coperative learning strategies

Even the very experienced teachers hesitate to use cooperative learning strategies in classroom due to numerous reasons. Firstly, in our classrooms students are conditioned in traditional ways of teaching. Hence if a teacher uses a new methodology in teaching, students feel uncomfortable in grasping the new strategy. Secondly it takes lot of time to master the strategy. As we all know Maldivian schools are ranked by ministry of education according to the results produced in London O’ level and A, level exam. Teachers are busy and hurry in covering the syllabus just for getting so called award of MOE. Also MOE provides necessary equipment and resources to the schools according to the results produced in O’ level exam. Due to these reasons Maldivian schools are more exams oriented in teaching rather than applying cooperative learning in classroom. Moreover if a teacher use a co-operative learning strategy in classroom without the advance preparation it leads to poor management of classroom such as getting noisy, losing the control over the students and finally the teacher will not get the satisfaction of achieving the objective of the lesson.

However, there are some drawbacks it also has positive effect on student learning when compared to individual learning. First, students learn to work with different ability level of learners.During small-group interactions,students find many opprtunites to reflect upon and reply to the diverse responses fellow learners bring to the questions raised.Each of these can help the group to create a product that reflects a wide range of perspectives and is thus more complete and comprehensive.Second, the interpersonal and colloboration skills that can be learned in a cooperative learning activity teach skills that are critical for later personal and proffessional success.Students learn to relate  to their peers and other learners as they work together in group enterprises. This can be especially helpful for students who have difficulty with social skills.Third, it helps each individual in group to take part in an active role to contribute.Students are willing to take more ownership of their material and to think critically about related issues when they work as a team.Fourth,it has the potential  to produce more opportunities for personal feedback. Because there are more exchanges among students in cooperative learning,students receive more personal feedback about their ideas and responses.

To sum up,cooperative learning situations are not easy to set up in classroom. In many situations,teachers need to prepare well in advance to run the lessons smoothly. Without the advance preparation and lack of class room management skills the cooperative learning lessons cannot be conducted effectively. Maintaining student’s behavior is the key element of classroom management. Teachers need to be very careful when and how to take any decision because that might lead to misbehavior. Moreover creating a positive classroom environment can achieve the challenging goals faced for Maldivian education system. So teachers are the facilitators to achieve such important issues by maintaining student’s behavior. Seek input from students in the development of the policies. If students have some sense of control and input to how the learning environment will be managed they are likely to take a much great responsibility for keeping the classroom a place for learning.

What Is Operant Conditioning?

Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior.

Operant conditioning was coined by behaviorist B.F. Skinner, which is why you may occasionally hear it referred to as Skinnerian conditioning. As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that internal thoughts and motivations could not be used to explain behavior. Instead, he suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes of human behavior.

Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences" (1953). In other words, Skinner's theory explained how we acquire the range of learned behaviors we exhibit each and every day.

Examples of Operant Conditioning

We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us. Consider the case of children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions.

In these examples, the promise or possibility of rewards causes an increase in behavior, but operant conditioning can also be used to decrease a behavior. The removal of an undesirable outcome or the use of punishment can be used to decrease or prevent undesirable behaviors. For example, a child may be told they will lose recess privileges if they talk out of turn in class. This potential for punishment may lead to a decrease in disruptive behaviors.

Piaget's developmental theory

Besides psychology, Piaget was interested in epistemology. Piaget used something he called the clinical method. This was research in which he gave children a series of tasks or problems, asking questions about each one. He then tailored his interviews to the particular responses that each child gave. His follow-up questions varied from child to child. This methodology was very different from the methods of contemporary behaviorist research.

Piaget's ideas about human learning:People are active processors of information. Instead of being passive respondents to environmental conditions, human beings are actively involved and interpreting and learning from the events around them.

Knowledge can be described in terms of structures that change with development. Piaget proposed the concept of schema. As children develop, new schemes emerge, and are sometimes integrated with each other into cognitive structures.

Cognitive development results from the interactions that children have with their physical and social environments. As a child explores his world, and eventually they began to discover that they hold a perspective of the world uniquely their own.

The process through which people interact with the environment remains constant. According to Piaget, people interact with their environment through to unchanging processes known as assimilation and accommodation.

In accommodation, an individual either modifies an existing scheme or forms a new one to account for the new event.

In assimilation an individual interacts with an object or event in a way that is consistent with an existing scheme.

