USING COOPERATIVE LEARNING TO FACILITATE THE EDUCATION OF LIBERIA’S YOUTH IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
INTRODUCTION
With the ending of the war in Liberia, the transitional period of an interim government, and the election of a new leader to carry the country into the new millennium, a new chapter has begun in the continuing history of the Liberian people. One would hope that the process of nation building is in full swing and all endeavors are underway to bring Liberia back to a state of normalcy, out of the darkness of despair and hopelessness that had engulfed the country for the past fifteen years.
One of the most important focus of this building process should be the youth of the nation. A sound investment in the future of Liberia must incorporate a renewed interest in the education of the young people who will be the future leaders of the new Liberia. The investment strategy in the education of the Liberian youth must be approached with deep thought and concern. The traumatic psychological effects of a fifteen year war and unrest must be recognized when dealing with the minds of the young people of Liberia. Any thoughts of enlightenment and education must be evaluated wisely to ensure a smooth transition from the state of despair to one of hope and aspirations.
A new educational system must be devised and new teaching methods prescribed to invigorate the youth of Liberia into believing in themselves as the only hope for the new Liberia. The single-mindedness of the task of nation building must be linked to having a sense of self-worth that would transcend individualistic gains and instead promote an interdependence of needs and wants for the good of the wholesome functioning society, Liberia.
The curriculum in all schools must insure that this indoctrination is carried out in the most positive and forthright manner. The question then is what teaching methods can be used to carry out this mission? I propose a teaching method that has been recognized throughout human history as one that organizes individuals to work in support of one another, the goal being to turn diversity into a positive force for good. This is the method of Cooperative Learning, a method of instruction that involves organized and managed group work in which students work cooperatively in small groups to achieve academic as well as affective and social goals. Group learning, with its roots in ancient tribal customs, has traditionally been a part of educational practice. Its effectiveness has been documented through hundreds of research studies.[4,6,10]. Cooperative learning is now widely recognized as one of the most promising practices in the field of education.
What is Teaching
Teaching has traditionally been considered to mean "imparting knowledge or skill, or imparting instruction". In practical terms, it is often operationalized through providing information, the general assumption being that once information is provided, knowledge will be gained almost automatically. The teacher poses and solves a general problem or states a theorem and perhaps proves it, and then does some examples and assigns other examples for the students to work out. Attempts at enhancement of learning in this case take the form of providing more and more information [3].
While the above approach, epitomized in the traditional lecture method of teaching, has been used over the years with many claims of success, the National Research Council [8], in a series of studies done during the 1980’s, has concluded that lecturing and listening are generally ineffective as teaching strategies for long-term learning, for higher-order thinking, and for versatile problem solving. One could define learning as the acquisition of information and skills, but learning also includes acquiring deep understanding that enables the student to solve problems and construct meaning rather than simply recalling facts learned rotely [2]. The purpose of learning is thus to develop abilities to solve problems the student will face in the present as well as the future.
DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD
What is Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning can be defined as a diverse body of concepts and techniques for enhancing the benefits of group activities. It involves small groups of learners working together as teams to solve problems, complete a task, or accomplish common goals. The small group of learners must promote each other’s learning, must promote each other’s success, and hold each other personally and individually accountable to do his or her fair share of the work [4].
First, group members must perceive that they are part of a team and that they all have a common goal. Second, group members must realize that the problem they will solve is a group problem and that all members will share the group’s success or failure. Third, to accomplish the group’s goal, all students must talk with one another---to discuss all problems. Finally, it must be clear to all that each member’s individual work has a direct effect on the group’s success. Teamwork is important.
It is not cooperation learning if students sit together in groups and work on problems individually. It is not cooperative learning if students sit together in groups and let one person do all the work and the others just put their names on the final product. It is not cooperative learning if students do a task individually with instructions that the ones who finish first are to help the slower students.
In the real world, most practical problems are addressed by groups, committees and organizations, rather than by individuals. Many of the skills of productive citizens are the ones that will allow them to work together effectively in small groups. Relevant social outcomes such as: toleration, cooperation, leadership, humility, and social rules are encouraged by group work. These are important outcomes of schooling, too often neglected by the education curriculum.
After fifteen years of intermittent civil war and strife, effective means must be introduced to reintegrate the thousands of young men and women of Liberia who spent their formative years either fighting in the jungle or traumatized by the war in other ways. There is a need to foster a homogeneous society where minimal importance is placed on superficial differences such as tribal languages or religion. The focus must be on the creation of a community environment within the society where tolerance, cooperation, strong leadership, humility and strong social values are pronounced. One of the best places to start is in the classroom. I believe this can best be accomplished through cooperative learning techniques which promote positive interactive learning, and manage cultural or ethnic diversities, also in positive ways.
