that promote the creation of a Classroom Community, students might start taking responsibility towards their own acts and the consequences of them in their community.

For me, the creation of a place where students will be able to interact and share with their partners in order to express themselves, but also to listen and understand others is essential. For this reason, building a classroom community is imperative in this project for achieving efficient cooperative work, but also for fostering Speaking Skills. David Levine (2003) asserts that a classroom community is the creation of an environment where students can feel emotionally and physically safe, understood, and supported.  I aim to create a safe place for students to be themselves, listening to each other while working together. Therefore, every member of the community should have a role to play based on their talents and skills just as the roles in CL, considering the importance of addressing the value of each member of the group and the importance of positive interdependence.

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Cooperative Learning and Speaking Skills

It is well known that CL is a valuable approach to enhance your students’ Speaking skills. For this reason, I would like to share with you some of the advantages of using Cooperative groups to foster students’ interaction and develop oral skills in the foreign language.

Students usually express that speaking is one of the most challenging skill to develop in a foreign language. They are constantly afraid of making mistakes and feel insecure about their fluency and knowledge to achieve social interaction. This lack of confidence may be caused by the way they are learning the language. As we have already observed, there are several English classrooms that follow a traditional methodology in which students are passive agents in their learning process. In CL you are providing your student with the opportunity to be an active learner.

Moreover, by implementing CL, the common learning environment is transformed into a social and cooperative context where everyone’s role is essential to success. Hence, students have opportunities to interact and help each other, practicing their speaking skills while achieving common goals. Likewise, in cooperative groups students are able to exchange their ideas, thoughts, and perceptions. Finally, it is important to mention that aspects as shyness and anxiety can be reduced by eliminating the formal learning, where competition and grades are the principles of the class.

To exemplify the advantages of implementing CL in the foreign language classroom, Contreras and Chapetón (2016) conducted an action research study called Cooperative Learning with a Focus on the Social: A Pedagogical Proposal for the EFL Classroom, in a public school in Bogotá. In this research, you may evidence the impact of CL in students’ oral abilities in the foreign language, as the authors aimed to develop students’ oral interaction in the classroom. It is relevant to mention that, besides demonstrating the positive effect of this approach to foster interaction, they also found a great way to transform the context and the students’ attitudes towards their learning and their classmates. Therefore, we can conclude that CL is an approach that conceives the language as a social practice that might change students’ contexts and relationships while fostering language development.

However, I consider that CL is not a miraculous approach that works by its own in the transformation of traditional learning. We have to implement different strategies, methods, and tools that are closer to learners’ lives and realities in order to foster motivation and participation.

References:

Contreras, J & Chapetón, J. (2016). Cooperative Learning With a Focus on the Social: A Pedagogical Proposal for the EFL Classroom. How, 23(2), 125-147. https://dx.doi.org/10.19183/how.23.2.321

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Elements of Cooperative Learning and some strategies to work on them.

If you read my last entry, you probably asked yourself what makes Cooperative groups different from other learning groups. Here you have the answer:  Cooperative groups are different because of the integration of the five elements involved in Cooperative Learning.  It is relevant to clarify that these aspects should be seen as a whole and must be developed conjointly. Bearing this in mind, I will explain the 5 elements and some strategies you can use to work on them.

The first relevant element to achieve cooperative groups is the Positive Interdependence, for achieving this aspect, teachers must provide a clear task and group objectives. It is important for students to realize that individual efforts will not be enough to overcome the task and that they need the help of each one of their partners in order to succeed. For doing this, you can establish objectives that all of the members of the groups should accomplish at the end of the lesson. Additionally, you should create clear and short instructions for the students, it will be better to have them written on the board so students can review them and know exactly what to do next. 

The following element is called Individual Accountability, each member of the group will be responsible for accomplishing his or her part of the task, and the members of the group should be able to evaluate the process of the group and of each individual in it, creating strategies and solutions to overcome problems and difficulties in the group. One meaningful strategy to accomplish this element is to establish roles, allowing students to understand that they have a responsibility and that his or her group depends on the accomplishment of this task.

The next element is Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction, students should be providing feedback and encouragement to each member of the group. In this stage, learners should promote their partners’ success, helping, congratulating, sharing and backing them. I consider that if you want your students to present these attitudes, you are the first who have to model the behavior, encouraging, congratulating, and helping your students.

 The next element is called Appropriate Use of Collaborative Skills. Students should develop leadership, decision-making, communication, and conflict management skills in order to achieve the group objectives. Working on this element has been much more difficult than the others. However, I started to establish expectations at the beginning of the lessons and students seem to understand what they should and should not do when working together. Although this strategy requires time, it is worth it. You can use 15 minutes at the beginning of the class to review Collaborative Skills.

Finally, the last element is called Group Processing, in which students will assess their progress in relation to the group objectives established at the beginning, they should identify negative and positive actions to improve their development as a group and propose strategies to work more efficiently in next opportunities. At the end of each lesson, students review the objectives and make sure that each student has achieved them. In addition, students reflect the positive and negative aspects of working together, they can discuss or write their ideas down. 

There are several ways in which you can work on these elements. For example, the way you provide materials and how it promotes cooperation and sharing. Moreover, you have to consider that the activities you propose should be designed for giving each student a responsibility or role.

 I am sure that while reading this entry you have come with multiple ideas for working on these elements, please let me know on the comments below what strategies would you use.

References:
Johnson, D., Johnson R. & Holubec, E. (1994) Cooperative Learning in the Classroom. Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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