Teaching Cooperative Learning: The Challenge for Teacher Education

11. The Instructional Design of Cooperative Learning in Teacher Education

CHAPTER 11 The Instructional Design of Cooperative Learning in Teacher Education CELESTE M. BRODY when the editors hold conversations with teacher educators about how to improve the preparation of teachers in cooperative learning, we are often asked, “What are the best ways to prepare novice teachers so that they can use cooperative learning well in their classrooms? Are there teacher education programs that can advise us about what works and what novice teachers can reasonably be expected to master as they enter teaching?” Whether the teacher education programs are offered in small private colleges or large public universities that educate thousands of new teachers each year, the narratives in this volume point out the foundational beliefs that guide the decisions teacher educators make regarding the structure of programs, the curriculum for cooperative learning, and desirable as well as possible outcomes. The editors asked the contributors how they knew whether they were achieving their goals with respect to student mastery of cooperative groupwork. The contributors report on data they gathered and analyzed: student journals and portfolios; observations of how well student teachers were implementing cooperative learning in classrooms; and assessments of their programs through school personnel who also work with their students. Many concluded that they need additional data about the longitudinal effects of their preparation of novices for cooperative learning—an ongoing challenge common to teacher educators who are practitioners more than researchers. 185 CRITICAL ASPECTS OF A COOPERATIVE LEARNING PEDAGOGY With respect to cooperative learning, are there points of agreement on what novice teachers should understand and be able to put into practice during student teaching or at the end of program? The teacher educators in this volume do differ in the complex understandings and abilities they want their novice teachers to achieve with regard to cooperative group work. Novice teachers, however, must at least understand why and how to develop groups and group tasks, and distinguish the kinds of group processes for different kinds of outcomes. They should understand that cooperative learning requires a sharp change in the organization of the classroom and thus a change in the ideas and practices surrounding classroom management. They need to grasp the elements of task design, how to delegate their authority to a group; how to hold students accountable to one another and for the outcomes of the task; and how to structure a debriefing of groupwork. Novices need practice in coaching students for communication and groupwork skills. They should know how to monitor and evaluate student interactions to determine if productive exchanges are occurring, how to intervene to further learning or avert problems, as well as how to apply insights to improve group learning in subsequent attempts. There are questions about teacher beliefs in regard to social justice and the larger purposes of groupwork —whether the novice teacher can place actions into a larger framework regarding equity and educational ends. Can a beginning teacher manage the complexities of cooperative learning within the larger complexities of teaching? The contributors believe novices can achieve minimum competence but it is decidedly difficult to achieve mastery. And, to achieve a minimum standard of competence in the aspects described above there are questions that teacher educators must ask themselves about the design of their programs. I have selected five areas that the contributors might generally agree are important considerations for instructional design in preparing novice teachers for the effective use of cooperative learning. There is no formula for executing peer learning, particularly cooperative groupwork, thus teacher educators must resolve for themselves some perennial questions if they are to succeed at this endeavor. 1. Program Goals and Philosophy • How do the program goals and philosophy direct the teaching of cooperative learning and instill the values of cooperation? • Do faculty share the goals and regularly evaluate their outcomes? 186 Celeste M. Brody Contributors who have worked consciously to reform their programs spent considerable time in developing and revisiting a coherent philosophy and program rationale. The size of the teacher education programs is an obstacle to the kind of dialogue that is required of a group of faculty to achieve agreement about the values and beliefs that will bind their collective work and facilitate whether they can evaluate the implications of these over time. In response to the problem of unmanageable size, West Chester University faculty (chapter 8), for example, have created “boutique” experiences that serve not only students but faculty as well. Several programs place...