4. Groups are based on students’ past achievement record. 5. Individual accountability is fostered by means such as individual
quizzes. 1.2. Davidson’s Definition
Davidson’s definition of cooperative learning is reworded by Jacobs, et al 1997 for clarity and generalizability. Davidson’s definition shows the
diversity which exists among views of cooperative learning. 1. A task for group completion, discussion, and if possible resolution;
2. Face-to-face interaction in small groups; 3. An atmosphere of cooperation and mutual helpfulness within each
group; and, 4. Individual accountability everyone does their share.
While most experts on cooperative learning would agree on these first four points, others would include some or all of the following points:
5. Heterogeneous grouping; 6. Explicit teaching of collaborative skills;
7. Structured mutual interdependence. 1.3. Kagan And Kagan’s Definition
Spencer and Miguel Kagan and their colleagues offer the “Structural Approach” to cooperative learning. Structures are devices for organizing
classroom interaction. Three-Step Interview and Write-Pair-Share are examples of structures. Structures are content free; activities are created
by fitting content into one or more structures. Kagan and Kagan as cited in Jacobs, et al 1997 describe four principles
which are key to the structural approach. 1. Simultaneous interaction;
2. Equal participation; 3. Positive interdependence;
4. Individual accountability. Structures are meant to promote equal participation. For example, in
Three-Step Interview each person has a designated time to participate as interviewer, interviewee, and reporter.
In conclusion, cooperative learning is a teaching strategy in which students are divided into different teams, each consists of students of
different levels of ability, using a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible
for learning as well as for helping teammates learn. Students work through the assignment until all team members understand and complete
it. As cited from http:edtech.kennesaw.eduintechcooperativelearning.htm,
research has shown some strengths of cooperative learning techniques as follows:
•
promote student learning and academic achievement
•
increase student retention
•
enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience
•
help students develop skills in oral communication
•
develop students social skills
•
promote student self-esteem
•
help to promote positive race relations
2. Components of Cooperative Learning
There are 4 components of cooperative learning that will be discussed briefly below quoted directly from Jacobs et, al, 1997: p.8-12.
2.1. Positive Interdependence Positive interdependence is the feeling among a group of students that
what helps any member of the group helps everyone in the group, and what hurts any member of the group hurts everyone in the group. To put it
another way, positive interdependence means that group members feel that they “sink or swim together.”
To achieve positive interdependence among students, just putting them in groups and telling them to work together may not be sufficient. Ways of
promoting positive interdependence in groups include: goals, rewards, roles, resources, and identity. Each of these is briefly discussed below.
Positive goal interdependence exists when the group shares a common goal or goals. For ex ample, the goal may be to write a joint composition,
for everyone to know how to explain the answer to a set of mathematics problems, or to learn to encourage others when working in a group.
Positive reward interdependence exists when each group member’s reward is affected by the reward that the other members of their group
receive. For example, each student can get bonus points if everyone in their group scores above 80 on a test. Or, everyone in a group can get
extra recess time or stars if their group’s project is done satisfactorily. The reward used depends on what is motivating for a particular class and the
teacher’s philosophy on rewards. Positive role interdependence means that members are assigned
complementary and interconnected roles that specify responsibilities which the group needs to meet in order to complete a task. These roles should
rotate, either during an activity or for different activities. For example, in a group of three which is reading a unit in their textbook, one person can be
the summarizer of each small section of the unit, another can be the checker who checks on the accuracy of the summary, and a third can be
the elaborator who gives examples or connects the material to what group members already know.
Positive resource interdependence means that each member has only a portion of the information, materials, or tools needed to complete a task.
The exercise you are doing now is an ex ample of resource interdependence, because in each home team no one has all the
information; you each have different pieces. Thus, you need to share resources to succeed. Another ex ample would be a science experiment in
which different group members have different pieces of equipment. Positive identity interdependence means that the group shares a common
identity. This can be encouraged by having students choose a group name, flag, motto, handshake, etc. Countries, clubs, sports teams, and
schools use these and other ways to attempt to create a shared identity among their citizens, members, and students and staff.
2.2. Collaborative Skills The first time most teachers ask their students to study in groups, it quickly
becomes clear that students lack the necessary skills to work effectively with others. Thus, teachers may want to teach these collaborative skills
along with academic content. Good collaborative skills are important so that students learn more when they study in groups. These skills are also
crucial for success outside of school, with their friends and families, as well as later, in their careers.
