Team Work: Setting Up - Teams in the Classroom

Section Table of Contents

  1. What is Cooperative Learning?
  2. What is the difference between cooperative learning and collaborative learning/ traditional group work?
  3. Planning the Course
  4. The Origins of Cooperative Learning
  5. Characteristics of Cooperative Learning Groups
  6. How to Create Effective Group Assignments
  7. Activities for Cooperative Learning Groups
  8. Seven Steps for Setting Up Cooperative Group Work
  9. Students Need Cooperative Skills In Order To Function As A Team
  10. Work Skills: Important for Effective Teams
  11. Tips to Help Increase Effectiveness
  12. How to Help Teams Who Will Not Cooperate
  13. Cooperative Decision Making Skills
  14. Final Tips: If you do not remember anything else, remember to:
  15. Additional Web Resources
  16. References

 

1. What is Cooperative Learning?

Research shows that using cooperative learning in the classroom may be the way to increase students retention of reading material, improve their problem solving abilities and escalate students motivation. (Uno, 1997) Cooperative learning is an alternative to lecturing and an effective teaching method. Cooperative learning involves instructors creating student learning groups or teams of three or more students who work towards a common goal using defined processes and established roles.

Most articles on the subject report that : cooperative learning leads to increased motivation, less frustration, more positive attitudes towards learning new material, and increased success rates of students who might not have been successful in the subject. In cooperative learning environments, where students help others learn, there are benefits for both high achieving and low achieving students.

Additional benefits include students:

  • becoming active learners because they are required to pursue information and solve problems on their own.
  • increasing their sense of independence and responsibility for his/her own learning.
  • modeling development processes in industry science and government.

In cooperative learning the focus is on students building their own understanding of material rather than the memorization and regurgitation of facts. In groups students can experiment with strategies of clarification, defense, elaboration, argumentation and evaluation. They are also required to consider other points of view in the process of formulating solutions. Both are skills students can not develop when working individually.

The information and research on cooperative and collaborative learning is vast and widely available both in print and on the web. This page seeks to distill some of the most common elements and provide links to some of the best articles and Web sites on the subject.

The cooperative learning concept is important to the DHC because teaching students how to work cooperatively to solve problems is one of the goals of the DHC seminars. It is not necessary to become an expert on cooperative learning theory and research in order to put cooperative learning concepts into practice in the classroom. However, some background information may prove helpful as you plan for your seminar.

 

2. What is the difference between cooperative learning and collaborative learning/ traditional group work?

 

Collaborative learning groups do not have any particular structure. Practitioners of collaborative learning groups assume students have the social skills necessary to accomplish assigned tasks and solve problems. Cooperative learning groups do have a particular structure. Practitioners do not assume students have the social skills to function successfully, so they incorporate procedures and skill training into their group work. For a more detailed introduction to the terms collaborative and cooperative learning read Matthews, Cooper, Davidson and Hawke's article, "Building Bridges Between Cooperative and Collaborative Learning".

Instructors practice cooperative learning techniques because the structured nature of cooperative learning results in efficiency and accountability. Students also welcome the structure provided by the cooperative approach. In cooperative learning, unlike collaborative learning, faculty deliberately create an environment where learning can be both efficient and effective. To do this they develop structures such as roles for group members and models for making deliberate observations of group processes. In a collaborative learning environment, these structures do not exist.

 

3. Planning The Course

As an instructor plans a course where he/she intends to use cooperative learning groups the areas to think about include: instructional activities, instructor's role, students' role, introduction of group dynamics, group formation; criteria for instruction and assessment evaluation. While most all instructors will consider these same areas as they plan, cooperative learning methods allow faculty the freedom to vary approaches within areas and activities. (Cottell, 1998)

It is important to communicate to students the reasons a particular course is taught using methods of cooperative learning from the beginning. Cooperative learning methods differ greatly from the traditional college classroom, where they were passive learners and require students to be an active part of the process in order to be successful. When introducing cooperative learning to students it is also important to talk about different learning styles with students and to communicate the desirability of moving toward more sophisticated modes of thinking. (Cottell, 1998)

Cooperative learning methods while being more active are also preferred by many educators because it offers students who have difficulty learning from the traditional lecture format other learning opportunities. Educators have done much research into the subject and found most people have preferred ways of learning: visual, auditory, or tactile. Communicating material using all three of these modalities means more students are likely to be engaged in the learning process.

