f. Cooperative Learning in Teaching Writing and Learning Process
Althought many people in their personal lives write on their own, whether at home or at work, in language classes teachers and students can take
advantage of the presence of others to make writing a cooperative activity, with great benefit to all those involved. In one example of such an approach,
group writing allowed the teachers to give more detailed and constructive feedback since she he was dealing with a small number of groups rather than
many individual students. Harmer 2007 believes that cooperative writing works well whether
the focus is on the writing process or, alternatively, on genre study. In the first case, reviewing and evaluation are greatly enhanced by having more than one
person working on the text, and the generation of ideas is frequently more lively with two or more people involved than it is when writers work on their
own. In genre-based writing, it is probably the case that two heads analyse genre-specific texts as well as, if not better, than one head would do, and often
create genre-specific texts more successfully as a result. Writing in groups, whether as part of a long process or as part of a
short game-like communicative activity, can be greatly motivating for students. In group work, some skills that are practiced and improved with
cooperative learning regarding to writing skills are: peer editing, peer teaching, appropriate critiquing, error correction, consensus building, agreeing
or disagreeing appropriately, analyzing, problem solving, vocabulary building,
confidence building, increased motivation, increased enjoyment of writing Slavin, 1995.
B. Related Studies
Cooperative learning is a learning method which is based on theory, research and practice in education. In the last decades cooperative learning has
become a widely used technique from preschool to graduate school levels in all subject fields in every subject. Cooperative learning is a learning strategy in which
pairs or groups of students work together and learn from each other. The students also learn and develop their academic and social skills working in a positive
atmosphere. The study about teachers’ and students’ verbal behaviors during
cooperative learning that was participated by thirty teachers from grade 4 to 6 and 208 students was conducted by Gillies 2008: 249-251 in seven elementary
schools in Brisbane Australia. This study showed that when students in cooperative groups where teachers use more facilitative, learning behaviors, they
too are more helpful and facilitative of each other’s learning than students who work in groups where cooperative learning is not widely endorsed.
Another study on Cooperative Learning was conducted by Iyer 2013: 24. The result of the study promotes cooperative learning as a tool to the educators to
incorporate values in providing quality education. To achieve the full benefit of this tool, the teacher should be in tune with the learning needs of students.
Grouping the students is also very crucial to encourage better problem solving
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