Importance Of Cooperative Learning In Schools

Cooperative learning is generally defined as a teaching arrangement in which small, heterogeneous groups of students work together to achieve a common goal. Students encourage and support each other, assume responsibility for their own and each other 's learning, employ group related social skills, and evaluate the group 's progress. The basic elements are positive interdependence, individual and group accountability, face to face interaction, interpersonal and small group social skills and group interaction processing. Human beings are social creatures by nature and cooperation has been used throughout history in all aspects of our lives. Therefore, it follows that cooperative learning groups in schools would be used as a logical teaching method.

Positive Interdependence This is best describes as the students must perceive that they “sink or swim together”. This condition is achieved when each group member comes to understand and value the need for group cooperation in the attainment of their own personal goals, the other individual group member 's goals, and the goals of the entire group. Each group member has a unique contribution to make to the joint effort because of his or her resources and/or role and task responsibilities. The result of positive interdependence is that students will be more highly motivated to work

The social skills that are necessary for a student to perform competently in a small group are taught directly during cooperative learning. Often it is assumed, by teachers, that students can interact in a small group setting with little or no help – this is rarely the case. Simple small group social skills such as staying with one 's group, speaking in a low conversational voice, trusting other group members, managing intra group conflict, and the sharing of leadership responsibilities usually require specific and direct attention by the