People are intrinsically motivated to try to make sense of the world around them. According to this view, people are sometimes in the state of equilibrium, they can comfortably explain new events in terms of their existing schemes. However at times they can encounter events they cannot explain our make sense of this is called disequilibrium, a mental discomfort. Through reorganizing thought people are able to then understand the previously un-understandable and return to equilibrium.

Cognitive development occurs in distinct stages, with thought processes at each stage being qualitatively different from those and other stages.

Piaget's four stages:

Sensorimotor stage:

Preoperational stage:

Concrete Operations:

                                      Formal Operations:

Sensorimotor stage: from birth until about two years of age. At this age children are only aware of objects that are directly before them, thus the saying, "out of sight, out of mind."  (Example: The game of "peek-a-boo" is enjoyed only by infants.  Their joy in this game comes from their "finding" the adult -- who"hides" by blocking the child's view and thus "disappears" and "re-appears" as the child experiences it.)

Preoperational stage: emerges when children are about two years old until they are about six to seven years old. This is the stage of language development. Expanding childrens’ vocabularies reflect the many new mental schemes that are developing. This stage is characterized by a logical thinking, but not according to adult standards. A classic example is how young children cannot understand conservation of liquid. They will usually think that a taller glass has more water than a short glass even though both have been demonstrated to have the exact same amount of water.

Concrete operations: this  third stage of cognitive development appears when children are six or seven years old and continues until they are about 11 or 12 years old. Children begin to think logically about conservation problems and other situations as well. However, they typically can apply their logical operations only to concrete, observable objects and events.

Formal operations: the fourth and final stage usually appears after children are 11 or 12 years of age and continues to evolve for several years after that time. During this time the child develops the ability to reason with abstract, hypothetical, and contrary-to-fact information.

BLOOMS TAXONOMY IN CLASS ROOMS

Teaching Higher – Level Thinking Skills

Today the teachers are having much interest on teaching higher level of thinking in the class. These operations include comprehension and interpretation of texts, scientific process and mathematical problem solving. But most of the time teachers fail to do this because of the inadequate instructions. Many scholars believed that the best way to develop the student’s high level thinking is using the three domains of Blooms Taxonomy.

Why use Blooms Taxonomy in class room?

 Most of us focused only on the students’ knowledge, how much they can recall from their mind. But if they face a problem in the real life situation it gives them a really hard time. For example:

Father asked a question to his son, “ How much money needed to tile your room? If 1x1 foot tile costs 7.50 Rufiyaa?”  Boy knows how to calculate the area of the given objects in the class. He got all correct in the exam. But he couldn't solve that simple problem. Why? Because he has only the knowledge but other levels are not developed.

Development of three major domains is a must to become a successful person in the future. If the lessons are planned and teach in a way to develop these domains then the students will be more and more intelligence and creative thinkers.

The young people roaming around the roads without doing anything will be reduce because of the development of the internalizing values and organization.  

STRENGHTS OF BLOOMS TAXONOMY

 Multi-purpose: we can say Blooms Taxonomy is multi-purpose to the people. It can be used to develop the complete human. It can be used not only in the class rooms but can be used in the companies, factories and associations.

 Relatively easy to understand: The stages are not very complicated even an ordinary person can read and understand the stages and can be applying to the situations.

Widely acceptable: It is widely acceptable all over the world in the educational fields. It is common in all the countries and widely using it.

 Provide common language: Each and every one in the educational field is able to understand the language used in it and it is possible to discuss within the people easily.

WEAKNESSES OF BLOOMS TAXONOMY

 Difficult to apply: sometimes it is difficult to apply all the stages in one real situation.

Time consuming: Take more time to prepare a lesson using the stages. Need more thinking to it.

 Moving one stage to another: Students feel difficulty to use the high and complex stages if the lower stages are not used properly.

 Levels are not appropriate: When we think about the lower grade students, levels used in the class may go higher than the students’ thinking level. At knowledge level they are able to recall what they have seen but problem occurs when they restructure the sentences. At comprehension level all students were able to contribute their ideas as whole group activities, but face difficulties to do individually.

Difference between Direct Instruction and Cooperative Learning

Direct Instruction:

Direct instruction is a goal oriented approach which is structured by teachers (Slavin, 1997).At times, this is the most effective and efficient way of conveying information. This approach is suitable if each student need to acquire certain information and skills. It is not suitable if the learning requires research and discovery activities. Steps in this approach are:

(a)    Teachers state the objectives of the lesson as well as the purpose of the lesson.

