Which of the following social skills are necessary in a child for using the Co-operative learning method? I. Leadership skill II. Conflict management skill III. Decision-making skill IV. Trust-building skill
Which of the following social skills are necessary in a child for using the Co-operative learning method? I. Leadership skill II. Conflict management skill III. Decision-making skill IV. Trust-building skill Correct Answer I, II, III and IV
Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it. There are five basic and essential elements of cooperative learning (Brown & Ciuffetelli Parker, 2009):
- Positive Interdependence: Each group member’s efforts are required and indispensable for group success. Each group member has a unique contribution to make to the joint effort because of his or her resources and/ or role and task responsibilities.
- Inter-personal &Small-Group Skills: Social skills like Leadership, Decisionmaking, Trust-building, Communication and Conflict-management skills must be developed among the students.
- Face-to-Face Interaction: Teacher has to tell how to do the work and has to check for their understanding by discussing the concepts learnt. There is also a need to connect the new learning with the past learning.
- Individual & Group Accountability: Teacher has to keep the size of the group small as smaller the size of the group, the greater the individual accountability may be. It is also necessary that the students are tested orally by asking them to present their learning. When the class gets some doubts the whole group should be prepared to explain to the class the rationale underlying the answer.
- Group Processing: Group members discuss how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationships. They also describe what actions of the members are helpful and not helpful. This helps in reflecting on the behaviours which help them either to continue or to change.
Hence, we conclude that all the above points are necessary in a child for using Co-operative learning method.