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.