Teachers should choose a skill to emphasize in each cooperative lesson. It will probably be necessary to emphasize the same skill for several
lessons or more. This should be a skill which is likely to be needed in upcoming lessons.
There are six steps in teaching collaborative skills. First, students should see the need for the skill. This can be done by asking students how the
skill has come up in their own experiences, by explaining why the skill is important in and out of school now and in the future, and via room
displays. Second, students need a clear understanding of what the skill is. One way
to achieve this understanding is for the class to develop lists of what a skill looks like and sounds like. For example, being a good listener can look like
looking at people when they are talking to us. It can sound like using expressions such as “uh-huh” and “right” while the people are speaking to
us in order to show we are following what they are saying. Third, students may need to practice the collaborative skill in isolation from
regular class content. This can be done via activities such as demonstrations by the teacher, role plays, and games. Here, both positive
and negative examples can be used. Fourth, the skill should be integrated into course content activities. For
example, if groups are working together on projects, they can be asked to use the skill of encouraging others to participate. Another way to do this is
for group members to be given rotating roles based on collaborative skills. For example, one student can be the praiser, another the para phraser, a
third can be the facilitator in charge of keeping the group on task, and a fourth can be the questioner asking people for reasons. The teacher can
circulate among groups and observe use of the designated skills, and students can also observe their own use and their group members’ use of.
Fifth, processing group interaction is important. One of the other members of your home team will explain this to you. Sixth, once the skill is taught,
the teacher needs to encourage students to persevere in using it. At first,
using the skill may seem awkward and artificial. It takes time to become proficient at a skill. Ways to persevere include telling parents which skill
the class is practicing and asking them to help, having the whole school work on the same skill, putting up signs, and recycling a skill that was
taught earlier in the year. 2.3. Processing Group Interaction
As part of each unit in which cooperative learning is used, time should be set aside at least once for students to discuss how well their group is
working together. This processing of group interaction helps groups learn how to collaborate more effectively. It can take place during or at the end
of an activity. Processing group interaction has two aspects. One, the good things about
group functioning should be brought out. For example, particular members can be praised for the specific time they helped to explain a difficult point
to their groupmates. Two, the group should discuss what in their interaction needs to be improved. For instance, they may feel that their
group did not stay on task. Here again, being specific helps. Sometimes, teachers will request that specific collaborative skills be
discussed during the processing of group interaction. For instance, the teacher may ask students to concentrate on how well their group did on
making sure everyone understood a point before going on. Processing is helped if the teacher and students do observations while the groups are
working together. It is easy to succumb to time pressure and skip the processing portion of a
cooperative learning lesson. However, processing group interaction is a key element of cooperative learning because it gives students useful
feedback on their group skills, and it tells students that the teacher places importance on how well they work together.
Heterogeneous Grouping Many experts on cooperative learning recommend that students usually be
placed by the teacher in groups which are heterogeneous on such dimensions as past achievement, diligence, ethnicity, and sex. Mixing
students by achievement is encouraged in order to pro mote peer tutoring which can benefit both tutor and tutee, to provide low achievers with
models of good study habits, and to improve relations between students. Improved relations is also a reason given for mixing students of different
ethnicities in the same group. Working together toward a common goal can help dissolve barriers and build friendships. Additionally, students from
different ethnic groups often bring unique perspective to group discussions. This combining of perspectives is also a rationale for mixing
female and male students. The resulting diversity of perspectives can enrich students’ thinking.
Usually, heterogeneous groups are best achieved by having the teacher choose who will be in which group. When students select their
groupmates, they often choose people most like themselves. This can lead to cliques and other factors which work against cohesive classroom
relations. 2.4. Individual Accountability
One of the most commonly heard objections to having students work in groups is that some group members will end up doing all the work and all
the learning. This can occur because some students try to avoid working or because others want to do everything. Thus, encouraging everyone in
the group to participate is a real concern. To do this we need everyone to feel that they are individually accountable for the success of their group.
There are many ways to structure group activities so as to promote this feeling of individual accountability. Some of these are:
1. Each student individually takes a quiz, completes a task, or writes an essay on the material studied.
2. Group members are called on at random to answer a question andor to explain an answer.
3. Each group member has a designated role which they are to perform. These roles can rotate. For example, a reading passage
can be divided into sections. Members of a pair each read the first section silently. Then, one person is to summarize the section and
the other is to make connections between the section and other materials the class has studied or with aspects of their lives.
