REASONFORGROUPWORKII(COOPLN)

Reasons for Group Work

Many abilities are needed to solve problems; no one person has all of them.

(For A students) - Helping your group is the most efficient way to make an A.

Groups outperform the best individual in the group.

Research indicates that cooperative learning has positive effects in the areas of:
1) achievement, 2) learner’s self-confidence, and 3) social skills and relations.

The most effective groups are those where students feel free to talk about what they
understand and don’t understand, give each other detailed responses on a problem, and give
each other a chance to discuss.

R. L. Dees gathered data in 1991 in a college remedial mathematics course to find whether
cooperative learning helped students increase their problem solving abilities. The results
showed significant differences in favor of cooperative learning. Students using cooperative
learning performed as well or better on every measure in the study.

Cooperative learning tends to:

promote more learning
promote higher motivation to learn
produce more positive attitudes toward the instructional experience
have been found to result in stronger perceptions that other students care how
much one learns

Cooperative learning experiences are linked with higher levels of self-esteem.