The connectivism and social learning theory is very prevalent in our schools today. This concept promotes communication, cooperation, and collaboration which help to enhance student learning. Cooperative learning activities helps students hone their people’s skills, builds self esteem, promote a positive learning environment, and it encourages students to share their ideas. However, there are some rules that teachers need to be aware of before implementing this strategy such as when grouping students try not to use ability level group often, groups should be small in size, and lastly try to use this strategy so that the students will become familiar with how to participate in cooperative learning groups but remember to not overuse this strategy. No matter how effective a strategy may be if a used is too often student will lose interest in lesson which will decrease student knowledge and skills of concepts. When I used cooperative learning groups in my class, I usually used heterogeneous and homogenous grouping. This is ideal because I can use a variety of ways to group students based on interest, ability and sometimes randomly by having students to select numbers or shapes. I want students to learn to work with different people in class because in the workplace their will have to work with people from different background and cultures. I am glad to be teaching in an age where I can use technology to help students’ master concepts. Now students have opportunities to use technology as they work cooperatively to create multimedia presentations, use additional web resources and produce videos that relate to the curriculum. All these activities allow students to work together to demonstrate their knowledge and skills by performing tasks as a group. The social networking websites is a good method to incorporate into instructions to help students stretch their learning so that they will be able to broaden their knowledge when faced with challenging concepts taught in class. This is an extinction of the lesson and it gives students another method to validate information that they have retained about key concepts. Networking is a powerful tool because it allows information to be shared from people across the world.
References:
Orey. M(unknown). “ Social Learning Theories”. Laureate Education, Inc.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Siemens. G(unknown). “Connectivism as a Learning Theory”. Laureate Education, Inc.
Hi Hazel-
ReplyDeleteDo you ever run into controversy when grouping students? I ask because I've had some difficulty placing shy kids with talkative kids. It seems that the talkative kids take over. I like collaborative rubrics for this reason because most have some details about listening to everyone and facilitating everyone's participation.
What do you do when a group seems ill-matched? Do you split them up, sit with them, or do something else?
You are absolutely right when you say that, "No matter how effective a strategy may be if a used is too often student will lose interest." I have learned these past few weeks that each strategy has its strengths and weaknesses, and that different students will be able to learn best with different strategies. I have also learned that no matter which strategies we ourselves are drawn to, we must be careful not to overuse any particular strategy because not only will it decrease its effectiveness, but will only appeal to some of our students. Great post!
ReplyDeleteJulia,
ReplyDeleteSometimes I do run into challenges when grouping students. It depends on the personalities of the students in your class. I give task roles to each group such as supplier, timer, writer, reader etc. This helps with the shy person because they can still participate in the group by having a specific task. I have also found that the more I use cooperative learning activities the introvert students starts to feel more comfortable with talking. The rubric is a good idea to control this because you can evaluate group participation and have a time limit on speaking to prevent one person from dominating the lesson.
Mrs. Spence,
ReplyDeleteAs teachers we must always remember the fact that there is not just one particular strategy that is going to be the "BEST". I have learned to incorporate many different instructional strategies to address the student learning styles because my goal is to meet the needs of ALL of my students. Thank you!!