This method reminds me of when I was a Continuous Improvement Facilitator for a furniture components manufacturer. My role was to guide and structure communication between several departments in an effort to save money on production. We had a representative from the 4 departments and we analyzed ways that production processes could be modified to increase productivity and reduce costs. Each member of the team had direct knowledge of their particular area but may not have known the impact of the other areas. They were all shy at first and did not want to speak badly about what they thought the issues were outside of their own areas. In order for the group to be successful, we had to build respect for each other, build the idea of community and allow each person to feel that their contribution would be valuable.
The concept of cooperative learning is just that. The group is responsible for their own success and each person in the group has knowledge that can support the group's final goal. Each person taps into their prior knowledge and combines this with new information in order to create an environment where each person has the same understanding of the material. Although they have worked as a group, each person has a sense of accomplishment.
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Good analogy! I think it is easy to forget that each student in a group has knowledge or a perspective that can help the group as a whole. Even the pupils can teach everyone something!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this means we should adopt cooperative groups and let the same groups work together all year/semester long in our classes?? It sounds like a good idea -- they need to develop and trust and respect within the group before they are fully honest with one another. I like this analogy and I think I can see where I can use it in the classroom!!
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