These roles rotate for the next section of the reading passage. 4. Each member is principally responsible for one part of their
group’s project. For example, if a group is doing a report on Korea, one member could
write the section on history, another the geography section, an other the art section, and the fourth member could write the section on the
economy. The person in your home team who has information about positive
interdependence will have more ideas about how to promote individual accountability.
Teacher’s Role When Students Are In Groups
‘While students are in their groups, the teacher can circulate among them to see if:
1. groups understand the task; 2. groups understand the content they are studying;
3. groups are using appropriate collaborative skills the member of your home teach with piece B will explain this to you; and,
4. anyone needs extra help.
3. List of Collaborative Skills
The following list of collaborative skills is taken directly from Jacobs, et al, 1997:68.
3.1. Group Forming Skills 1. Getting into Groups Efficiently
2. Greeting Others 3. Introducing Oneself—Introducing Oth ers
4. Using People’s Names When Speaking to Them 5. Ending a Group Activity
6. Saying Goodbye 3.2. Basic Group Functioning Skills
1. Saying Thanks—Responding to Thanks 2. Attentive Listening
3. Giving Praise—Responding to Praise 4. Waiting Patiently-—Trying Not to Keep Others Waiting
5. Asking for Help—Giving Help 6. Apologizing—Accepting Apologies
7. Encouraging Others to Participate—Responding to
Encouragement to Participate 8. Asking Questions—Responding to Questions
9. Saying “No”—Accepting “No” 10. Giving Instructions—Following Instructions
11. Interrupting Appropriately—Accepting Appropriate Interruptions 12. Using Humour to Help Group Function ing
13. Getting the Group Back On Task 14. Paraphrasing
15. Observing and Commenting on Group Functioning 16. Keeping to Time Limits
3.3. Idea Exchange Skills 1. Making a Plan
2. Making Suggestions—Responding to Suggestions 3. Asking for Reasons—Giving Reasons
4. Asking for Feedback—Giving Feedback 5. Giving Negative Feedback—Responding to Negative Feedback
6. Disagreeing Politely—Responding to Disagreement 7. Checking Accuracy
8. Checking for Understanding 9. Persuading Others
10. Compromising 11. Summarizing
4. Some Cooperative Learning Techniques
There are many cooperative learning techniques developed by the scholars in the area, but only a few are presented here as examples
taken and directly quoted from http:edtech.kennesaw.eduintech cooperativelearning.htm. Teachers can always modify these techniques to
suit their teaching needs. 1. Jigsaw - Groups with five students are set up. Each group member
is assigned some unique material to learn and then to teach to his group members. To help in the learning students across the class
working on the same sub-section get together to decide what is important and how to teach it. After practice in these expert
groups the original groups reform and students teach each other. Wood, p. 17 Tests or assessment follows.
2. Think-Pair-Share - Involves a three step cooperative structure. During the first step individuals think silently about a question
posed by the instructor. Individuals pair up during the second step and exchange thoughts. In the third step, the pairs share their
responses with other pairs, other teams, or the entire group.
3. Three-Step Interview Kagan - Each member of a team chooses another member to be a partner. During the first step individuals
interview their partners by asking clarifying questions. During the second step partners reverse the roles. For the final step,
members share their partners response with the team. 4. RoundRobin Brainstorming Kagan- Class is divided into small
groups 4 to 6 with one person appointed as the recorder. A question is posed with many answers and students are given time
to think about answers. After the think time, members of the team share responses with one another round robin style. The
recorder writes down the answers of the group members. The person next to the recorder starts and each person in the group in
order gives an answer until time is called. 5. Three-minute review - Teachers stop any time during a lecture or
discussion and give teams three minutes to review what has been said, ask clarifying questions or answer questions.
6. Numbered Heads Together Kagan - A team of four is established. Each member is given numbers of 1, 2, 3, 4.
Questions are asked of the group. Groups work together to answer the question so that all can verbally answer the question.
Teacher calls out a number two and each two is asked to give the answer.
7. Team Pair Solo Kagan- Students do problems first as a team, then with a partner, and finally on their own. It is designed to
motivate students to tackle and succeed at problems which initially are beyond their ability. It is based on a simple notion of mediated
learning. Students can do more things with help mediation than they can do alone. By allowing them to work on problems they
could not do alone, first as a team and then with a partner, they progress to a point they can do alone that which at first they could
do only with help.
