Group Work: Cooperative Learning (Active Learning Strategy)

Overview and Introduction: The WHAT and WHO

As detailed in the Active Learning: Overview and Introduction Quick Reference Guide, active learning is a term used to describe instructional methods that increase student involvement and engagement in the learning process. As noted in the diagram below, active learning increases student retention, and the most effective active learning is correlated with group work (discussing, doing, and teaching).

Figure 1: Active Learning and Retention [1]

Cooperative Learning is a structured form of group work where students pursue common goals while being assessed individually – individuals succeed when the team succeeds. The goal of Cooperative Learning is that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning and it may be contrasted with competitive learning (students work against each other to achieve an academic goal such as a grade of “A” that only one or a few students can attain) and Individualistic (students work by themselves to accomplish learning goals unrelated to those of the other students) learning. [2] 

The figure below shows where Cooperative Learning falls in the instructor-centered to student-centered spectrum of the active learning process.

Figure 2: Cooperative Learning in the Active Learning Framework

Cooperative Learning is group work, but not all group work is Cooperative Learning. The key elements of Cooperative Learning are that specific tasks are being performed, there is structure to the activity, and roles are assigned. Cooperative Learning is an excellent learning tool, not necessarily an assessment activity.

Some common concerns for using Cooperative Learning in a course are:

These are legitimate concerns, however, several strategies can help minimize these challenges. Here are some suggestions to successfully implement Cooperative Learning [3]:

  1. Start Small and Build – Team dynamics require time to develop, so start with small, low-risk activities to introduce students to the concept of Cooperative Learning.
  2. Explain Why – Explain what you’ll be doing, how it will work, and why it’s in their best interest. Expect initial resistance from students.
  3. Provide Incentive – Reward students for successful collaborations. The final outputs within the collaboration should come together towards a common goal.
  4. Make it Challenging – Choose activities that require more time and energy than one student can accomplish alone.
  5. Peer Review  – Check in regularly with groups so you can help them develop effective group work skills and monitor possible issues. Feedback between group members and directly to you are both recommended and can be collected using tools like CATME or by creating hard-copy or digital surveys. Strategies gain a deeper understanding of pedagogical or theoretical theories or learn more about resources available to the Fulton community.

Implementation and Timing: The WHEN, WHERE, and HOW

Since Cooperative Learning requires more structure (unlike Collaborative Learning), most activities will be more effective during class sessions, so proper guidance can be provided. Students can work together for one class period or over several weeks to achieve a specific goal.

Figure 3: PIGS FaceS [4]

The 6 basic elements of Cooperative Learning (also known as PIGS FaceS) are [4]:

1. Positive interdependence – Group members rely on one another; all players are essential. Shared leadership and diversity are valued as assets. Each member has a specific role and responsibility and each role is connected to the other roles. Each member must participate for the entire group to succeed. 

💡Consider: How will students stay committed to the group goals? How will student roles be interdependent? How will roles be assigned? How will students be motivated to act interdependently?

🛠️ Examples:

2. Individual accountability – All students are accountable for doing their share. Clear roles are defined and all members are effective team members. Each member must demonstrate mastery of the content.

💡Consider: How will activities be relevant, interesting, and varied to motivate students? How will individual student success be recognized? How will students be kept accountable for their work? How will the experience of cooperative learning be meaningful and positive? How will the students recognize a productive group outcome?

🛠️ Examples:

3. Group processing – Assess the work as a team [5]. Review and reflect. Identify ways to work more effectively together in the future. View conflict as necessary and helpful and deal with it appropriately.

💡Consider: How will observations of group interactions be documented? How will guidance be provided to students to reflect on the teamwork? How will students set goals individually and as a group?

🛠️ Examples:

4. Social collaborative skills – Develop and practice trust-building, leadership, decision-making, communication, conflict management, and decision-making strategies. Create a comfortable and relaxed climate where everyone can express opinions and be heard.

💡Consider: How will students’ social skills be assessed? How will tools be provided to develop social skills and manage conflict?

🛠️ Examples:

5. Face-to-face interaction – Some work may be parceled out, but some must be done interactively, including giving and receiving feedback, challenging ideas, reasoning justifications, coming to conclusions, teaching, and encouraging others. Group members promote each other’s success.

💡Consider: How will students be assigned to groups? How will the space be arranged near to promote productive interaction?

6. Specific Task – The group needs to be assigned a specific task to accomplish with set criteria and communicated expectations.

💡Consider: How will the specifics of the task and set criteria be shared with the students? How will the expectations for the task be communicated?

Rationale and Research: The WHY

Numerous studies emphasize the need for student engagement and the classroom-based cooperative approaches that lead to increased learning are well documented [6]. Cooperative Learning benefits can be categorized into three aspects [7]:

1. Academic: In Cooperative Learning, students shift from a passive to a more active role in the learning process, and the research has shown and verified that active learning is more effective than passive learning for deeper comprehension of concepts. Cooperative Learning incorporates students’ higher-level thinking skills, increases student retention, and allows students to think in more complex ways. Working with peers helps in the learning process as the teacher’s language can be translated and the mutual sharing of ideas and opinions pushes students to think more critically.

2. Affective: Cooperative Learning can benefit the emotional aspects of learning, such as enthusiasm, appreciation, and motivation. Working together cooperatively creates a social atmosphere where students receive support and feel like part of a team, leading to individual and group goal commitment. Students feel more empowered, increased self-efficacy and self-esteem, and are more satisfied. Cooperative Learning increases autonomous learning, which provides greater choice and flexibility can help students persevere when facing challenges, and increases student motivation.   

3. Social Competence: Cooperative Learning enables students to interact in a variety of ways and improves their ability to work with others appropriately and effectively. Learning is a social process and to complete a group task, students must navigate group interaction to respect one another as separate and unique individuals. Working in groups provides the opportunity to practice interpersonal social skills and cooperative skills and allows students to positively depend on each other to collectively complete the task. Cooperative Learning also provides context for students to use social language, read social cues, exchange ideas, and view things from another’s perspective. Students who feel confident in their social skills are also more likely to build a variety of mutually beneficial relationships.

Additional Resources and References

Acknowledgment: This work acknowledges the 2022 presentation on collaborative and cooperative learning, by Dr. Lindy Mayled as part of the Research-based Instructional Strategies in Engineering (RISE) series.