Cooperative learning

FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET

SVEUČILIŠTA U ZAGREBU

IVANA LUČIĆA 3, ZAGREB

COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................. 2

2. COOPERATIVELEARNING............................................................................................ 3

2.1. COOPERATIVE LEARNING AND LEARNING STYLES................….…….. 4

2.2. TEAM DEVELOPMENT..................................................................................... 7

2.2.1. STUDENT APPROACH....................................................................... 9

2.2.2. CREATING ATEAM...........................................................................10

2.3. EVALUATING STUDENTS.............................................................................. 12

3. COOPERATIVE LEARNING AND ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE……… 16
3.1. COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES EXPLAINED THROUGH LESSON UNITS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE........................................ 17
4. EXAMPLES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNINGIMPLENTATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL………………………………………………………………………………….. 22
4.1. COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN 7TH AND 8TH GRADE........................... 23

4.1.1. TEACHER PREPARATION……………………………………… 28

4.1.2. WORK STAGES ………………………………………………… 29

4.1.3. INDIVIDUAL EVALUATION…………………………………… 31

5. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………….. 31

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………..33

1. INTRODUCTION

A growing concern for educators in the last couple of decades is that the generations they teach today have considerably changed from the ones several years ago. This is also confirmed by employers who complain about new employees not having essential personal and social skills. “In short, today’s students do not come to school with basic life skills (…) social skills (…)emotional skills (…) personal organizational and planning skills. And they lack basic citizenship skills”[1]. Today, one cannot talk about teaching a school subject without addressing this problem, and without trying to incorporate new methods that will not only improve students’ knowledge but teach them these basic life skills that will help them in further education, professional career andpersonal relationships. One such method is cooperative learning, which has been researched and implemented widely in the last couple of years, especially in the United States of America, and for which Dr. Spencer Kagan[2] states: “No other researched educational innovation has ever demonstrated such broad and consistent positive effects on students. When working cooperatively, students of all gradesand content areas achieve more academically, acquire social skills, improve social relations including cross-race relations, feel better about themselves, and like school more. What could possibly be better for our students than giving them the tools to succeed in school and in our increasingly pluralistic society? “

In author's opinion and experience traditional teaching methods create problemsin fairly equal knowledge acquisition and in discipline: students no longer think of their teachers as authoritative figures and they find their disciplinary-educational measures ridiculous or inadequate. There are also very few ways to connect with students appropriately in a traditional classroom and to keep track of their individual achievements. Cooperative learning methods provide greatsolutions to problems teachers and students face in traditional classrooms. First of all they provide students with the freedom to learn using their own learning style and to express their points of view freely, they also provide the students a chance to interact with their peers during class and transform this interaction into a learning process. For teachers, they provide a valuable chance to get...