Cooperative learning groups encourages meaning making for students in many ways. Collaboration among students is a major part of scientific inquiry—the process of investigation whether undertaken by third graders or by adult scientists—benefits greatly from the collaboration of several people. In addition research has shown a number of positive results from cooperative learning. Cooperative learning helps students retain more conceptual knowledge. It also fosters a classroom climate in which students interact in ways that promotes each other’s learning.
Lesson planning is vital to ensure you are covering your curriculum and standards; it is to be used as a guide rather than an instruction manual. The teacher needs to be prepared to let go of the plan, if they don’t their students’ own ideas that could have taken the lesson to another level of awareness, now become restricted, which puts a limit to the learning involved.
It is important for cooperative learning groups to include students of diverse backgrounds and abilities because it is very beneficial for all participants. Group work and cooperative learning can reduce individual competition and raise the level of cooperation. The climate of support encourages the participation of students who are less likely to volunteer and interact in a whole-class situation, such as females and culturally diverse students. Students who are culturally diverse benefit everyone else in the group by expanding everyone’s knowledge and often leads to student to develop further questions to investigate. Students with physical or learning disabilities also contribute to the diversity of a cooperative learning group, they bring a way of seeing the world that enhances the science experience for all the group’s members.
The one teacher I can recall being especially good at making me think by asking key questions was my 10th grade global studies teacher. He would always ask us for our thoughts on everything. He was always asking open ended questions to the class. He really made us dig deep for answers, and he would never answer his own questions he would ask the class more questions until he guided us to the answers he was looking for. As his student, I didn’t like it much but now looking back, I can see why he did this; I still remember things I learned from his class! I even remember some of the comments he used to make, and this was over 12 years ago. His technique was utilizing open ended questions whenever possible.
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