The Cooperative Link
The Newsletter of The Cooperative Learning Institute Volume 17, Issue March, 2002
Editors: David W. Johnson, Roger T. Johnson, Edythe Holubec
Hi! From the Johnsons (that is one way you say hello in Norway). We were just in Norway and conducted training sessions in Lillehammer (they reminded us that we had just missed the Winter Olympics there - by eight years!) and in Bergen. Both places have been doing a lot with cooperative learning and have talented teachers and administrators. Cooperative Learning is part of the National Plan in Norway and, therefore, there is a continuing interest in its implementation. The Cooperative Learning Center in Hong Kong is training professors in cooperative learning in mainland China as well as Hong Kong. The University of Trento in Italy is still active in training teachers in cooperative learning. Cooperative Learning is alive and well in Columbia, South America.
Interest stays high in the research area for both cooperative learning and conflict resolution. This year at AERA there are several sessions dedicated to those topics. We are working on an 'on-line," internet version of the Foundational Course that could be used within a school system by the Leadership network (perhaps augmented by some in person problem solving sessions).
There is on-going implementation in Charleston, South Carolina and Kessarge School District in New Hampshire that could be models of implementation for others. Community College systems in North Carolina, Texas, and Florida are still actively implementing cooperative learning. Isolthermal Community College has its entire staff trained up through the President and has integrated cooperative learning into its mission. Michigan State has now trained more than 200 Professors in cooperative learning and is still going. This summer we are training a new set of leaders in cooperative learning and conflict resolution for the New York Union of Teachers (NYSUT).
What are you doing? How can we help? Let us know.
The summer schedule is included in this newsletter. Last year we had people from 7 different countries in Minneapolis (including a group from Mexico) and we need to have educators from a variety of places around the US and Canada to interact with these visitors. Think seriously about making the trip to Minneapolis this summer. We can promise you the opportunity to ride on the pig if you come.
We live in a networked, information-based society in which teams and technology are needed to manage the complexity of learning, working, and living. Knowledge is now the most critical resource for social and economic development. Most people now engage in information and technological rich careers where they work in teams. They need to be skilled in working cooperatively to design, use, and maintain the tools of technology. Children, adolescents, and young adults who do not become skilled in teamwork and technologically literate will be left behind. Learning in cooperative groups while utilizing the tools of technology needs to occur in all grade levels and subject areas. Schools need to increasingly utilize technology-supported cooperative learning (the instructional use of technology combined with the use of cooperative learning).
In order for education to develop the technological and teamwork competencies of children, adolescents, and young adults, they must overcome the individualistic assumption historically connected with technology-supported instruction and utilize cooperative learning as an inherent part of instruction. The individual assumption is that instruction should be tailored to each student's personal aptitude, learning style, personality characteristics, motivation, and needs. Computers were originally viewed as an important tool for providing individualized learning experiences. The attempts to individualize instruction through technology clarified that so much variation exists in learning styles and personality traits and so little agreement exists on how to translate differences in learning styles and personal traits into instructional prescriptions that attempting to do so is exorbitantly time consuming and expensive (requiring considerable development and hardware costs). Even if it were possible it individualize, working alone limits the resources available to learn and the isolation tends to result in boredom, frustration, anxiety, and the perception that learning is impersonal. The history of technology illustrates that whenever new technology is introduced that isolates individuals rather than bring people together, it tends to be avoided. With high-tech needs to come high personal interaction.
There are two ways that technology-supported cooperative learning may be used: (a) cooperation around computers and (b) cooperation through computers.
Structuring cooperation around the computer involves using computers as tools and points of shared reference to facilitate face to face cooperation among students. First, you should modify any software program that was developed for single-users so that pairs and small groups can use it cooperatively. Almost any program developed for single users can be better used when it is modified for cooperative learning.
Second, utilize groupware that is aimed at supporting group rather than individual work. For cooperation to take place, students must have a joint workspace. One of the promises of the computer is to allow students to create shared spaces.
Instead of sharing a blackboard or a worktable, students can share a computer screen. Over the past ten years, numerous groupware programs have been developed in a variety of subject areas. Many of them are aimed at externalizing the problem-solving process by displaying the student's solution or learning paths on the screen. Such programs are helpful for both individual reflection and cooperative problem-solving.
