The goal here at the Cooperative Learner is to make cooperative learning accessible and easy to use for every teacher in the whole world.  To that end, I'm constantly looking to improve the methods of engagement on the website so things are easier to understand.

Look out for upcoming animations, videos, and all sorts of media that will help make cooperative learning more and more visible and alive in the internet community.

There are a lot of ways to think about whether something is or isn't cooperative learning.  Certain elements are included in everyone's definition, and they were extensively researched and developed by the masters of the field, Robert and David Johnson of the University of Minnesota.

Use whatever one makes sense to you, of course!

I think of the basics of cooperative learning as PIECE.  Partly because the fundamental concept of cooperative learning is that we are all unique individuals that make up a greater, more interesting group of learners when we work together.

Partly because a good acronym can be a helpful mnemonic device to remember these things as we plan and structure our activities.

But partly because some of the principles that other Cooperative Learning researchers use feel a little incomplete.

Don't get me wrong, I love them all!  In fact, let's take a look at them one by one so we can piece together something of the history of CL.

The one... the only... Dr. Spencer Kagan, ladies and gentleman!  Let's give this guy a hand!
He and his wife Laurie are pioneers in the field of Cooperative Learning.  They conceptualised the implementation of cooperative learning in a way that makes it easy for teachers to make all their lessons more collaborative and engaging.  The changes he made to the PIGS FACE also helped specify how important it is to have every student, no matter how confident or skilled, participate often and equally in group work.

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING!

There are a couple of surefire signs that you are doing group work in your classroom instead of cooperative learning.  I have learned over the years to look for and recognize those signs.  Sometimes I make an adjustment to the activity the next time I run it, and sometimes I just shut the activity all the way down.

Each of these warning signs is directly connected to the basic principles of Cooperative Learning.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to come to recognize what is and isn't cooperative learning.  Without awareness of the simple differences between group work and cooperative learning, we are doing our students a disservice when we ask them to work together. 

Try and recognize the differences between your group work activities and Cooperative Learning activities.  Ask yourself how you can structure it so that students are working with a common goal and clear expectations of how to contribute so you can create a more equitable and happy classroom.

It makes a difference, I promise!

    Have you seen in chemistry how the scientist mixes together all the materials that you need for an explosive reaction?  But nothing's happening yet?  Or should I say, the reaction is happening but it's slow.  All those materials were like the years of experience that I had in and around education.  Everything I needed was there and waiting.  Sallow, mostly inert.  
   Then the scientist adds a piece of metal and all the sudden the reactants go bananas.  The reaction speeds up to a fever pitch.  Smoke is flying and the mixture is spitting and gooing all over the place.  
   ​That was the Kagan workshop for me.  I had the raw experiences and the mindset that I needed to become a cooperative learning educator, but I was missing the catalyst of active tools and strategies to help me use it as part of every lesson I teach.  The Kagan workshop plopped me down in a room with a bunch of other educators at a table of four.  We used the very same strategies we were learning to digest and process this new style of education.  We played games, moved around, reviewed, took notes.
   But that was only the beginning.  The real education happened when I started applying it in my classroom.  You could take what you learned there and use it the very first day you were back in class, and I did.  I put my students in teams of 4, gave them assigned roles during discussion and talking.  I began to change the way my classroom felt.
   Every weekend, I took several hours to review and dig through the Cooperative Learning book published by Spencer and Miguel Kagan.

  The Kagan Cooperative Learning textbook and the experiences I had at the workshop transformed my classroom, and, at the same time, it made me start asking questions of myself.  How could I make every lesson more actively engaging, interactive, and cooperative?

   I wouldn't have expected that I would get a wake up call in educational practice from a guy with an Elvis hairstyle.
   Chris Lowe is a Kagan trainer and the operator of Kagan Korea, a Kagan franchise located in Seoul that teaches Korean and international educators about the power of Kagan structures and theory.  He is a former dance sports professional and his hair sweeps up to a central point high above his head like the spike on a rhinoceros.
   He was the keynote speaker at the Korean Council of Overseas Schools annual educators conference, and I later attended several of his breakout sessions and lectures.  His engaging style and fluent use of cooperative learning structures quickly convinced me of the power of structured interaction.  I was doing some of the structures three days later when I returned to my classroom on Monday.  
   It was no great secret why his work was so effective.  He made little tweaks to the tried and true conversational tricks that teachers use in their classrooms: "Turn and Talk" became "Rally Robin."  "Discuss with your group" became "Round Robin."  "Think about this question" became "Timed Pair Share" with your neighbor. 
Three simple structures were enough to drastically change my practice in class.  I started to wonder: how can I make all my interactions more collaborative?  How can I turn my math and science classes into a place where students discuss and use the academic vocabulary as a routine to make it natural?
   I worked hard the rest of that year to do what I could on my own, and when I heard they were offering a Kagan workshop the following September, I sprang for the chance to build up my skills.

    I didn't know any of this until I went to graduate school.  Even then, there was a lot of things that teachers did that I simply didn't have the vocabulary for.  Sponge activities.  Numbered Heads Together.  Jigsaws.  I simply didn't know the names and the theory behind the incredible stuff I was seeing.  
   My first step towards really coming to understand cooperative learning was when I checked out Cooperative Learning in the Classroom from the University of Portland Library.  This Johnson and Johnson text was a little unwieldy and low on the practical activities, but it was short!  And it talked about a different kind of teaching and learning that I was used to, a lot of which sounded like the kind of meaningful instruction I had been admiring as a young teacher. 
   I read this book twice, and even though I was still a long way from effectively using cooperative learning in my class, I started to take it as a core tenet of my teaching philosophy.  It's not hard to understand.  Kids learn best when they learn from and rely on each other.  It's elementary!  But how do I take it to the next level?  How do I make it a piece of my day-to-day planning and instruction?  That questions was still elusive, but the seeds had been planted that brought me all the way to the creation of the TCL website and store. 
    My cooperative roots run deep.  I've worked with kids for 10 years, and I've seen and heard cooperative learning happening in every year of my interaction with students.  Johnson and Johnson were the first sages that introduced me to the power and efficacy of cooperative learning theory.  There can be no growth without strong roots, and this book and my experiences have meant a lot to me.  I look forward to continuing my growth as the curator of the Cooperative Learner.

   The SIOP model (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) was my introduction to helping children understand and work together with kids with radically different abilities.  Many of the activities detailed in the book ask children to slow down and practice and use academic vocabulary in a safe, protected environment.  I didn't realize at the time that much of what I found useful and powerful in my teacher training were the cooperative learning activities developed originally by Johnson and Johnson or Spencer Kagan.  SIOP had a lot of the things that today I use every day in my classes: Mix Pair Share structures, collaborative review activities, collaborative reading activities that encourage the activation of background knowledge and rehearsal of academic vocabulary.  
   It also provided a framework for me to understand why cooperative learning is so important and useful for American educators.  We have so much diversity and inequality in our students that we must find a way to provide equity in educational opportunity.  Simply put, cooperative learning seems to be the most powerful tool that we as teachers have to balance the playing field.
   But I was still a young teacher when I learned this.  It was still to be several years before I got my first chance to glimpse the power of cooperative learning structures at my first Kagan workshop.  That's when  I really started to change my practice.

Welcome to the Cooperative Classroom blog.  I'm using this blog to help coordinate my thinking and reflection on cooperative learning and the skills necessary to run a cooperative classroom community.  Please consider subscribing to my blog for new and unique information that may help you to implement and extend the collaborative and cooperative activities you're already doing in your classroom.