Characteristics of Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning (CL) has to do with splitting a classroom into small groups so that together they are able to help each other in maximizing their own respective learning through collaborative group work. This methodology has been shown to assist with the retention of information and greater interest in the subject matter due to its collaborative nature (Breach et al., 2009). 

Watch this video for more background knowledge on cooperative learning:

As identified by Jacobs (2004) there are five key principles that are at the core of this learning approach, they are as follows:

  1. Heterogenous Grouping – This has to do with the initial grouping of students and making sure that the groups are as diverse as possible so that students are able to learn from and offer their own unique experiences to the betterment of the group.
  2. Collaborative Skills – Each group member must be willing to contribute to assignments and discussions as the CL approach hinges on group interactions
  3. Group Autonomy – The teacher has to trust that students are doing self-directed learning within their groups instead and have to be sure to interject within a group’s discussion until it’s time for each group to share their own thoughts on a subject matter.
  4. Maximizing peer-to-peer interactions  – This has to do with maintaining the overall quality of student interactions by keeping group sizes small (2-4 students) so that each student has an equal opportunity to participate to the discussion within the given time.
  5. Positive Interdependence – This term essentially means that each group member feels a sense of responsibility to the other members of their group in creating an ideal learning environment for each other. Fostering a mentality of what helps one member helps the others and what hurts one member hurts the others (i.e., All for one, one for all).

Watch this video on the Jigsaw method to see a practical example of cooperative learning in the classroom.

How it does not align with the topic of Nutrition Education

As a group we chose not to utilize a Cooperative Learning Approach in our online resource as it is not really practical to get students together in real time for group discussions and for assignments having to do with the topic of nutrition. Also, it does not make much sense to group together individuals for this as the topic of nutrition is rife with misinformation and in order to not perpetuate more of that it is vital to make sure that all learners interacting with our resource have the same base level of understanding before contributing to a more open form of discussion with their peers. We still want to have students learn from one another, so we opted for a more open pedagogy form of instruction that allows for the students to be more involved in the teaching process by creating a community where students are able to learn from and critique each other’s work to grow their own knowledge on the subject.

References:

  1. Jacobs, G. M. (2004). Cooperative Learning: Theory, Principles, and Techniques. Online Submission.
  2. Breach, R., Arbuthnott, C., Stilwell, V., McLaren, S., Leith, G., Cargill, H., & Ritchie, M. R. (2009). Designing a nutrition-based intervention using a novel cooperative learning model. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 68(OCE2).