The description which follows is based on the experience of the author in using this method to teach mathematics over a period of fifteen years.
Preparation Work
The instructor has to do a lot of preparatory work before the course actually begins. A list of topics for group activities, individual and group projects has to be prepared. For each topic, application materials need to be prepared or identified. Selection of real world application problems is very crucial because inappropriate material can render the whole exercise futile. The materials have to be reasonably focused so that the objectives, as they relate to the specific topic under discussion, are understood by the students. At the same time, the exercises should not be so complex that the students get lost and confused.
The First Class
The first session of the course is spent explaining the method of instruction to the students. Issues about the administration of the course, such as evaluation criteria, are also discussed. The characteristics of effective group relations and management are discussed and roles for group members are defined. A suggested list of roles include facilitator, recorder, reporter, and checker. The recorder records the group’s answers, the facilitator makes sure everyone in the group understands and can explain an answer, the reporter praises the other group members for participating, and the checker summarizes the group’s conclusions. Without one another, the group should realize that they cannot finish answering the questions asked of them, and cannot be successful when tested. The roles should be changed often so all can become more adept at each particular role [1]. Group size is no larger than five. If time permits, group processing exercises should be implemented at this time to get the students started on the processing of information and the primary phases of socially interacting with each other.
Class Management
A cooperative learning lesson often begins with some direct instruction of new materials by the teacher. This is followed by cooperative group work. It is useful as well as desirable to encourage the learning groups to reflect on the learning process as well as the outcome of the learning process. Exercises for group work should be full of life and effective in bringing out the best from each student. The instructor has to constantly be on the lookout for opportunities to assess the group work and give overall feedback to the groups about their progress. The instructor cannot simply set up detailed tasks for the students and then stand back. He must be constantly on the move, monitoring the groups’ progress, offering advice, and demonstrating how to behave as a contributing member of the group. Evaluation sheets should be regularly circulated among the group members to assess their performances in the groups.
Journal writing exercises should be introduced in which the students express their feelings about their groups, the makeup of their groups and the members of their groups. Groups should not be stagnant but alive and active with changes in membership forthcoming where there is a need. Students should be encouraged to resolve petty differences and clarify answers among themselves rather than look to the instructor to do so. The instructor should only do this as the last resort when all attempts to get the students to do so fail.
REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESS
Teaching people how to develop confidence in themselves enough to learn from each other is not an easy endeavor and can often be trying, frustrating and time consuming. The total situation can be looked at in terms of three components: the students, the instructor, and the setting. Each one of these three components can contribute to the success or failure of this endeavor. Some of the requirements from each of the three components for the success of this effort are discussed below.
STUDENTS
The most common stereotype of students is that of passive recipients, dependent on the instructor who imparts knowledge. The attempt of this method of teaching is to break that stereotype and to enable the students to take control of their own learning. The following characteristics have a major bearing on this effort.
Ability to Brainstorm and Socially Interact
In a homogeneous setting, the ability of students to socially interact is much easier than in a heterogeneous setting where obstacles of gender, race, tribe and creed play a major role in defining relationships. Some students are able to relate to others easily without too much external assistance, whereas some need to be helped through this process much more closely. Students who have had little experience interacting with others perceived to be different, appear to be much more uncomfortable with this method of teaching than others. However, the benefits derived from having students interact while in homogeneous or heterogeneous settings must each be weighed differently depending on the given conditions of the classroom environment.
Social skills, like other skills, should be taught and reinforced. Focusing on social skill development will increase student achievement and enhance the students’ interpersonal relationships and general psychological health [5].
Positive Interdependence
The essence of the cooperative group is the development and maintenance of positive interdependence among the group members. A sense of interconnectedness can help students transcend the linguistic, tribal, gender and other differences they may sense among themselves. When students perceive that what helps one member helps all and what hurts one hurts all, they are more likely to stay on task and help each other learn.
Individual Accountability
The students must be fully aware of their roles as individuals who must be accountable for their own participation and learning from the group activities. Each student must show some identifiable mastery of the assigned material through the various assessments, and then receive feedback on his or her progress. If students feel individually accountable, they are more likely to try to learn, rather than letting others do the work and the learning for them.
INSTRUCTOR
Many instructors like to be considered the ultimate authority in their field of specialization and also seem to enjoy the activity of "imparting knowledge" for enhancement of learning. The facilitative and seemingly passive role of the instructor in the small group activities may seem as the opposite of the above stereotype. Therefore, the demands made on, and the skills required of, an instructor to be able to use this method effectively are also different. Some of these are as follows:
Patience
This, perhaps, is the prime requirement. Learning through the social interaction of one student with another, especially when one has a low self esteem of their capabilities, requires a lot of time and effort. The instructor has to have the capacity to give the students a chance -- enough chance -- so that they can struggle through, perhaps make their own mistakes, but in the end learn from all that.
