Active Learning Resources

Some cooperative learning techniques utilize student pairing, while others utilize small groups of four or five students. The following are a handful of some of the most well known structures:

Think Pair Share – developed by Frank T. Lyman (1981)

Think-Pair-Share allows for students to contemplate a posed question or problem silently. The student may write down thoughts or brainstorm, and when prompted, the student pairs up with a peer and discusses his or her idea(s) and then listens to the ideas of his or her partner. Following pair dialogue, the teacher solicits responses from the whole group.

Jigsaw – developed by Elliot Aronson (1971)

Students are members of two groups: home group and expert group. In the home group, students are each assigned a different topic. Once a topic has been identified, students leave the home group and connect with the other students assigned to the topic. In the new group, students learn the material together before returning to their home group. Once back in the home group, each student is accountable for teaching his or her assigned topic.

Jigsaw II – developed by Robert Slavin’s (1980)

Members of the home group are assigned the same material, but focus on separate portions of the material. Each member must become an "expert" on his or her assigned portion and teach the other members of the home group.

Reverse Jigsaw – developed by Timothy Hedeen (2003).

Students in the expert groups teach the whole class rather than return to their home groups to teach the content.

Reciprocal Teaching – developed by Brown and Paliscar (1982)

Partners take turns reading and asking questions of each other, receiving immediate feedback. Such a model allows for students to use important meta-cognitive techniques such as clarifying, questioning, predicting, and summarization.

STAD (Student-Teams-Achievement Divisions)

Students are placed in small groups (or teams). The class in its entirety is presented with a lesson and the students are subsequently tested. Individuals are graded on the team's performance. Although the tests are taken individually, students are encouraged to work together to improve the overall performance of the group.

In order for student achievement to improve, two characteristics must be present:

      1) students are working towards a group goal or recognition

      2) success is reliant on each individual’s learning

GOAL: Responsibility and Accountability

When designing cooperative learning tasks and reward structures, responsibility and accountability is paramount. Individuals must know what their responsibilities are and that they are accountable to the group in order to reach their goal.

RELIANCE: Positive Interdependence

All group members must be involved in order for the group to complete the task. In order for this to occur each member must have a task that they are responsible for which cannot be completed by any other group member.

"What children can do together today, they can do alone tomorrow."
            - Lev Vygotsky, 1962  

Cooperative Learning is an approach to organizing classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences, in which the teacher’s role changes from giving information to facilitating student learning.

Even though students must work in groups to complete tasks collectively toward academic goals, it differs from group work, and it has been described as "structuring positive interdependence."

Unlike individual learning, which can be competitive in nature, students learning cooperatively capitalize on one another’s resources and skills (asking one another for information, evaluating one another’s ideas, monitoring one another’s work, etc.).

Brown and Ciuffetelli Parker (2009) and Siltala (2010) discuss the 5 basic and essential elements to cooperative learning:

1. Positive Interdependence

      •   Students must fully participate and put forth effort within their group.

      •   Each group member has a task/role/responsibility, therefore must believe that they are responsible for their learning and that of their group.

2. Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction

      •   Member promote each other's success.

      •   Students explain to one another what they have or are learning and assist one another with understanding and completion of assignments. 

3. Individual and Group Accountability

      •   Each student must demonstrate master of the content being studied.

      •   Each student is accountable for their learning and work, therefore eliminating “social loafing”.

4. Social Skills

      •   Social skills that must be taught in order for successful cooperative learning to occur

      •   Skills include effective communication, interpersonal and group skills: leadership, decision-making, trust-building, and conflict-management.

5. Group Processing

      •   Every so often groups must assess their effectiveness and decide how it can be improved.

• Cooperative Learning - SERC

  Cooperative Learning involves structuring classes around small groups that work together in such a way that each group member's success is dependent on the group's success. There are different kinds of groups for different situations, but they all balance some key elements that distinguish cooperative learning from competitive or individualistic learning.
• Cooperative Learning - Office of Research, Education

  Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement.
• Cooperative Learning - University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
• Cooperative and Collaborative Learning - Concept to Classroom

  Welcome to Cooperative and Collaborative Learning. In this session we'll focus specifically on how this technique for using small, cooperative groups in education can help improve learning in your class. Then you can proceed from CONCEPT TO CLASSROOM as you begin to apply new ideas to your lessons.
• Cooperative Learning - Psychology Applied to Teaching
• Cooperative Learning - University of Georgia

  Review of Cooperative Learning. Guinevere Palmer, Rachel Peters, Rebecca Streetman. Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia
• Cooperative Learning - Richard M. Felder and Rebecca Brent, N.C. State University
• Cooperative and Collaborative Learning - Study Guides and Strategies

  Cooperative or collaborative learning is a team process
  where members support and rely on each other to achieve an agreed-upon goal. The classroom is an excellent place to develop team-building skills you will need later in life.
• Cooperative Learning Instruction Strategies - Teachnology

  For a teacher who is trying to teach through cooperative learning from the teacher's resources or lesson plans, he or she might face problems of discipline or noisy lessons as after all it's just a class full of students. Hence, there are some cooperative learning instruction strategies, which can be followed for effective teaching.
• Cooperative Learning, Classroom Compass - Southwest Consortium for the Improvement of Mathematics and Science Teaching
• Cooperative Learning - Johns Hopkins University School of Education

  Cooperative Learning is one of the best researched of all teaching strategies. The results show that students who have opportunities to work collaboratively, learn faster and more efficiently, have greater retention, and feel more positive about the learning experience.
• Cooperative Learning - University of Minnesota, CEHD, College of Education and Human Development

  Brothers and fellow professors in the College of Education and Human Development, Roger and David W. Johnson are the nation’s leading researchers on cooperative learning. They head the Cooperative Learning Center which focuses on making classrooms and schools more cooperative places and on teaching cooperative skills—leadership, communication, decision making, trust building, and conflict resolution.
• Cooperative Learning Strategies - Colorin Colorado

  Cooperative Learning has been proven to be effective for all types of students, including academically gifted, mainstream students and English language learners (ELLs) because it promotes learning and fosters respect and friendships among diverse groups of students. In fact, the more diversity in a team, the higher the benefits for each student. Peers learn to depend on each other in a positive way for a variety of learning tasks.
• Cooperative Learning Methods: A Meta-Analysis - Johnson, Johnson, and Stanne, University of Minnesota
• Cooperative Learning Returns to College: What Evidence Is There That It Works? - Johnson, Johnson, and Smith
• IASCE - International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education

  IASCE, established in 1979, is the only international, non-profit organization for educators who research and practice cooperative learning in order to promote student academic improvement and democratic, social processes.
• Cooperative Learning - Virginia Tech

  Cooperative learning is situated within the social constructivist paradigm. Students work on projects or problems in teams with both personal and team accountability for conceptual understanding. Elements of cooperative learning are found in many of the teaching models described in this web site, including anchored instruction, cognitive apprenticeships, problem-based learning, and often case-based learning.
• Cooperative Learning Strategies and Learning Outcomes
• Cooperative Learning - Enhancing Education

  Cooperative learning occurs when small groups of students work together to maximize learning. Since the first research study in 1898, hundreds of cooperative learning studies have been conducted.