The Basics of Cooperative Learning - How Can They Help You Individualize Your Lessons?

When I taught my 695 Foundations of Education Course, my approach was unique and I let my grad students know I would probably not be a typical adjunct professor. I explained that I felt all teachers needed to be able to stride into the teachers' lounge and make "I Believe" statements. The members of the class were puzzled by that until I explained that I was foremost, a believer in John Dewey and also felt Piaget had given teachers a good road map for understanding the developmental levels of children's learning.  "Dewey asserted that complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights but also by ensuring that there exists a fully formed public opinion, accomplished by effective communication among citizens, experts, and politicians, with the latter being accountable for the policies they adopt." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey 7/10/2014

I won't delve into Piaget here, but simply say that children have four stages of development and my empirical observations have supported much of what he has to say. http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/a/keyconcepts.htm  Of course, I had many more weapons in my arsenal of education research, but my core felt solid so that I could add or subtract concepts that helped me become an effective teacher.

My mission is and always will be to dig away at what makes basic or "core" knowledge stick so that students will remember important dates, facts, people, events, literary works, skill sets that enable them to be good employees (or employers), citizens and have a moral compass. My vision is that no matter where students are on the "road to being authentic" - the two of us (and perhaps classmates as well) will try and discover what their talent is throughout the year. My job is to notice the small details and work with students to find their passions.

Cooperative Learning gurus: Spenser Kagan and Robert E. Slavin are noted for both being advocates and pointing out some of the failures of Cooperative Learning. My daughter hates group projects because she ends up being the one who does all of the work. I told her that's because she's been with her peers for so long that they've learned to manipulate her. Wise teachers know how to help students share the work equally and give both a group and an individual grade. Monitoring the groups progress frequently and collecting action plans helps derail the slacker.

Developing group projects with a menu approach that encompass multiple objectives can help you determine a student's strengths.  If you have strong classroom management - you can have some one on one time to work on any areas that may need improvement.

I am still looking for the pizza paragraph :-(