Cooperative learning has five elements, they are: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face promotive interaction, appropriate use of
collaborative skills and group processing. All of these points explained clearly:
1. Positive Interdependence. Team members are obliged to rely on one another to achieve the goal. If
any team members fail to do their part, everyone suffers consequences.
2. Individual Accountability. All students in a group are held accountable for doing their share of the
work and for mastery of all of the material to be learned.
3. Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction. Although some of the group work may be parcelled out and done
individually, some must be done interactively, with group members providing one another with feedback, challenging reasoning and
conclusions, and perhaps most importantly, teaching and encouraging one another.
4. Appropriate Use of Collaborative Skills. Students are encouraged and helped to develop and practice trust-
building, leadership, decision-making, communication, and conflict management skills.
5. Group Processing.
Team members set group goals, periodically assess what they are doing well as a team, and identify changes they will make to function more
effectively in the future.
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Based on the studies of Slavin, Cooperative Learning methods can be summarized as follows:
1. Student teams-achievements divisions STAD 2. Teams-games-tournaments TGT
3. Jigsaw 4. Team accelerated instruction TAI
5. Cooperative integrated reading and composition CIRC
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Cooperative learning has many kinds of technique that have the different rules. In this research, the writer focus on CIRC Cooperative Integrated Reading
31
Richard M. Felder1, and Rebecca Brent, Cooperative Learning, Department of Chemical Engineering, N.C. State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7905 Education Designs, Inc., Cary, NC
27518. P. 2
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Robert E. Slavin, Cooperative Learning Theory, Research and Practice Second Edition, Boston: A Simon and Schuster Company. 1995, P. 4-9.
and Composition technique which is this technique relate to students’
comprehension in finishing reading test.
1. Understanding of CIRC
Cooperative integrated reading and compositionCIRC technique, one of the learning techniques based on cooperation, is designed to develop reading,
writing and other language skills in the upper grades of primary education. CIRC technique presents a structure that increases not only opportunities for
direct teaching in reading and writing but also applicability of composition
writing techniques.
Cruickshank clearly highlight that: CIRC is mainly used to teach reading and composition. In the typical
CIRC procedure, the teacher sets a lesson characters and ideas in a piece of literature such as Romeo and Juliet. Student teams are then asked to
read the story and to note the main characters and ideas. Team members who may work in pairs, interact to check each other and gain consensus.
They then may check their understanding with another pair on their teams or against and answer sheet. While these paired and team activities
are going on, the teacher convenes members from each team who are at comparable proficiency or skill level in order to teach them a new
reading skill, and the cycle continues.
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In addition, according to Slavin in his book pointed out that “CIRC is a
comprehensive program for teaching reading and writing in the upper elementary and middle grades Madden, Slavin and Steven, 1986.
”
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It means that this technique is appropriate for the students in upper elementary
or high level or it is not appropriate for lower level. Comprehensive in this technique means that after the students taught by this technique, in the end of
the class the students are expected to be able to summarizing the story, practicing spelling, resolving the problem, decoding and mastering main idea
and knowing new vocabulary. Based on the statement above, it can be conclude that CIRC is a
technique that used to improve reading and composition or writing. In this
33
Donald R. Cruickshank, Deborah Bainer Jenkins, et. al, The Act of Teaching, New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2006, P. 241.
34
Slavin, op. cit., P. 7.
technique the students work within cooperative teams which are coordinated with reading group instruction, in order to meet objectives in such areas as
reading comprehension, vocabulary, decoding, and spelling. And students are motivated to work with one another on these activities by the use of
cooperative reward.
2. Program Elements
