{"id":1416,"date":"2018-10-03T22:50:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T02:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/?p=1416"},"modified":"2018-10-03T22:52:43","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T02:52:43","slug":"making-group-projects-enjoyable-instead-of-dreaded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/2018\/10\/making-group-projects-enjoyable-instead-of-dreaded\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Group Projects Enjoyable Instead of Dreaded"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine this scenario…<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It’s the week before finals and you get assigned a group project to complete before your final. The groups are assigned – you don’t get to pick. There’s you: the ever-so-studious and hardworking students who knows what’s happening. There’s another student: they haven’t come to class in 5 weeks, do they even exist? They don’t respond to your email to meet up for the project. There’s the other student: they don’t pull their weight because they know you’ll do it all and get them a good enough grade. This is a nightmare we’ve all been through and a nightmare that’s made us despise group projects in certain classes.<\/p>\n

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What\u00a0Actually\u00a0<\/em>Is Cooperative Learning?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to the US Department of Education, “cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement.”<\/p>\n

Now this sounds broad, but it generally be broken down into a few main models:<\/p>\n

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  • STAD<\/li>\n
  • Jigsaw II<\/li>\n
  • Group Investigation<\/li>\n
  • Co-Op Co-Op<\/li>\n
  • Guided Reciprocal Peer Questioning<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    I won’t get into detail about each of them, but information about them is everywhere. There exists a lot of overlap between them as well, it isn’t as daunting as it seems!<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/twitter.com\/cwistipher\/status\/1047680093534015488<\/p>\n

    How Can [Science] Teacher’s Design Cooperative Learning That Works?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    The majority of research points to cooperative learning being beneficial for students when compared to competitive learning. It helps grow students’ attitudes for science and allows for lower-performing students to still perform! It’s something that should be embraced instead of avoided.<\/p>\n

    The biggest thing to consider is\u00a0interdependence.\u00a0<\/strong>Students should each feel that they are reliant on one another for the well-being of themselves in regard to the project they’re working on together.<\/p>\n

    \"Image<\/p>\n

    What Might It Look Like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    An earth science teacher teaching about rock types might use Jigsaw II and break students into expert groups that each learn about a type of rock (this is a small class). Those students who become experts in sedimentary rocks come back to an original group where they teach those students who are experts in igneous or metamorphic rocks all about sedimentary rocks.<\/p>\n

    For some more examples of, and reasons why to incorporate cooperative learning strategies, check out this video by Edutopia:<\/p>\n