If you are not familiar with learning styles, the following are links to articles that can provide background information:
Cognitive Learning Styles ­ a description of several ways people process information.
 
Matters of Style by R. Felder ­ describes how instructors can use an increased awareness of students' learning styles to teach more effectively.
 
Learning Style Inventory ­ an inventory form for students to complete to help them identify their learning preferences; visual, auditory, or tactile.
 
Active Learning Strategies- This site introduces students to the steps of learning how to learn.
 
Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles - This article contains a brief description of Howard Gardner's model of multiple intelligences and a link to additional articles on learning styles.
 
Learning Theories - This site provides links to many cooperative learning theories. Scroll down to "Theories."

 

4. The Origins of Cooperative Learning

 

David W. Johnson, Roger T. Johnson, and Karl A. Smith have done most of the most current research on cooperative learning groups from the University of Minnesota Center for Cooperative Learning. A chart listing the differences and similarities between cooperative learning groups and traditional groups provides a useful summary.

The following is a list of articles and Web sites that provide introductory information on Cooperative Learning:

  • Getting Started with Cooperative Learning by Karl Smith This article is on the National Institute for Science Education web site. It includes some helpful hints for introducing the subject to your students.
  • An article entitled "Cooperative Learning for New College Teachers" by Karl A. Smith & Alisha A. Waller is a useful introduction to the work of Karl A. Smith and Johnson and Johnson. In the article you will find a familiar comparison chart and a brief introduction to topics like: Key Concepts in Structuring Cooperative Learning Groups, Positive Interdependence, Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction, Accountability/Personal Responsibility, Teamwork Skills, Group Processing and a variety of informal cooperative learning techniques.
  • Another article that introduces some of the same topics from Johnson and Johnson but includes some practical examples of lesson ideas can be found in "Three Classroom Techniques that Promote Enhance Student Learning: Pre-class Writing Assignments, Cooperative Learning, Formative Feedback from Students (Classroom Assessment)" by Tom Creed, Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota.

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  • Collaborative Learning in Management Education: Issues, benefits, problems and solutions: A literature review by David Kimber, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University. This article addresses every issue in collaborative learning imaginable, from research outcomes to problems.

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  • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Cooperative-Group Problem Solving this is from the University of Minnesota Physics department's site. It contains brief answers with examples for topics like group size, roles processing

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  • The National Institute for Science Education site is dedicated to cooperative learning. It is a helpful place to start for a quick introduction to all of the different issues. It contains mostly theoretical history and background information.

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  • Another site dedicated to providing practical information on Cooperative/Collaborative learning is the Instructional Innovation Network. This site was funded by a FIPSE grant and is maintained by the Teaching Resource Center at Arizona State University. Of special interest is their section on Cooperative Learning in Higher Education.

    • Books On Cooperative Learning

    Available at the DHC office is an excellent book which provides an overview of cooperative learning is, Cooperative Learning For Higher Education Faculty by Cottell, P.G. and Millis, B.J.1998. American Council On Education/Oryx Press.Phoenix: Arizona.

    In addition, there is a collection of books available on teaching and assessment, critical thinking and presentation skills available at the DHC office in 164 Kerr Hall.

     

    5. Characteristics of Cooperative Learning Groups

    The following six characteristics of Cooperative Learning Groups are a summary of the characteristics outlined in Johnson, Johnson and Smith's book Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom, 1991.

