There five essential elements of cooperative learning:
1. positive interdependence- the success of one learner is dependent on the success of the other learners.
2. promotive interaction- individual can achieve promotive interaction by helping each other, exchange resources, challenging each other's conclusions, providing feedback, encouraging and striving for mutual benefits.
3. individual accountability- teachers should assess the amount of effort that each member is contributing by random randomly calling students to present their group's work.
4. Interpersonal and small-group skills- teachers should provide opportunities for group members to know each other, accept and support each other, communicate accurately and resolve differences constructively.
5. Group processing- teachers should provide opportunities for the class to assess group progress. Group processing enables group to focus on good working relationship, facilitates the learning of cooperative skills and ensures that members receive feedback.
Cooperative learning represents a shift in educational paradigm from teacher-centered approach to a more student-centered learning in small group.
The main problems and challenges which arise in incorporating cooperative learning :
1. fear of the loss of content coverage- CL often take longer than conventional methods, it may waste a lot time to complete the taks.
2. students lack the skills to work in group- teachers are often concern with students' participation in group activities.
3. do not trust students in acquiring knowledge by themselves- teachers have the knowledge and expertise but they have to tell their students what and how to learn.
4. lack of familiarity of some teachers with CL methods- intensive in-service course should be implemented to overcome the problem.
5. teacher need to prepare extra materials for CL class use- require a lot of extra work, time and new burden for teachers.
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