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English elements. Furthermore, the characteristics and background of SD Kanisius Kanutan students support this approach to be applied. The students need variation
of teaching learning process in order to reach better achievement in learning English.
a. The Characteristics of Cooperative Learning
This part discusses the characteristics of Cooperative Learning. The characteristics of Cooperative Learning also become the main elements that can
determine the success of the materials design applied. According to Olsen and Kagan 1992, as cited by Richard and Rodgers 2001: 196 there are five key
elements of successful group-based learning in Cooperative Learning. The descriptions of those elements are as follows.
1 Positive Interdependence
Positive interdependence occurs when group members feel that what helps one member helps all and what hurts one member hurts all. It is created by the
structure of Cooperative Learning tasks and by building of spirit of mutual support within the group. It means that one member of the group should be
responsible to himself and also to the group he belongs to. If one member of a group cannot finish the work, the others should help so that all the works can be
finished. The success of a group is determined by all members of that group. For example, a group may produce a narrative essay and the scores for members of a
group might be averaged.
2 Group Formation
Group formation is an important factor in creating positive interdependence. Factors involved in setting up groups include:
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- deciding on the size of the group. This will depend on the tasks they have to carry out, the age of the learners, and time limits for the lesson. Typical group
size is from two to four. - assigning students to form groups: Groups can be teacher-selected, random, or
students-selected, although teacher selected is recommended as the usual mode so as to create groups that are heterogeneous on such variables as past
achievement, ethnicity, or sex. - student roles groups: Each group member has a specific role to play in a group,
such as noise monitor, turn-taker monitor, recorder, or summarizer.
3 Individual Accountability
Individual accountability involves both group and individual performance by assigning each student a grade on his or her portion of a team project or by
calling on a student at random to share with the whole class, with group members, or with another group. Students may be made individually accountable by
assigning each student a grade on his or her own portion of the team project or by the rule that the group may not go on to the next activity until all members finish
the task McDonnel, 1992: 13.
4 Social Skills
Social Skills determine the way students interact with each other as teammates. Usually some explicit instruction in social skills is needed to ensure
successful interaction. Social skills behaviour may not occur spontaneously with all students and teaching them can have a profound impact on attentiveness,
morale, and motivation McDonell, 1992: 14. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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5 Structuring and Structures
Structures are generic, content-free ways of organizing student interactions with content and with each other. Structuring and structures refer to ways of
organizing student interaction and different ways students are to interact McDonell, 1992: 14. The teacher has opportunity to lead the students to interact
with the content and classmates, especially group members. Although Cooperative Learning is group based learning, it does not mean
the students do not have personal performance. Each student has responsibility to the group and also has self responsibility. In a group, a student has specific roles
and each student must perform his or her roles in the group. Since there is interaction among the students in the group or in the classroom, the students’
social affection will grow up. Furthermore, the group members consist of heterogeneous students on such variables as past achievement, ethnicity, or sex. It
means that each student must interact with other members of the group. According to Slavin 1995: 12 there are six principal characteristics of
Cooperative Learning. They are group goals, individual accountability, equal opportunities for success, team competition, adaptation to individual needs, and
task specialization. The descriptions of those characteristics are as follows.
1 Group Goals
Most Cooperative Learning methods use some form of group goals. In the Student Team Learning methods, these may be certificates or other recognition
given to teams that meet a preset criterion. In the Johnson’s methods, group grades are often given.
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2 Individual Accountability
Individual accountability is achieved in two ways. One is to have group scores be the sum or average of individual quiz scores or other assignments, as in
the Student Team Learning models. The other is task specialization, whereby each student is given a unique responsibility for part of the group task. Each student in
a group has responsibility to take part in doing a task for part of the group task to achieve academic objectives together.
3 Equal Opportunities for Success
A characteristic unique to the Student Team Learning methods is the use of scoring methods that ensure all students an equal opportunity to contribute to their
teams. These methods consist of improvement points, competition with equals, or adaptation of tasks to individual performance levels. This means that each student
has the same opportunity to contribute maximum points for his or her team.
4 Team Competition
Early studies of Student Teams Achievement Division STAD and Teams Games Tournaments TGT used competition between teams as a means of
motivating students to cooperate within teams. The aim of team competition is to encourage the students to try harder. Each student should support and give
maximum contribution for the team to achieve the group’s goals.
5 Task Specialization
Each task has its function to develop each student’s performance. Each group member has responsibility to the group’s improvement such as in solving
the task given by the teacher. A key element of Jigsaw, Group Investigation, and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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other task-specialization methods is the assignments of a unique subtask to each group member.
6 Adaptation to Individual Needs
There are many Cooperative Learning methods. Most Cooperative Learning methods use group paced instruction, but two—TAI Team Accelerated
Instruction and CIRC Cooperative Integrated Reading ad Composition—adapt instruction to students’ individual needs. The teacher should choose appropriate
activities in order to achieve the academic objectives. In this study, most principles of Cooperative Learning become the principles
to determine teaching learning activities. The writer believes that each student has hisher own needs in learning English. For example, student A needs materials
that support his reading ability; however student B needs materials that improve listening ability. In this case, the writer will give opportunity to all students to
obtain what they need from learning English by providing materials that are really needed.
b. The Syllabus
