Running head: Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

Monica Janssen
University of St. Thomas

Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Bieler

Fall 2015

Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

Students are being held to a higher standard more now than ever before. Many teachers
struggle in getting their students to reach that level of understanding that is necessary to master
rigorous academic concepts and to maximize their learning experience in the classroom. In order
for students to be successful, many teachers and districts have turned to cooperative learning as
their method of teaching in the classroom. Cooperative learning is an instructional method in
which students work together in small, heterogeneous groups to complete a problem, project, or
other instructional goal, while teachers act as guides or facilitators. This method works to
reinforce a students own learning as well as the learning of his or her fellow group members
(Coffey, 2008). When students are allowed to work together cooperatively, they are more likely
to be engaged in the learning process. This group oriented, teacher facilitated, learning
environment promotes a positive academic atmosphere and a love for learning that many kids are
beginning to lose.
Cooperative learning must be implemented correctly or it will not be effective. Five key
elements differentiate cooperative learning from simply putting students into groups to learn
(Coffey, 2008). Those critical elements include: positive interdependence, individual
accountability, face-to-face interaction, interpersonal and small group social skills, and group
processing. All of these elements can be implemented in multiple ways, but the key is structure.
Positive interdependence allows the students to take control of their learning and be
responsible for each others work. This can be achieved through mutual goals, division of labor,
dividing materials, roles, and by making part of each student's grade dependent on the
performance of the rest of the group. Group members must believe that each person's efforts
benefit not only him- or herself, but all group members as well (Science Education Research

Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

Center, 2004). This may take time to establish, but is a very important element of cooperative
learning.
Although the students are working together to solve problems, find answers, or construct
projects, they are still responsible for their own work. This is where the individual accountability
element of cooperative learning comes in. The essence of individual accountability in
cooperative learning is "students learn together, but perform alone." This ensures that no one can
"hitch-hike" on the work of others. A lesson's goals must be clear enough that students are able to
measure whether (a) the group is successful in achieving them, and (b) individual members are
successful in achieving them as well (Science Education Research Center, 2004). Holding all
students accountable for their work is crucial in maintaining an effective cooperative learning
atmosphere.
Cooperative learning is all about working together to reach a goal. Students must be able
to communicate and work in groups for this to work. Face-to-Face Interaction is the element of
cooperative learning where this happens. This includes oral explanations of how to solve
problems, discussing the nature of the concepts being learned, and connecting present learning
with past knowledge (Science Education Research Center, 2004). When kids are discussing,
explaining, and talking about ideas and solutions that will lead them towards their end goal they
are, in fact, working and learning together collaboratively. However, if no ground rules or
expectations are set this group discussion could quickly become ineffective.
As with any group conversation or meeting, norms or expectations should be set. Social
Skills is an important element of cooperative learning. The teacher needs to establish rules so
that all students are respectful, speak in a manner appropriate to the classroom setting, and utilize
their time wisely during group interaction (Coffey, 2008). If the conversation stays on topic, is

Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

appropriate, and students are respectful, more will get accomplished in a timely manner.
Furthermore, it is important that students reflect on their activities or assignments that they
worked on together.
Reflecting is a critical piece to the puzzle and the last key element of cooperative
learning. During this element, the students must be able to reflect on how well they worked
together and what the outcome of their work was. They should be given time and procedures for
how to analyze their work (Science Education Research Center, 2004).
With the above being stated, many studies have been done that reflect the effectiveness of
cooperative grouping/learning. One study determined how cooperative learning would effect
teachers and students verbal behaviors during learning. Teachers play an important role in a
childs daily life and their behaviors influence a childs growth over time. Gilles knew that this
was the case after a study was done in 1990 by Hertz-Lazarowitz and Shachar. However, their
case was taken a bit further for more clarification.
This study involved 26 teachers and 303 students in grades 8-10 from a variety of High
Schools. The teacher makeup was 4 males and 22 females, which is a fairly accurate ratio of
male to female teachers in todays educational society. All the teachers that participated had 5-25
years of experience and agreed to actively participate in implementing cooperative learning into
their classrooms. The ratio of female to male students was about the same and the age average
was 14 years old. On the other hand, they observed the same number of teachers and students
who did not implement cooperative learning in their classrooms so they were able to compare
results effectively.
The teachers were asked to create a variety of small group activities where students had
to collaborate and work together. Teachers were then observed and rated on their verbal

Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

interactions. The original study with Hertz-Lazarowitz and Shachar only used 20 verbal
behaviors put into 5 categories. This study added 2 more verbal behaviors and broke them down
into 6 categories, 5 of them being one of the original categories. The categories included: teacher
control, questions, discipline, mediates, encourages, and maintenance interactions. A total of 36
hours of teacher interactions and verbal cues were recorded and observed.
The results of this study showed that teachers who implemented the cooperative learning
in their classrooms had more mediated-learning interactions in their classroom and fewer
disciplinary comments than teachers who did not implement cooperative learning. The study also
showed that students within the cooperative learning environment also portrayed these same
attributes. Therefore, teachers verbal interactions and behaviors with students depend greatly on
the type of learning atmosphere and organizational structure they are implementing within their
classrooms.
Another study was done to determine how teachers viewed cooperative learning and what
they thought about implementing it in their classrooms. Some of the underlying objectives of the
study were to investigate possible misconceptions teachers may have about cooperative learning,
to facilitate teachers learning, to construct new knowledge about cooperative learning by
contrasting it to group work, and mainly to understand teacher attitudes about cooperative
learning and their hesitations towards implementing it. After teachers attended the sessions and
created and took the pre test and posttest it was clear that many teachers had misconceptions
about cooperative learning, how it worked, the amount of time it took to implement, and the
results it would produce within the classroom. Teacher attitudes also changed gradually
throughout the six sessions towards a positive idea about cooperative learning. Another key
factor that was found was that teachers knew about cooperative learning but had no real clear

Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

picture on how to implement it and were therefore not doing so. It was also recognized that if
these teachers do not have the support within their campus to continue positively implementing
cooperative learning, they would not be successful.
The Journal of Educational Research published a study over the effectiveness of student
learning in the cooperative learning setting versus the large group instruction setting. There were
90 undergraduate student participants who ranged in age from 18 to 32. There were 70 women
and 30 men who made up the study. The cooperative learning activities were created ahead of
time for the professors to use. The study focused on wanting to know where the students mind
was during interruptions. Was the student actively engaged or not?
Results of this study concluded that overall quality of experience was greater during
cooperative learning. Furthermore, students were proven to be on task, engaged, new the
importance of the tasks they were completing, and had a variety of challenges. On the other
hand, during large group instruction students reported having more difficulty staying on task and
paying attention.
To further my research, I plan to investigate if the implementation of cooperative learning
has a positive effect on student academic performance.

Hypothesis

Implementing Cooperative learning within the classroom has become part of the daily
routine in most classrooms across the United States. There are more benefits to using cooperative
grouping than downfalls. The purpose of this study is to determine if the implementation of
cooperative grouping has a positive effect on student academic performance. The questions being

Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

answered by this action research are as follows: (1) Does the implementation of cooperative
grouping have a positive influence on student academic performance? (2) Does the
implementation of cooperative learning have an influence on student attitudes towards
education?

Method

Participants
This study will observe elementary students in third grade through fifth grade on three
different campuses within the same district. The campuses will be different in nature in order to
obtain a well rounded set of data: low socioeconomic, middle class, and upper class. There will
also be students in classrooms that will be implementing cooperative learning and students in
classrooms where cooperative learning is not being implemented. In order to collect this data, I
will need permission from the district, and campus administration. Depending upon district
policy I may need parent permission in order to access student records. Once all permissions are
received I will be able to gain access to the records in the campus registrars office.

Measures
I will want to analyze student growth from the previous grade to their current grade,
based on state testing, after the implementation of cooperative learning has taken place in certain
classrooms for a full year. Today, the state of Texas gives schools rankings based upon value
added or individual student growth. Therefore, I will need access to student records and testing
data. Once I have collected the data, I will research the following: (1) Was value added to the

Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

students being observed? (2) How much value was added, if any? (3) Was there a difference in
the amount of value added amongst the three different campuses being studied? (4) Were there
noticeable differences of student growth, or value added, between the students who were in a
classroom implementing cooperative learning and the students in the classrooms that were not
implementing cooperative grouping? (5) What was the average difference in student growth or
value added between these two testing groups?
In order to ensure reliability and validity of these methods, I will be using the documents
sent by the state of Texas. Each campus will receive individual results and I will be able to
compile them in order to fulfill this study.

Design and Procedure

In order to make sense of the data, I will collect and organize it in an excel spreadsheet.
There, I can organize the data by student name, value added or growth shown, teaching style
(cooperative grouping or no cooperative grouping), and campus attended. After, a formula can be
created in excel to show the totals, averages, etc.

References

Coffey, Heather. "Cooperative Learning" LEARN. North Carolina. Retrieved March 15, 2015,
from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4653
Gillies, Robyn M. (2006). Teachers and students verbal behaviors during cooperative and small
group learning. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 271-287.

Outcome of Implementing Cooperative Learning

Koutselini, Mary. (2009). Teacher misconceptions and understanding of cooperative

learning: an intervention study. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 43(2), 34-44.
Miller, J., Peterson, S. (2004). Comparing the quality of students experiences during cooperative
learning and large-group instruction. The Journal of Educational

Research. 97(3), 123-

133.
Science Education Research Center. (2004) Cooperative Learning, Starting Point. Retrieved Sept
9, 2004, from http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/cooperative/index.html