Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning is not really a model by itself. It encompasses a set of teaching strategies that share key attributes, the most important being the grouping of students into learning teams for set amounts of time or assignments, with the expectation that all students will contribute to the learning process and outcomes. Here the word team takes on the same meaning as it does in sport—all members work to achieve a common goal. In this model, that common goal is the completion of a learning task given to the team by the teacher. The task can require them to base their achievement on intra-group performance (trying to be the best team they can be), on inter-group performance (competing with other teams), or shared-group performance (learning content so that they can teach it to the rest of the class).