d. Group Types and Activities
Richards and Rodgers 2003: 196 proposes three types of cooperative learning groups. They are formal cooperative learning groups, informal
cooperative learning groups, and cooperative base groups. 1
Formal Cooperative Learning Groups These are established for a specific task and engage students to work together to
achieve certain goals. These last from one class period to several weeks. 2
Informal Cooperative Learning Groups These are also called ad-hoc groups and used to focus students’ attention or to
facilitate learning during direct teaching. These last from a few minutes to a class period.
3 Cooperative Base Groups
These consist of heterogeneous learning groups with stable membership. These are long term, lasting for at least one year.
The success of cooperative learning significantly depends on the organization of group work. Richards and Rodgers 2003: 196-197 state that in
setting up groups, teachers should pay attention to many factors. 1
Size of the Groups It depends on the task students have to carry out, the age of the students, and time
limits for the lesson. Group size is ideally from two to four. 2
Assigning Students to Groups In order to create groups that are heterogeneous, teacher-selected group is more
recommended rather than random or student-selected group.
3 Students Roles in Groups
Each member of the group has a specific role to play, such as turn-taker monitor, noise monitor, recorder, or summarizer.
Richards and Rodgers 2003: 198-199 describe various descriptions of activity types. These types could be employed with cooperative learning.
1 Three-step Interview
Three-step Interviews can be used as an icebreaker for team members to get to know one another by assigning roles to students. The procedures are first,
students are in pairs; one is to be interviewer and the other is interviewee. Next, students reverse roles. At last, each student shares with team member what was
learned during the two interviews. 2
Roundtable Roundtable structures can be used to brainstorm ideas and to generate a
large number of responses to a single question or a group of questions. The procedures are first, teacher poses questions to students. Second, teacher gives one
piece of paper and one pen for each group. Third, each of the group members of the team makes contribution by writing the answer and then passing the paper and
pen to the student of his or her left. Each student makes contribution in turn. 3
Round Robin The procedures in round robin are the same as is roundtable. However, in
round robin the procedures are done orally.
4 Think-pair Share
The procedures are first, teacher poses a question usually a low-consensus question. Second, students think of a response. Next, students discuss their
responses in pairs. At last, students share their partner’s response with the class. 5
Solve-pair Share The steps are first, teacher poses a problem a low-consensus or high-
consensus question that may be resolved with different strategies. Second, students work out solutions individually. Then, students explain how they solved
their problem in ‘interview’ or ‘round robin’ structures. 6
Numbered Heads The steps are first, students number off in teams. Second, teacher asks a
question usually high-consensus one. Third, students literally put their heads together and make sure that everyone knows and can explain the answer. Next,
teacher calls a number and student with that number raise his or her hands to be called on and answer the question.
In this study, cooperative learning is employed to develop materials that could encourage cooperation among students during the learning process. Since
cooperative learning emphasizes the use of socially structured activities in which students are to work collaboratively, it could encourage the students to develop
communicative competence, to help each other, to appreciate others, and to develop other social skills needed in the working world.
4. Theory of Reading
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