COOPERATIVE LEARNING METHODS

Let’s not forget that Each of us can do Something , but None of us can do Everything !

Cooperative learning methods -- instructional techniques in

which students work in small groups to help one another learn academic content -- are among the most effective teaching methods known. They are increasingly being used at every grade level, in all subjects, and in all kinds of schools and communities .

There are many forms of cooperative learning now in use. The most extensively evaluated of these are Student Team Learning methods .

The basic idea behind the Student Team Learning techniques is that when students learn in small , carefully structured learning teams and are rewarded based on the progress made by all team members, they help one another learn, gain in achievement and self-esteem, and increase in respect and liking for their classmates, including their mainstreamed classmates and classmates of other ethnic groups.

All Student Team Learning methods have been compared

to traditional methods and have been found to produce the following outcomes:

1- Enhanced academic achievement for high, average, and

low achievers

2- Improved race relations and other social relationships.

3- Greater acceptance of mainstreamed students.

4- Improved self-esteem.

5- Better attitudes toward the subject and toward school in

general.

6- Improved time-on-task.