11) Use cooperative learning structures

Cooperative learning structures engage students in learning with one another, increasing participation and building community in the classroom.

The Key to Success with these Structures

Working in groups can be very positive or very negative (think about to your own experiences in school and/or college). Facilitating positive cooperative learning experiences involves but is not limited to:

Scaffolding

Start with simple, well-defined group activities early in the quarter. Move to more complex activities as students develop group communication skills and demonstrate success working with others.

Intentional Group Assignments

Create heterogeneous groups to ensure students are exposed to diverse perspectives. You may also take into account students’ communication styles as the quarter progresses. For example, when I taught, I would place more reserved students in groups with students who are excellent question-askers, who could draw out participation from all group members. The next two items provide other ways of ensuring groups work cooperatively.

Norming/Creating Community Agreements

As a class, at the beginning of the quarter, set norms for successful group interactions. Provide a couple example norms (Links to an external site.) if needed to get discussion started. Adapt norms to the students in your class. Adapt them to the online environment as well. For example, pausing between folks as they share is a great norm all the time. It is especially helpful online where there is lag in Zoom or Teams transmissions.

Role Taking

Provide students with roles to fulfill within the group if this additional structure would be helpful. Rotate roles among student team members so all develop varying skills for group participation.

Using these Structures is Culturally Responsive because…

Cooperative learning structures:

Expose students to diverse perspectives and foster listening skills when working with those with differing experiences and ideas (if supported by norming and other instruction).

Encourage all students to participate.

Support independent (from the professor) and interdependent (among peers) learning and application.

Caution: Cooperative learning structures are not equitable learning structures by default (Links to an external site.). Unless guidelines like those above are followed, students who are well-prepared for success in college will excel while other students may struggle, step back, etc.

How do I Implement these Structures?

Here are a few simple ways to implement cooperative learning structures in your classes.

Think-Pair-Share

This structure is very easy to use and as a result, pretty common. The professor asks a question or poses a problem. Students individually think about and write down their responses. They then are assigned (potentially randomly) to a partner using Breakout Rooms and share their responses with each other. Following the activity, the professor may ask pairs to share with the class as a whole. This type of structure can be applied after a reading or lecture or to introduce a new topic and get a sense of of what students already know. Thinking alone and initially sharing with only one other person reduces the stress of answering on the spot to the whole class – and often provides the opportunity for more depth of discussion.

Jigsaw

Jigsaw is a structure that allows students to learn material and then teach it to their peers. It works well when you have a number of parts/sections to what they need to learn about a particular topic. For example, Freud’s defense mechanisms or Milner’s equity mindsets or multiple ways to make cheese.

• • Students begin in a small group, with one person for every section of the material you will cover. Six sections = six people per group (or home team).
  • Each student in the home team receives a different section of the material. They quietly read it to themselves.
  • New, expert groups are formed. Every student who has section 1 gathers together. All the section 2 students form a group, etc.
  • In their expert group, the students identify and discuss the key ideas from their section. They write a brief summary or come up with a visual depiction of their section content.
  • Students return to their home teams.
  • Each student shares the summary created by their expert group with their home team. Students ask and answer questions and review their sections as needed.

• • Jigsaw in Zoom: To effectively use Jigsaw in Zoom, you will need to split it into two class sessions.
    • Pre-assign students to each section of the reading/content. As work outside of class, they will learn their section.
    • In the first Zoom session, assign students to their Expert Groups based on the section they read, listened to, researched, etc. Give Expert Groups time to discuss, ask one another questions, and build confidence in their material.
    • In the next Zoom session, assign one student from each expert group to a Home Team. Give students time to teach one another what they learned from their materials and from working with their Expert Group.

Flipped Classroom

Flipping your class involves moving all lecture content to materials to be read, watched, listened to, etc. outside of class and moving all homework activities into class time. Flipped models work well when they incorporate cooperative learning structures like those described just now. They also ensure that all students have access to a supportive expert (you!) while completing complex tasks. So, admittedly, I snuck this much broader approach in here because it has such great potential to support equitable learning in your classes. There are a ton of great resources about flipping your classes. Here are just a couple to start with:

• • UT Austin Faculty Innovation Center (Links to an external site.)
  • Vanderbilt Center for Teaching