Cooperative Learning

Today's cooperative learning stations were a great success. Setting up a station at the SmartBoard presenting a problem and set of insturctions to a group allowed students to work together to determine the details or issues of the problem at hand and collectively decide which tools and strategies would be used to solve the problem. This could easily be adapted to virtually any curriculum strand/content area by re-writing the problem and/or providing an adapted set of tools. The SmartBoard and online downloads even allow students to disect a frog virtually!

In order for this teaching method to be effective students would have to practice cooperative learning in small groups as a class and get used to problem solving together. The instructor would moderate these cooperative learning sessions to ensure that they are respectful and productive and to encourage and monitor effective communication. Once students are adept in that type of environment, they could be lead to a more independent use of cooperative learning through stations where an instructor is less present. If the stations are planned well and the technology is tested before class the possibilities are endless.