     

    1. Positive Interdependence: Team members are obliged to rely on one another to achieve their goal. If any team member fails to do their part, everyone suffers the consequences. This may be the single most important first step of cooperative learning, to set a common goal that can not be achieved without the entire groups participation.

    Instructors need to balance this point by ensuring group members are not unfairly penalized. This first point made by Johnson and Johnson is often misunderstood. Positive interdependence means that the group is failing if everyone is not participating, because it is the group's job to ensure that all members are participating, and if one is not, they are failing to meet their goal, and will suffer the consequences because they are missing the input of one person and have to work harder to compensate for that loss.

    2. Individual Accountability: All students in a group are held accountable for doing their share of the work and for mastery of all the material to be learned.

    This point should be built into the course from the beginning to be most effective. It is also important not to grade on a curve in a cooperative learning course. Grading on a curve builds competition onto a class that is not desired in a cooperative setting.

    3. Face-to-Face promotive interaction: Group assignments should be constructed so that the work cannot be simply parcelled out and done individually. Assignments must include work that has to be done interactively. Ideally, group members should have to provide one another with feedback, challenge one another's conclusions and reasoning or teach one another in order to accomplish the assignment.

    Instructors should be aware not all students are receptive to criticism and challenges to their ideas. Students may need to be taught feedback skills (Link:#15 Group Dynamics) and diplomacy in order for this to be successful. This method is a useful real life example of how groups work.

    4. Appropriate collaborative skills: Students are encouraged and helped to develop and practice trust building, leadership, decision-making, communication and conflict management.

    Instructors may choose to spend a great deal of time on these skills or very little time depending on the needs of the individual students and groups. Individual student's/ group member's outlook is very important to achieving these processes; negative outlooks toward these processes must be addressed openly and often.

    5. Group processing: Team members set up group goals, periodically assess what they are doing well as a team, and identify changes they will make to function more effectively in the future.

    A balance between time a group spends solving the problem at hand and time spent observing the processes they used to solve the problem can be set up and modeled by the instructor. Instructors should be aware this step may seem like it takes up too much of the group's time at first, taking time away from the assigned task. However, healthy groups need less and less time to process, as they become more skilled at working together. Unhealthy groups need the time to process even more because it is likely the time spent on the assigned task is not being used effectively. Peer and self-evaluations can take oral and written forms. Instructors may get a clearer picture of the situation by using a peer evaluation form or a form that ask group members to look at collaborative efforts. Evaluations written in a paragraph form are also useful because students are forced to support their evaluations with examples. Instructors may want to set aside ten minutes at the end of each week for process evaluations.

    6. Heterogeneous Groups: Individuals benefit the most from working with people different from themselves.

    Helpful Tips For Creating Teams: Give assignments to teams of three to five students. When students work in pairs there is no mechanism for resolving disputes. In teams of more than five, it becomes difficult to keep everyone actively involved. Form groups of heterogeneous ability levels. In a heterogeneous group, the weaker students seem to benefit from observing how strong students approach solving a problem; the stronger students seem to gain a deeper understanding of the material by explaining it to others.

    • Avoid groups where women and minority students are outnumbered. Instructors may find that personality, ability, major and experience is more important to take into consideration in many cases.
    • Select teams yourself. Students studied said their worst group experiences were in groups that were self-selected.

     

    6. How to create effective group assignments

    Groups need concrete tasks to accomplish and specific goals to meet in order to be motivated to work together. Developing the right kind of assignment can be the first step to success.

    1. Ask the groups to prepare something to be turned in for credit. For short-term groups this should not be in the form of a long paper or essay. It could be an outline, action plan, annotated bibliography or statement of purpose.

    2. Require groups to use a decision making process that does not involve voting.

    3. Require more than one point-of view, set of data, or background be used, in order for the problem to be solved, or the task to be completed.

