Assigning Groups: Use a random method such as color (shoe, shirt or backpack) or numbers such as birth date, last four digits of their ID or phone number, dorm room or address numbers, or the time they woke up or went to bed (down to the minute).

Working with Groups: Keep Them Fresh

Cooperative learning in the classroom
Features of cooperative learning:

• Appropriate assignments in groups. Heterogeneous groups promote improved attitudes towards those seen as having differing backgrounds and attributes.

• Teacher as a coach or facilitator. Instead of functioning as an expert dispenser of information, the focus is on student responsibility for learning.

• Explicit attention to social skills. Design formal guidelines to encourage active listening, cooperation, and respect for others.

• Face-to-face problem solving. When students elaborate on recently acquired information they transfer it into long-term memory.

• Positive interdependence. Build structures into the learning environment to ensure that all participants feel a sense of responsibility for their teammates. Provide materials that must be shared, assign different members material to master and share, or require improved performance on course assessment.

• Individual accountability. Have the majority of the course grades determined by individually completed material. This decreases the sense of inequity that can come when one or two members believe the workload was unequally distributed.

Tips for implementation:

1. Start small. Use cooperative learning in a class you feel confident about, for a review, or only during one-third of the class time—that will leave you with time to cover material in another way.

2. Use criterion-referenced grading. All who achieve the pre-stated standard for a specific grade receive that grade.

3. Make it a small part of the total grade.

4. Introduce the technique well.

5. Structure the activities so students must learn something. Teamwork isn’t filling out a form—it’s mastering a skill.

6. Clarity and organization are essential. What’s the task? How should students proceed? Consider time limits, specific roles for each member, or describing the final product.

Look out for:

• "I can’t cover as much content as in a lecture." Because we can’t teach every bit of material, teach a more limited amount of overarching concepts. Retention rates substantially increase when material presented in lectures is followed by practice in small groups.

• "I don’t have time to prepare cooperative learning activities." If you are converting lecture material to cooperative learning material, you will need additional time. However, since you’re just starting your teaching, spend the time on the cooperative activities instead of only on lecture preparation. As with all planning, as you become skilled in realizing what works and what doesn’t, you’ll be able to construct materials that make learning more challenging with better links to learning goals.

• "What happens when some students work and others don’t?" Make students individually accountable through course grades that depend on tests and papers. Keep close tabs on the groups as they work. If you note a non-contributing member, take that student aside and work to remedy the problem.

Adapted from Cooper, James L., Pamela Robinson, and Molly McKinney. "Cooperative Learning in the Classroom." D. F. Halpern and associates, eds. Changing College Classrooms: New Teaching and Learning Strategies for an Increasingly Complex World. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994. 74-92.

Group work suggestions for students:

• Be sure everyone contributes to discussion and to tasks.

• Consider all ideas—don’t jump to conclusions.

• Check agreement with each member verbally. Even if no one has opposed an idea or offered an alternative, there may not be consensus.

• Set goals, short and long term, and be open to changing them as progress indicates.

• Allocate tasks and make sure each person knows what he or she is to do.

• Agree on the time, place, and necessary accomplishments for each meeting.

• Evaluate your group progress before you end a meeting.

Adapted from McKeachie, Wilbert J. McKeachie’s Teaching Tips. 11th edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. 189.

More at the CTE:
Cooper, Jim, ed. "New Evidence of the Power of Cooperative Learning." Cooperative Learning and College Teaching. 7.3 Spring 1997.
This entire issue contains good information about why and how to implement cooperative learning, such as group reporting methods, techniques for improving the quality of research/term papers, and ways to add spark to cooperative learning.

"Groups: Strategies to Make Them Work."
This handout sequences how to increase group participation and positive outcomes. For instance, the first sheet blueprints the "forming," "storming," "norming," and "performing" stages that occur in groups.

Michaelsen, Larry K., and Robert H. Black. "Building Learning Teams;" "Problems with Learning Teams."
Defines the values and strengths of group-based learning and discusses how to deal with its weaknesses. The "Team Learning Instructional Activity Sequence" elaborates six steps that use group work as a core plan to help students actively manage their own learning.