What is cooperative learning?

Why do we use cooperative learning?

What are the strategies in cooperative learning?

Principles of cooperative learning

1. It enhances students' academic achievement. Studies have shown that low-achieving and average students had the greatest gains while the high achievers develop higher order thinking skills as they restructure and explain the content learnt to their team-mates. Thus, students learn content materials quicker, retain it longer, and develop critical reasoning faster (Skon, Johnson & Johnson, l981)

2. It promotes a sense of altruism (Hertz-Lazarowitz, Sharan, & Steinberg,1980). Being altruistic. the students want their classmates to do well in school and feel that their classmates too want them to do well.

3. It gives greater motivation to learn The feeling of being liked and accepted by the other group members is a great motivation for them to learn.

4. It enhances higher levels of self-esteem and positive attitudes towards subject matter. Students attain academic success and feel liked and received by their classmates. Thus, they develop positive attitude towards the subject matter and greater motivation to learn and this eventually leads to high level of self-esteem (Slavin, 1983; Johnson, & Johnson, 1986)

5. It produces positive results on cross-ethnic friendships and interactions. Cooperation that happens when students are grouped heterogenously in terms of ethnicity, with each having an equal role in helping the group to achieve its goal, produces positive results on cross-ethnic friendships and interaction (Slavin, l979; Ziegler, l981). Gaining more friends and positive attitude towards subject matter and school in general spin-off to better interaction for emotionally disturbed adolescents who experienced cooperative learning and an improved students' attendance (Janke, l978).