Reflection 5

Think about a baseball game… Sometimes the man with the bat in his hand has just to almost touch the ball in order to get not only one score, but also three, maybe. This is sharing, cooperation; work not alone, not by himself, but as a united team.
Cooperative learning is not different. The students learn to work together and find together a solution for an assignment. They are able to discuss, to share abilities, to search for ways, even different ones, to improve their learning, their knowledge. It is related to constructivist way. Teachers, instead of presenting some issue, they make the students work in small groups, where each one has the opportunity to express the own idea or comment about what is being studied. The interesting thing in this kind of learning is that the more they acquire experiences, the most they share them in future groups. The learning is thoroughly useful and effective. Sometimes it is necessary an individual research or work, but it has been showed that work in cooperation is very effective.
This kind of technique has been developed and increased along the years. The benefits are evident. First of all, the diversity. Different kinds of people are present and the integration is very useful, for many answers show up and it is a great opportunity to reflect on someone else knowledge. Besides this difference among several types of people, we can see cultural diversity, and, of course, diverse points of view. It makes the final product comprehensive.
Another benefit is that the students can improve their sociability through accountability. Sharing their opinions, experiences, they also improve their social relationship and skills.
But, what is the teacher’s role in class when students are working? He/she needs to alert to some difficulty that can show up. So, he teacher has to give support, guidance and notice when some student is just being “carried” by the others, that means, he/she doesn’t work and take advantage of the others. So, by creating clear questions and situations, he stimulates the students to seek their goals. It’s important to observe that the teacher gives some guidance, but the students must work and find the solution and answers.
Cooperative , also called collaborative type of learning helps the students believe in themselves, and as a result, they will produce more and more to their own development, their improvement in knowledge and relationship. If it occurs, who needs evaluation?