    4. Require groups to spend most of their time on the types of behaviors that groups do best, brainstorming, forming strategies, developing solutions, planning and designing.

    5. Model real-world situations or problems so students easily understand the skills they are learning will be transferable.

    6. Create and publish a set of criteria or rubrics to measure teams product and performance so teams can compare their process and product against a normative standard then measure their success.

    (Adapted from Uno, 1997)

     

    7. Activities for Cooperative Learning Groups

    The following is a list of ides for Group Tasks that can be done in class:

    • answer or generate questions
    • explain observations
    • work through derivations
    • solve problems
    • summarize a lecture
    • trouble shoot
    • brainstorm
    • write reports
    • prepare presentations for class
    • complete problem sets
    • design projects

     

    Other examples of in-class exercises:

    Mix lecture time with group work: Early in a class period organize students in teams of two to four students. Randomly assign one student to be the recorder for each team. Lecture for fifteen minutes or so and then give them a team exercise to do, instructing the team recorder to write down responses. Circulate among the teams to insure all are on task.

    Recalling prior material: Last period we discussed conductive heat transfer. List as many of the principle features of this process as you can remember. You have two minutes - go! Alternatively, list the three most important points of today's assigned reading.

    Stage-setting: Here are the questions we will be considering today. Work in pairs to guess (estimate) what the answers might be (or to plan how you could determine the answers).

    Responding to questions: What procedure (formula, technique), could I use here? Is what I just wrote correct? Why? Or Why not? What would you guess is the next step (the outcome, the conclusion)?

    Problem-solving: Turn to page 138 in your book. Take a minute to read problem 27, then work in groups to outline a solution or strategy.Get started on the solution of a problem and see how far you can get with it in five minutes. Let's all agree that this is the correct approach. Proceed from here.

    Explaining written material: Go through the paragraph (derivation) I just handed out. One member of each pair should explain the idea (step) to the other. The explainer's partner should ask for clarification if anything is unclear and may give hints, etc.

    Analytical, evaluative, and creative thinking: List all of the assumptions, (problems, errors, ethical dilemmas) you can find in this case study (scenario, problem, solution).
     
    What is the flaw in the following argument?
     
    List three practical applications for what we just learned.
     
    Guided reciprocal peer-questioning:
    What is the main idea of....?
    What if...?
    How does....affect...?
    What is a new example of ...?
    Explain how...?
    Explain why...?
    What conclusions can I draw....?
    How are ....and .... similar?
    Group members ask each other these questions about the material. Having to answer these types of questions can lead students to gaps in their knowledge of the material.

    Think-pair -Share: Students work on a given problem individually, then compare their solutions with a partner, and synthesize a joint solution. The pairs in turn share the solutions with other pairs or the entire class. This is a good bridge activity for students who are not used to working together.

    TAPPS: Thinking aloud pair problem solving: Students work on problems in pairs, with one partner functioning as a problem solver and the other as the listener. The solver verbalizes everything they are thinking as they seek a solution; the listeners encourage their partners to keep talking, and offer general suggestions or hints if the problem solver gets stuck.

    Jigsaw: Home teams are formed, with each team member taking responsibility for one aspect of the problem in question. Expert teams are then formed of all the students responsible for the same aspect. These new teams go over the material they are responsible for and plan together, how they will teach it to their home groups. After adequate time has been given, the students return to the home teams and bring their expertise to bear on the assigned task. Positive interdependence is fostered here because each student is an expert, and has different information needed to complete the task.

