Teaching Cooperative Learning: The Challenge for Teacher Education

5. Cooperative Learning in Preservice Teacher Education at the University of Maryland

CHAPTER 5 Cooperative Learning in Preservice Teacher Education at the University of Maryland FRANK LYMAN AND NEIL DAVIDSON cooperative learning represents a paradigm shift for many classroom teachers . Although the advantages seem obvious to some teachers, others see the complexities of implementation as forbidding. Particularly at the secondary level, there is a reluctance to incorporate cooperative learning into a repertoire of strategies. Given this reality, colleges of education should make a special commitment to teaching both the rationale and technique of cooperative learning to undergraduate and graduate students. To have a chance of future implementation, cooperative learning must be modeled for the preservice teachers and experienced by them as learners. The student teachers should use cooperative learning in connection with tools for reflection, practice it repeatedly with feedback, see it as a part of a constellation of allied strategies and techniques, and understand its relationship to dependent variables such as social and academic outcomes. Finally they should value it as an adult learning strategy. Using this philosophy of instruction, the Curriculum and Instruction Department at University of Maryland, College Park, has for many years emphasized the importance of cooperative learning. This chapter gives examples of programmatic elements and outcomes of this emphasis. Examples come from the campus-based “Principles and Methods of Teaching” course (elementary and secondary) taught by Neil Davidson and colleagues, and the field-based Teacher Education/Professional Development School Center coordinated by Frank Lyman. 83 COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN BASIC COURSEWORK Elementary and secondary methods courses systematically address cooperative learning. These courses are designed partly around a “models-of-teaching” approach including selected information-processing, social, behavioral, and personal models (Joyce & Weil, 1980). Richard Arends and his colleagues, Neil Davidson and Rochelle Clemson, developed the models-of-teaching approach in these elementary and secondary methods courses at the University of Maryland in the mid-1980s. A frequently used text is Learning to Teach by Richard Arends (1998). Cooperative learning is the main social model in these methods courses. Relevant elements of both courses included: Rationale and research base for cooperative learning; Definition of critical attributes of cooperative learning; Climate-setting through class-building and team-building; Social skills development; Classroom implementation issues such as roles of the teacher and group members, group formation, classroom assessment and evaluation , conflict resolution, managing the classroom, etc.; Simple cooperative structures many of which are described by Kagan (1992) including interview, Think-Pair-Share and its variations, Round Robin and Round Table, Numbered Heads Together, Pairs Check, and Group Brainstorming; More complex cooperative procedures such as Jigsaw (Aaronson, Blaney, Sikes, & Snapp, 1978), group investigation (Sharan & Sharan, 1992), constructive controversy (Johnson & Johnson, 1987), and Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD) (Slavin, 1986). In order to foster classroom implementation of varied models of teaching, prospective teachers present several minilessons in a microteaching lab setting, with videotaping, peer feedback, and constructive critique. In the cooperative learning minilesson, preservice teachers employ one or two simple cooperative structures in teaching their classmates a small content segment appropriate for either elementary or secondary school students. At first, the instructor leads critiques of lessons in all models with student participation. Later, students lead these sessions using criteria sheets for the specific models. They follow guidelines for constructive written and oral critique, making sure to point out positive aspects of the lessons and to provide alternative approaches and constructive suggestions for improvement. Students have the opportunity to revise their lesson plans based upon the feedback they have received and upon 84 Frank Lyman and Neil Davidson their own personal reflection, both of which they submit along with the revised lesson plan. After students learn and present minilessons with simple cooperative structures , they participate in lessons with the more advanced procedures. The jigsaw method demonstrates an alternative method of presenting and learning with a topic such as De Bono’s “six hats for thinking” (1985). The technique of constructive controversy centers on a controversial issue such as tracking. All class members participate in a major group investigation of some aspect of either multicultural education or mainstreaming, making group presentations to the entire class. Students experience Student Teams Achievement Divisions, another strong example of the research base for cooperative learning in improving student achievement, motivation, and inter-group relations in urban, culturally diverse school settings and in settings where special education students have been mainstreamed. This generic undergraduate course is the first methods course in the elementary or secondary education program. Following this experience...