Review on Students’ Text
5. Cooperative Learning
The students will be more motivated in the classroom activities if they are working with other friends. To make the technique of using students’ text more maximal, the writer also uses cooperative learning method in teaching. Roger, Olsen, and Kagan (in Kessler, 1992:8) say that cooperative learning is group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange information between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others. From this definition, it can be said that by using cooperative learning, the students in group can exchange their knowledge to others. The interaction between students in group makes the students get high motivation in learning process.
a. Key elements and characteristics of cooperative learning Lundgren (1994: 5) mentions that there are some basic elements of cooperative learning. They are:
1) Students must perceive that they “sink or swim together”.
2) Students are responsible for everyone else in the group, as well as for themselves, learning the assigned material.
3) Students must see that they all have the same goals.
4) Students must divide up the tasks and share the responsibilities equally among group members.
5) Students will be given one evaluation or reward that will apply to all members of the group.
6) Students share leadership while they acquire skills for collaborating during learning.
7) Students will be held individually accountable for material worked on in cooperative group.
b. The kinds of cooperative learning tasks There are three major types of cooperative learning stated by Kagan (in Kessler 1992: 131).
1) Team practice from common input: skills development and mastery of facts.
a) All students work on the same material.
b) Practice could follow a traditional teacher-directed presentation of new material and for that reason is a good starting point for teachers and/or students new to group work.
c) The task is to make sure that everyone in group knows the answer to a question or understand the material. Because students want their team to do well, they coach and tutor each other to make sure that any member of the group could answer for all of them.
d) When the teacher takes up the question or assignment, anyone in a group may be called on to answer for team.
e) This technique is good for review and for practice tests; the group takes the practice test together, but each student will eventually do an assignment or take a test individually.
f) This technique is effective in situation where the composition of the groups is unstable (in adult programs, for example). Students can form new groups every day.
2) Jigsaw: differentiated but predetermined input; evaluation any synthesis of facts and opinion.
3) Cooperative projects: topics/resources selected by students; discovery learning.
c. The benefits of cooperative learning Olsen and Kagan (in Kessler 1992: 3) state that cooperative learning classes are often more relaxed and enjoyable than traditional classes. This creates a positive learning environment, with more students attentive to assigned tasks. As a result, academic achievement increases for all students. Another benefit is that cooperative learning can help address the needs of heterogeneous classes—diverse in home languages, English-language proficiency, and academic achievement. Kessler (1992:
1) also states that for limited English proficient and English functioning students, cooperative learning provides increased interactions between students. This, in turn, increases opportunities for language practice—especially listening and speaking— while using those same interactions to increase comprehension of lesson material.