Facilitative Ability
When students are placed in a small group setting, it is natural that diverse thoughts, arguments, and positions will be put forth. Contradictions coming from others at a similar level of conceptual development may serve to bring cognitive differences into sharp focus, and hopefully lead to coordination that can resolve conflict. While the instructor may hope that somehow all these diversities will be put together in some kind of a meaningful whole by the students themselves, it may not happen. The instructor may have to assign tasks to each member of a group and insure that students assume different roles during different problem-solving sessions. The instructor may have to create assignments and use grading procedures that give group members a stake in one another’s progress. In other situations the instructor may have to act as a coach, asking questions and providing hints as they are deemed necessary, and thus encourage, coax and guide the students to solve the problem by themselves.
SETTING
While learning and teaching go on between the students and the instructor, these do not occur in isolation. The students and the instructor, both belong to a larger system which may be a department, a college or a school, an institute, or a university. Various characteristics of different systems can affect the efficacy of the teaching method in a variety of ways. Some of the major issues relating to the setting are the following:
Group Size
It is obvious that cooperative learning groups cannot be expected to conduct productive learning interactions if the groups are very large. Similarly, a very small group of two participants may also not be very effective. Based on the experience of having tried this method with groups ranging from two to five participants, a group size of four appears to be the most appropriate. It is imperative that class sizes be made manageably small for learning to take place. It is easier for the teacher to handle 10 groups of 4 students each, than to manage a whole class of 40 students. The teacher does not have to visit each student - they can get help from their group members. It is thus easier for students in a group to get help when they need it, than it is in a large class.
Group Composition
While heterogeneous groups are generally preferred, great diversity among group members may be counter-productive. Examples of gross diversity are when some participants are very mature and some very immature, some very quiet and withdrawn while others are very aggressive, some with good work ethics and some with no work ethics. Both academic and social strengths should be used in determining group composition, so as to give every student, at some time, the experience of being the most able member of a group. Groups can be heterogeneous on several different variables, among them are; academic ability, sex, race, language, and culture. The teacher is responsible for making the group assignments and must consider all of the important points. Left to form their own groups, students invariably choose to work with friends, and the resulting homogeneous groups usually limit student learning.
Assessment
Individualistic, competitive and cooperative measures of assessment must be implemented in a cooperative learning environment. The students must be held individually accountable for the mastering of the assigned material, but the focus should be on improvement rather than mastery. Group learning should be structured so that students begin with a base score, and any improvements over that base score should increase the score of the whole group [9]. Group quizzes, and group projects should be used to measure the communication and social interaction skills of the students, and to afford the students to make connections with real-world situations.
Journal writing exercises should afford the students the opportunity to reflect and make connections with prior knowledge formed in and out of the classroom. It should allow the student to develop better writing and communication skills about various topics in order to improve on the use of the proper terminology, demonstrate evidence of higher order thinking skills, and make connections between the classroom topics and the real world.
Portfolios may be used to provide a means of tracking the evolution of the student’s development in, and understanding of, the major concepts and ideas of the subject matter. It should contain materials selected by the student and teacher showing the progress made by the student in the understanding and learning of the concepts covered.
CONCLUSIONS
Although some students may enjoy the group activities and admit that the exercises make them think, and are good learning experiences, there will be some who will show frustration with changes in the traditional classroom mode of lectures and notetaking. The instructor must be prepared to help these students understand the benefits of the changes and help them adapt to the new methodology.
Some activities will work well in the classroom and others may not. The instructor must allow adequate planning time and be flexible in revising plans to fit the composition and nature of the class. The instructor must continue to be on guard to insure that the members of the groups are promoting each other’s learning, and holding each other personally and individually accountable to do his or her fair share of the work. The instructor must also insure that group members are appropriately using the interpersonal and small group skills needed for cooperative efforts to be successful.
Teacher Education
A well-defined teacher education program must be established and integrated into the educational curriculum to effectively bring this teaching methodology to its rightful focus. The Ministry of Education, the University of Liberia, and all other institutions of higher learning throughout the nation must play a major role in bringing about the realization of this highly professional endeavor. The ultimate facilitator of cooperative learning in the classroom must be identified in a qualified teacher. This process cannot be a success if teachers are not properly trained to implement it. Teachers must be recruited and made to realize the importance of their role as nation builders for the new Liberia. Their status as professionals must be highly respected and rewarded accordingly. Only then will we be able to reap the benefits of a strong and vibrant citizenry, for the benefits of bringing Liberia back into the fore front of responsible nationhood, in the new millennium.
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