commit to user seems that Vygotsky and Piaget are little bit different in the extent of
emphasizing social context. Vygotsky maintains that social interaction emerges first that becomes foundation in cognitive development, while
Piaget maintains that individual cognitive development emerges first as well as emphasizes that social interaction as an additional factors which appear at
the right time.
3. Types of Cooperative Learning
There are three types of CL, namely formal CL, informal CL and cooperative base group. Below are clear definitions of each.
a Formal CL
It is students working together for one class period to several weeks with outcomes to achieve shared learning goals and complete
jointly specific tasks and assignments. For instance, reading a chapter or reference books, learning vocabulary, or answering questions at the end of
the chapter. It should be bear in mind that in every lesson there should be an
academic objective specifying the concepts and strategies to be learned and social skills objective specifying the interpersonal or small group skill
to be used so that teacher should emphasize on these. Furthermore, teacher has to decide on the size of the group, the method of assigning students to
groups, the roles students will be assigned, the materials needed to conduct the lesson, as well as the way the room will be arranged. In
addition, heshe ought to clearly define the assignment, teach the required
commit to user concepts and strategies, specify the positive interdependence and
individual accountability, and give the criteria for success. Besides, heshe monitors students’ learning and intervenes within the group to provide
task assistance or to increase students’ interpersonal and group skills. Finally, at the end of the lesson teacher had better assess students’
learning and help students process how well their group functioned. It can be concluded that formal CL may be used to teach specific
content since teacher should ensure that students have adequate understanding of the purpose of the lesson and all the values in CL so that
students see the importance of CL.
b Informal CL
It consists of having students work together to achieve a joint learning goal in temporary, ad-hoc groups that last from a few minutes to
one class period. In this case, CL can be used to focus students attention on the material to be learned, set a mood conducive to learning, help set
expectations as to what will be covered in a class session, ensure that students cognitively process the material being taught and provide closure
to an instructional session during a lecture or demonstrations. c
Cooperative base groups
It is long term, heterogeneous cooperative learning groups with stable memberships that are permanent lasting from one to several years
and provide the long-term caring peer relationships necessary to influence members consistently to work hard in school.
commit to user The purpose of cooperative base groups are to give supports, help,
encourage, and assistance each member needs to make academic progress attend class, complete all assignments, learn and develop cognitively and
socially healthy ways. The use of base groups tends to improve attendance, personalize the work required and the school experience, and
improve the quality and quantity of learning.
4. Kinds of Cooperative Learning
