JOHN SHINDLER ON THE ADVANTAGES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING

By Elaine and Arthur Rubin

In my last post I discussed the section on competitive learning from John Shindler’s book, Transformative Classroom Learning. Just as interesting is Chapter 12 of the same book, “Effectively Managing the Cooperative Classroom.”

As I’ve already pointed out, the author believes that competition has its place in the classroom, but in this chapter he asserts that cooperative learning “offers a series of benefits that are impossible to achieve by other means…” He lists what he views as its principal advantages: 1) research shows that cooperative learning is better at facilitating student learning than either competitive or independent learning; 2) properly handled, it can “meet more learning style needs more of the time than individualized direct instruction;” 3) it can teach students collaborative skills useful to them later on in their personal and professional lives; 4) as a motivator, it is superior to other types of learning; and 5) it is more effective than other kinds of learning in “building communal bonds, learning conflict resolution skills, learning to consider other’s needs and learning to be an effective team member…”

Shindler cautions, however, that for students to get the most out of cooperative classroom learning, a number of criteria must be met. These are: 1) students must be made to see that the cooperative process has a purpose, “that they [the students] are ‘going somewhere;’” 2) the teacher must emphasize “the quality of the process,” not “the quality of the final product;” 3) cooperative learning activities must be structured in such a way as to maintain group cohesion; 4) expectations must be clear in order to keep students focused and their anxiety levels low; 5) teachers must adopt a long-term approach, not just deal with problems on a day-to-day basis; (6) the teacher must steer his or students in the direction of either increased self-reliance or efficiency; and 7) to increase their feeling of self-worth, students must be allowed to share their accomplishments with their peers.