    Jigsaw Activity

    Step 1

    Home Group Members Receive Assignment
    each base group participant gets a letter (an area of expertise)
    AB AB AB AB
    CD CD CD CD

    Step 2

    Expert Groups Meet
    base group splits up and matches up with other participant with same letter
    AA BB CC DD
    AA BB CC DD

    Step 3

    Home Groups Meet - Members Take Turns Teaching
    experts return to base group and share their knowledge
    AB AB AB AB
    CD CD CD CD

    Step 4

    Evaluation of Learning/Group Processing

     

    8. Seven Steps for Setting up Cooperative Group Work

    1. Plan adequate class time for groups to work.
    2. Plan assignments that require students utilize both discussion of material and team development.
    3. Set up heterogeneous groups.
    4. Assign complex tasks that require participation of all team members.
    5. Develop a grading system that requires individual accountability and rewards group work, not competition.
    6. Provide feedback, often and give teams specificfeed back on what they are doing well.
    7. Teach students cooperative skills they need to successfully work in groups.

    (Adapted from Uno, 1997)

     

    9. Students Need Cooperative Skills to Function as a Team

    Students who are simultaneously being taught the cooperative skills necessary to work effectively in a team is one of the characteristics of cooperative learning environment. As these skills are taught remember and remind your students that learning to work in groups is part of a process that happens in stages over time.

    The following thoughts on the cooperative skills teams need, are from the EPICS Program at the Colorado School of the Mines. Students in the EPICS program work in technical teams, focused on solving open-ended problems. They encourage all students to participate in their program because they are convinced that it is the key to their success in the working world. It is important to remind DHC seminar students of this same point. Technical problem solving teams are traditionally composed of specialists who analyze complex problems, allocate resources, and plan actions.

    When introducing the concept of working in problem solving teams to your students the following are the main areas everyone needs to agree on before any real work can begin:

    • Teams are helpful, sometimes even better than individual work.
    • Teamwork will require different skills than those needed when working alone.
    • Teamwork requires skills that are behaviors in contrast to the concepts and ideas required when working alone.
    • Working together to improve the team's performance will pay off in the end.
    • Listening actively is important. If you wish to be listened to, you must give evidence that you yourself have carefully listed.
    • Communicating both our conscious and unconscious feelings about others will happen when we are working in teams.

    (Adapted from EPICS, 1995)

    Early in the quarter introduce the following skills to your students, you may even want to build the following items into observation or evaluation forms. Another way to introduce these skills is to involve teams in a team building activity. A team building activity is a game or activity designed to help teams practice important teamwork skills. Most structured activities provide a set of processing questions for groups to answer after the activity that address the following areas. Team building activities also make great icebreakers and facilitate building trust.

     

    10. Work Skills: Important for Effective Teams

    1. Listen with care.
    2. Keep in touch with your feelings as the discussion develops.
    3. Pay attention to how your team process evolves.
    4. Form a habit of reviewing and evaluating what happened, after the close of a work session.
    5. Learn to clearly state what you have observed both of team process and individual contribution. This takes feedback and diplomacy.
    6. Reflect on various roles that people have played during your work together.
    7. Learn how to be supportive of the team process, how to facilitate moving on without leaving anyone out.

     

    These skills are often overlooked, in an effort to spend more time on the assigned task. In order to make learning these work habits a priority, it is important to understand why they are important. By practicing these skills group members will help develop healthy group dynamics and will result in more efficient group work. Members need to be aware of their anger, for example because their feelings may be affecting how they respond to team members. Monitoring feelings is also important, because successful team members are able to separate how you feel about others, from the process of getting the job done. Instructors should keep in mind students may not have developed the maturity level, to be able to do this as naturally as some adults. As an instructor, it is important to help groups reflect on roles and process, as well as teach them how to make process observations themselves.

     

    11. Six Tips to Help Facilitate Teamwork

    Tips to help increase effectiveness:
    1. Get to know everyone on your team.
    2. Learn to work as a team.
    3. Work out decision making process.
    4. Set ground rules for:
    • Accountability
    • Attendance
    • Participation
    • Meeting, location and time
    • Role clarification and role rotation
    • Appoint a facilitator for every meeting
    • Keep discussions focused and democratic
    • Provide closure
    1. Appoint a recorder to maintain minutes or a group memory on newsprint.
    2. Generate an agenda, publish it, and use it.