Structuring cooperation through computes involves local and wide area networks. There has been a rapid expansion of computer network technology that allows students all over the world to create powerful shared spaces on the computer screen. In a network-based environment, students and teachers can interact through the computer free of the limitations of time and place. The speed at which asynchronous and distance communication may be completed opens new opportunities for cooperative learning. It makes more intensive cooperation possible with the out-of-school experts, brings students from different schools into contact with each other, and creates powerful tools for joint writing and knowledge sharing.
There has been a rapid expansion of computer network technology that allows students all over the world to create powerful shared spaces on the computer screen. Workspaces may now be routinely created that network students and cooperative learning groups throughout the world. In a network-based environment, students and teachers can interact through the computer free of the limitations of time and place. The speed at which asynchronous and distance communication may be completed makes more intensive cooperation possible with out-of-school experts, brings students from different schools into contact with each other, and creates powerful tools for joint writing and knowledge sharing. There are, however, different levels at which the network environment supports cooperation. Networks can (a) change the way students and instructors interact, (b) enhance cooperative learning opportunities, (c) facilitate class discussion, and (d) move writing from solitary to more active, social learning. The network tools include (a) local area network-based client-server systems, (b) e-mail for cooperative learning (may be used to deliver information to students, supervise students, have students share joint documents and comment on each other's work, and support national and international communication between cooperative learning groups and schools located far away from each other), and (c) the internet and world wide web. Web-based cooperative learning is time independent and location independent, thus allowing a combination of synchronous and asynchronous discussions. Creating and using shared databases is especially helpful for network-based cooperative-learning systems. On the World Wide Web, conferencing may require "threading" (the ability to sequentially read the messages that make up one discussion). It is now possible to have live video of individuals and groups conferencing with each other.
Schools in the United States spend more than $6 billion a year for hardware and software. Los Angeles schools, for example are paying $44 million for reading software to improve early literacy skills and the state of South Dakota is spending $8 million to ensure there is one computer for every two students. Given the vast amount of money that is being spent, the question is, "How do we make sure that the technology improves student achievement?"
The answer is, "Make sure the use of technology is combined with cooperative learning." Without cooperative learning, technology's potential for increasing students' achievement goes largely untapped. There is considerable research on technology-supported cooperative learning. The results indicate that technology-supported cooperative learning tends to increase achievement (both academic achievement and learning how to use technology), positive attitudes (toward technology and cooperation), healthy development (cognitive development, learner control, social competencies), positive relationships, positive effects on both high and low performing students and both male and female students, cost effectiveness, and innovation in groupware and hardware.
What this research illuminates is that cooperative learning and technology-supported instruction have complementary strengths. The more technology is used to teach, the more necessary cooperative learning is. The computer, for example, can control the flow of work, monitor accuracy, give electronic feedback, and do calculations. Cooperative learning provides a sense of belonging, the opportunity to explain and summarize what is being learned, social models, respect and approval for efforts to achieve, encouragement of divergent thinking, and interpersonal feedback on academic learning and the use of the technology. Their complementary strengths make technology-assisted cooperative learning one of the most powerful and necessary instructional procedures.
Circles Of Learning (5th Ed. Interaction Book Company) has just been revised. The new edition includes updated material in each chapter and a new chapter on civic values A glossary has also been added.
Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills (8th Ed., Allyn & Bacon) will be released in the fall. It is revised and updated.
Reaching Out: Interpersonal Effectiveness and Self-Actualization (8th Ed., Allyn & Bacon) will be released in the fall. It is revised and updated with a new chapter on ethnics in interpersonal relationships.
This year translations of one of our books has appeared in Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Norwegian. Cooperative learning is spreading.
To join the Special Interest Groups in the American Educational Research Association on Cooperative Learning or on Conflict Resolution, call or write David or Roger at the Cooperative Learning Center (612) 624-7031.
The Area Code for Interaction Book Company (and David and Linda) has changed from 612 to 952.
2002 Leaders Conference: July 19 – 21. Anyone who has taken our Leadership Training is invited to attend this conference. Call Linda for details. (952) 831-9500; FAX: (952) 831-9332