8. Circle the Sage Kagan- First the teacher polls the class to see which students have a special knowledge to share. For example
the teacher may ask who in the class was able to solve a difficult math homework question, who had visited Mexico, who knows the
chemical reactions involved in how salting the streets help dissipate snow. Those students the sages stand and spread out
in the room. The teacher then has the rest of the classmates each surround a sage, with no two members of the same team going to
the same sage. The sage explains what they know while the classmates listen, ask questions, and take notes. All students then
return to their teams. Each in turn, explains what they learned. Because each one has gone to a different sage, they compare
notes. If there is disagreement, they stand up as a team. Finally, the disagreements are aired and resolved.
9. Partners Kagan - The class is divided into teams of four. Partners move to one side of the room. Half of each team is given
an assignment to master to be able to teach the other half. Partners work to learn and can consult with other partners working
on the same material. Teams go back together with each set of partners teaching the other set. Partners quiz and tutor
teammates. Team reviews how well they learned and taught and how they might improve the process.
C. Latihan
1. Rancanglah suatu kegiatan pembelajaran bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan cooperative learning.
2. Presentasikan danatau praktekkan rancangan pembelajaran anda di kelas.
D. Lembar Kegiatan
1. Sebutkan definisi cooperative learning secara umum yang dapat mencakup definisi versi Slavin, Davidson, dan Kagan Kagan.
2. Sebutkan 4 komponen cooperative learning dan beri 3. penjelasan singkat
4. Sebutkan 3 macam keterampilan kolaboratif dan contoh contohny 5. Sebutkan 3 diantara berbagai jenis teknik cooperative learning yang
anda ketahui dan beri penjelasan secara ringkas.
E. Rangkuman
Cooperative Learning adalah pembelajaran bahasa yang menerapkan system pembelajaran secara kelompok dengan menekankan
kerjasama. Anggota kelompok tidak saja bertanggungjawab atas pembelajarannya sendiri, tetapi juga pembelajaran bagi semua
anggota kelompoknya untuk mencapai penyelesaian tugas yang diberikan guru. Ada empat komponen cooperative learning, yaitu
saling ketergantungan yang positif positive interdependence, keterampilan kolaboratif collaborative skills, interaksi kelompok
group interaction dan tanggungjawab individu individual accountability. Sedangkan keterampilan kolaboratif sendiri terdiri dari
tiga kelompok besar, yaitu keterampilan membangun kelompok group forming skill, keterampilan dasar memfungsikan kelompok basic
group functioning skill, dan keterampilan bertukar gagasan idea exchange skill, yang masing-masingnya terdiri dari beberapa
keterampilan. Ada banyak teknik cooperative learning yang ditawarkan oleh bebrapa pakar di bidang ini, diantaranya yang
terstruktur dan diajukan oleh Spencer Kagan adalah teknik jigsaw, think-pair-share, three-step interview, roundRobin brainstorming, three-
minute review, numbered heads together, team pair solo, circle the sage, dan partners yang dapat di adopsi atau diadaptasi guru sesuai
kebutuhan.
F. Tes Formatif I. Choose the most appropriate answer by crossing the letter A, B,
C, or D on your answer sheet:
1. Cooperative Learning is a kind of teaching strategy with the following characteristics, except:
a. students learn in teams b. each team consists of students of homogeneous levels of
ability c. each member of a team is responsible for learning
d. each member of a team is responsible for helping other members learn.
2. In cooperative learning, the members of a team a. must get the same grades
b. do not necessarily get the same grades c. play the same role
d. act as leaders 3. The following are some advantages of cooperative learning, except:
a. decrease student retention b. promote student learning and academic achievement
c. enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience d. develop students’ social skill
4. Positive interdependence in cooperative learning includes: a. positive goal interdependence
b. positive reward interdependence c. positive role interdependence
d. all the above 5. The following are Slavin’s ideas of cooperative learning, except:
a. emphasis on rewards. b. heterogeneity of groups
c. explicit teaching of collaborative skills d. individual accountability
6. Among Davidson’s ideas of cooperative learning that is not necessarily included by other experts is:
a. a task for group completion, discussion, and resolution b. face-to-face interaction in small groups
c. individual accountability
d. structured mutual interdependence 7. Four principles which are key to the structural approach proposed
by Kagan and Kagan include the following, except: a. simultaneous
interaction b. equal
participation c. positive
interdependence d. heterogeneous
grouping 8. Think-Pair-Share involves a
a. one step cooperative structure b. two step cooperative structure
c. three step cooperative structure d. four step cooperative structure
9. Encouraging others to participate belongs to a. group
forming skill
b. group functioning
skill c.
idea exchange skill d. all
the above
10. Making suggestions belongs to a.
group forming skill c. idea
exchange skill
b. group functioning skill
d. all the above