     

    12. Maintain Open Lines of Communication: Resolve Conflicts

    Effective communication is necessary for teams to run smoothly. When working towards solving a conflict between two group members it is important to check both parties' perceptions of the facts. With a clearer perception sometimes it is possible to work toward a resolution of uncomfortable feelings. This is an area where faculty can play an important role, helping students work out communication problems resulting from miscommunication or false perceptions.

    How to help teams who will not cooperate:

    1. Share your ideas and insights, but try not to give advice.
    2. Explore alternatives rather than seeking answers or solutions.
    3. Provide feedback on the behavior, not the person.
    4. Provide feedback using concrete observations, not inferences.
    5. Make students take responsibility for the problem as a group, do not allow blaming.
    6. Remind students that working in groups isn't easy, does not always happen naturally.
    7. Establish an environment of mutual respect and acceptance of differences early and model the behaviors yourself.
    Definition of an effective meeting:
    One in which all team members are actively engaged in team discussion, and decisions, the team moves smoothly from agenda item to agenda item until the planned work is completed.

    Teams need to learn methods of cooperative decision making. This is something students may not be experienced at, and can be a point of frustration of many. One method is consensus.

    13. Cooperative Decision Making Skills

    Method of decision making: Consensus
    1. Discuss problem until the group agrees on how to state the problem.
    2. Write a statement of the problem the group has.
    3. Brainstorm all the information you have on the problem.
    4. Discuss, clarify, prioritize, and develop criteria if necessary.
    5. Propose possible resolutions.
    6. Discuss, clarify, prioritize.
    7. Prioritize.
    8. Still no clear winner, discuss
    9. Cycle until you reach a consensus.
    10. Do not vote!
    Method of decision making: Problem solving
    1. Define the problem
    2. Generate alternative options and solutions
    3. Develop criteria for the selection of an option or solution
    4. Choose an option using the criteria
    5. Create a plan to implement the solution or option
    6. Act

    14. Final Tips: If you do not remember anything else,
    remember to:

    1. Assign team roles that rotate with each assignment.
    2. Promote positive interdependence. Get everyone involved in a common goal.
    3. Promote individual accountability.
    4. Have groups regularly assess their performance.
    5. Offer ideas for effective group functioning. Be actively involved in giving groups feedback and suggestions.
    6. Provide assistance to teams having difficulty working together.
    7. Do not change groups often.
    8. Do not assign grades on a curve. This fosters competition.

     

    Web Resources on Cooperative/Collaborative Learning

  • Introduction to cooperative learning from the National Institute of Science Education
  • List of articles online from the Instructional Innovation Network: These are some of the best articles on the Web.
  • Group Development and Peer Review of Research Proposals - by Joanne Stewart In-Class Planning Handout. This a complete lesson plan with sample handouts for groups of two. Notice the extent to which the instructors have structured group time. This activity could be extended for use with larger groups and would particularly useful as seminar groups more toward the problem-solving phase.
  • A Cooperative Learning Approach to Teaching Social Issues of Computing by Tom Jewett. This article describes a class set up using groups to discuss ethics and values of computing, the author gives detailed information about how he sets up his groups and his assignments. Courses like this one are some of the most similar examples to DHC seminars on the Web because they seek to improve communication skills and relate the learning experience to students' life experience.

    • Other articles available on the web on Cooperative Learning:

    References:

    Cottell, P.G., & Millis, B.J. (1998). Cooperative learning for higher education faculty. Phoenix, AZ: American Council of Education/Oryx Press.

    Felder, R. M. & Brent R. (1994) Cooperative learning in technical courses. (1998, November 20)

    Uno, G. (1997) Handbook on teaching undergraduate science courses: A survival training manual. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Printing Services.

    Project communications guide. (1995) Engineering practices introductory course sequence, EP 101. : Colorado University of the Mines.



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