Cooperative Learning

"This mixed methods study explored the characteristics of a cooperative learning activity, the “Study Buddy”, implemented in a graduate-level online course in instructional design. The study explored whether students (n=25) who participated in the Study Buddy activity took deeper approaches to their learning than those who did not participate (n=6), what value students received from participating in the activity, and whether the structure of the activity was appropriate to support deeper approaches to learning.
Quantitative and qualitative results were merged to form conclusions that suggest that participants could be encouraged to take deeper approaches by faculty providing sample questions for students to use to evaluate their partners’ work. Results suggest that the study buddy activity can be used to encourage social
connections and to provide participants with opportunities to consider alternate opinions. Findings related to the ideal structure of the activity were inconclusive."

Abstract—Cooperative language learning (CLL) approach was used to encourage second-year university students at the college of languages and translation, at Al-Imam University to learn from their peers so that they could develop their writing skills. Students in CLL-based groups were trained to be more responsible for their learning through developing their personal interaction as well as their linguistic competence in a more relaxed social context. This treatment included sophomore students enrolled in EN 211 course in the second semester of 2013 academic year. Two instruments were used in this study; a pre-post writing test, and an attitude questionnaire. The pre- and post- scores from the test were calculated for descriptive statistics and compared using a Wilcoxon Test. The process of evaluating students’ writings focused mainly on analyzing their mistakes with regard to spelling, using of vocabulary, grammar, punctuation as well as coherence. The findings revealed that the students’ scores in writing were higher for the post-test than the pre-test at the significance level of .001 after being subject to this kind of treatment. However, it must be stated that the degree of improvement was not extremely high as students still made some mistakes with regard to the previously mentioned points. As for the attitude scale, the results obtained proved that the students developed positive attitudes towards using the cooperative learning approach to develop language skills in general and to develop their writing skills in particular.

La elección del cuentacuentos cómo hilo conductor de esta unidad se debe a dos motivos el primero antropológico, pues como dice el profesor Miguel Díez R. el hombre es “por naturaleza, contador y receptor de historias”(http://www. ciudadseva. com/textos/teoria/hist/diez01. htm) y otro didáctico, ya que pensamos que el cuentacuentos engloba tanto las cuatro destrezas como la interacción.

Resumen: La primera parte de este artículo resume los principios teóricos, los propósitos didácticos y las propuestas metodológicas más relevantes de lo que más comúnmente se denomina Aprendizaje cooperativo (Cooperative Learning), adaptado al contexto de la enseñanza de ELE. Se basa en un texto previo monográfico (Cassany 2004), que para esta ocasión he resumido, revisado y actualizado.

""O presente trabalho provém da experiência didática do autor durante o 2º semestre de 2013 como docente responsável pela disciplina intitulada “O ensino de Ciências e Biologia com ênfase nas relações entre Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade” (vinculada ao Estágio Curricular Supervisionado), ministrada ao curso de Licenciatura em Ciências Biológicas de uma Universidade Estadual. Tem por objetivo divulgar e partilhar, junto à comunidade acadêmica e docente, algumas estratégias didático-metodológicas fundamentadas na Aprendizagem Cooperativa (AC), que podem ser utilizadas por professores, em diferentes níveis de ensino, ao se discutir a abordagem CTS (Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade) por meio de Controvérsias Sociocientíficas (CS) no ensino de Ciências e Biologia.

Palavras-chave: Metodologia de Aprendizagem Cooperativa; Atividades práticas de abordagem CTS; Controvérsias Sociocientíficas.
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Designed to help university students develop their sense of international community. This course attempts to develop global citizenship, and in so doing seeks to foster the following: a challenging spirit (a.k.a. risk taking), cooperation, independence, initiative, and understanding of other cultures.  This is a project-based course using documentary film making as the learning project.

Theory, Practice, and Results will be presented from an experimental project-oriented course in documentary film making taught at Tokai University. Data collected from 61 student participants will be presented which shows, among other things, global increases in student confidence with relation to interaction with international peers. Examples of student work will be shown, a website for downloading materials will be provided, and future collaboration of teachers interested in collaborative learning based course design encouraged.

Recently, an experimental course in documentary filmmaking was presented at the 2014 Paperless: Innovation & technology in education conference held in Chiba, Japan. The course used cooperative learning theory to manage learning. Students in the course created mini documentaries about international students on campus, as part of an English elective. A summary of these proceedings and an example of one of the student projects is included in this article. Feedback from audience members attending the conference revealed interest in the management of student learning with regard to the technical aspects of the filmmaking process.