(b)   Teachers review the prerequisites needed to understand the topic. Teachers have to conduct revisions if students haven’t mastered the required concepts and skills.

(c)    Teachers present new material by teaching, providing examples and demonstrations.

(d)   Teachers conduct learning probes by asking students questions to determine their level of understanding and to correct and misconceptions.

Cooperative Learning

Vygotzky (1896-1943), described cooperative learning as “…. group learning activity organised on the socially  structured exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others.”

Cooperative means working together to achieve a common goal. While cooperative learning is using small groups of students in the teaching process, so that they can work together to maximise self – study and help other students as well.

In a cooperative learning group, students are given two responsibilities: to learn the materials given and to ensure and to ensure other members learn the materials too. Consequently, a student work for his own benefit as well as for the benefit of his group members. The perception of students in cooperative learning is that they can only achieve their learning objective, if the other members study as well. In cooperative learning, they discuss and assist one another to understand a particular subject, and in the process they motivate each other to work hard in their studies.

Reference

Slavin, R. E. (1997).Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice(5^th Ed.).Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS IN STUDETNS

                   

The issue of student behavior has for years been a major concern of teachers, administrators and parents due to a direct significant impact on effectiveness of teaching and learning. (Wikipedia, 2008) states that academic achievements are correlated with behavior problems. Hence, teacher must play a democratic role rather than autocratic in maintaining student’s behavior to illuminate their brains with knowledge, values and better attitude. Behavior problems are caused due to many reasons, which are varied and many.

First and the most important reasons why children misbehave are to get attention. These children usually do almost anything to be the centre of attention from being argumentative to being funny. According to Rudolf Dreikurs “when a child is deprived of the opportunity to gain status through his useful contribution, he usually seeks proof of his status in class through getting attention” (2004, p.39).The one who usually seeks attention may show their discipline as disturbing the class, teasing, disrespect, being uncooperative, swearing, talking, being out of his seat, and making fun of others. Dreikurs believed that over 90% of all misbehavior is for seeking attention.

Next when they fail to seek attention they move on to more problematic goal- seeking behavior as Dreikurs indicated it as power. The power- seeking child wants to be the boss in the class and their active type is label as “Rebel”. These student often argue, contradicts, lies, dawdling, may have violent temper tantrums and refuse to do their work and is openly disobedient (Cassel & Ferguson, 2004). If the child is of the passive type, his laziness is much more pronounced than in the seeking attention, so that he usually not work at all, may forget, becomes stubborn and is passively disobedient.

Somehow, if the teacher is thwarted student’s seeking power by teacher’s power method then the students become deeply discourage and seeks next challenging behavior known as “revenge”. The revenge seeking child is so deeply discouraged that he feels that only by hurting others, as he feels hurt by them, can find his place (Cassel & Ferguson, 2004).  Revenge may come in the form of a physical or psychological attack to hurt others. The revenge seeking-child may injure his classmates, teacher and other class students. He may scratch, bite and kick.

Finally, Dreikurs suggested that a child who has tried passive destructive forms of attention- getting in order to achieve the feeling of ‘belonging’ may eventually become so deeply discouraged that he gives up all hope of significance and expects only failure and defeat. These students have a feeling of hopelessness about finding a place and they do not invest their best efforts in studies and they waste the valuable time. Their actions appear stupid, indolence, ineptitude and inferiority complex.

Obviously, social factor also play another vital role in influencing the students behavior problems. Substance abuse is one of the social factors that reduce the time, energy, and ability of students to attend to academic tasks. Moreover, indirect abuse of children through poverty, the media influence, and lack of family support increases student aggressive behavior. Another social factor which influences student’s behavior is the cultural diversity. According to Garcia cited in Jones and Jones (2004) “Linguistically and culturally diverse students find themselves in vulnerable situations on entering U.S schools”.

All behavior is purposive. Researchers have pointed out the importance of understanding students behaviors. In this light, teacher and student relationships are essential to ensure a positive school/classroom atmosphere. Moreover, in order manage the class effective teacher requires the ability to implement a very large number of diagnostic, instructional, managerial, and therapeutic skills, tailoring behavior in specific contexts and situations to the specific needs of the moment.

Reference List

Ø  Anonymous (n.d). Discipline. Retrieved August 12, 2008, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/discipline

Ø  Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2004).Classroom management. New York: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication- Data.

Ø  Cassel, P and  Furguson, E. D (2004). Discipline without tears: How to Reduce Conflict                      and Establish Cooperation in the Classroom. Canada: National Library of Canada     

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