FUN WITH COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Before the second semester started, as part of my long-term plan, I decided to incorporate cooperative learning strategies in my Mathematics classes to enhance the learners’ learning of Mathematical concepts and the contextual uses of the English language. Provided that it would be properly implemented, I believe it would help both the average and the fast learners in the classroom.

Through cooperative learning, the learners’ social skills could be enhanced as they work with their teammates in ensuring both individual and group success. In addition to, I found this strategy to be very interesting because learning usually happens in a very natural way wherein everyone could get support from every member of the group. Other advantages of cooperative learning strategies include a greater chance of developing the learners’ social skills, oral communication skills, self esteem and most of all their academic achievement regardless of their academic background.

However, in order to accomplish tremendous success in this strategy, as teachers, we need to fully understand how cooperative learning works best in the classroom. We need to effectively communicate to the learners that through this strategy, no one of the team members could be considered loser for every member gain from each other’s efforts. Instead, we have to make sure that the learners fully understand how every member share a common fate, thus, how one’s performance could positively or negatively affect other members.

TEAM BUILDING

Before fully implementing the strategy in the classroom, learners need to completely understand the importance of each member in a team. At this point, they need to understand that they would not only be working with those students they like or the ones who are good. Instead, they need to recognize their individual responsibility in helping one another in order to succeed in every learning endeavor.

In my all-boy class, I related a learning team to a football team. In every game, one or two players would always stand out but that is not important at all because what is more important, is that, they won the game as a team and no good player could win without the support of other team members and the same is true in a learning team. One might be good in one area and the others might be good in another area. As a team, they could use their differences as a tool to learn from one another.

And to personally build their respective teams, I gave time to my students to creatively think of a name that would best describe their team as learners of Mathematics. I gave them enough time to discuss and decide for it and in the end they were able to coin interesting names which they cheered as I read them. Some of the teams came with names like MathMatrix, The Absolute, Math Boys, Super Math and Math Rangers and they all justified why they came up with such names for their teams. Teams could also create their team logo or team tag to keep the spirit of their teams alive.

TEAM LEARNING

After building their respective teams, we are now confident to move to the next level which is the heart of this learning strategy. Of course, we didn’t just divide the class into teams for the sake of doing it. The very reason why learners are with their respective teams is for them to maximize learning on the subject matter.

This is the very reason why we encourage heterogeneous type of grouping because we want learners of different levels and abilities to help each other in achieving common learning goal. In my class, I always emphasize to every group that they need to consult every member of their team if they have any idea about the lesson and I also encourage them to be as resourceful as possible. I tell my students to make their teacher as their last resource so they could practice doing appropriate actions when problems occur during the learning process. As teachers, we have to be extra careful in entertaining simple questions which sometimes lead to the answer and in helping a group because when other teams will see that you are spending much time with one group, they would also ask for your help and the domino effect goes on. When that happens, dividing the class into teams do not make any sense at all because what a teacher would usually do is move from one group to another teaching the concepts.

During the group learning process, the responsibility of the teacher is to facilitate the activity by monitoring each group. We need to observe each group and keep a record of the students’ behavior and level of participation in the activity. We also have to constantly provide immediate feedback to each team so that they would know how to improve in the following activities.

TEAM TOURNAMENT

To make the class livelier and to keep every team’s spirit alive, have each team participate in a team tournament. Show which group is excelling and monitor each team’s standing from time to time so that every team will be encouraged to participate. The score of each team could be taken from the score each member earned during individual assessment and group assessment. Authentic assessment is highly encouraged in cooperative learning. Assessment should be anchored upon the learning objectives specified before the introduction of the subject matter. Constantly communicate these objectives so that it would become a goal for each team.

TEAM CELEBRATION

After working so hard for the achievement of their goals, it’s always good to end it up with a rewarding team celebration. As teachers, we need to recognize both individual and group efforts of our students.

In my class, I am awarding certificates and other prizes to the best performing team at the end of the semester. I also give special awards to add more fun during the awarding day. However, this reward is a long-term reward and this could not contribute to the present learning needs of the students. To keep each team’s enthusiasm, I do give constant rewards in the form of simple recognition every time a team does something worthy of recognition.

Learning Assessment: From Theory to Practice

This article is the first part of a condensed series of discussions on Seminar-Workshop in Ethical and Legal Issues behind Students Assessment presented for Seminar in Ethics and Legal Issues in Education class at St. Theresa Inti College- Bangkok Campus.

The seminar-workshop aims to provide better understanding towards learning assessment – its definition and purpose/s, the transition from traditional to modern assessment methods, the teachers’ roles in assessment for students’ learning. Built upon the foundation on understanding the basic theories and practices in students assessment, case studies on ethical and legal issues teachers’ prejudices in providing authentic assessment among the students will be presented and analyzed.

What is Assessment?

In this context, assessment is primarily regarded as gathering relevant information concerning the learners (e.g. learning styles, needs for improvement, learning difficulties encountered, and students’ progress) in order to evaluate their existing knowledge and assist them in impending learning endeavors .

To define learning assessment in the general context of education, I adopted the definition of The UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2000) in its Code of Practice as cited by Harvey (2004-8) which states:

Assessment is a generic term for a set of processes that measure the outcomes of students’ learning, in terms of knowledge acquired, understanding developed, and skills gained. It serves many purposes. Assessment provides the means by which students are graded, passed or fail. It provides the basis for decisions on whether a student is ready to proceed, to qualify for an award or to demonstrate competence to practise. It enables students to obtain feedback on their learning and helps them improve their performance. It enables staff to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching.

The abovementioned definition of assessment attempts to discuss the three kinds of assessment happening in the classroom level which will be discussed in the following section of this article.

Kinds of Assessment and their Purpose

As cited by the Government of British Columbia (2007), there are three current approaches, as literature suggests, to classroom-based assessment that can be used in conjunction with each other to support student achievement.

1. Assessment FOR learning refers to formative assessment through which teachers collect information about student achievement and use this information to plan follow-up classroom activities.

2. Assessment AS learning refers to the active involvement of students in assessment of their own learning. Assessment as learning assists students in understanding what they might need to improve upon in order to successfully meet learning outcomes.

3. Assessment OF learning refers to assessment practices that take place at the end of a lesson or unit so that student achievement can be reported.

The three approaches to classroom-based assessment stated above are the two general types of assessment referred to as formative assessment (numbers 1 & 2) and summative assessment (number 3). Formative assessment, as defined by Tan (2008), is the one designed to provide direction for improvement and/or adjustment to a program for individual students or for a whole class. Formative assessment generally takes place during the discussion of the subject matter in order to provide learners with immediate feedback on their progress and inform development.

For instance, in my Mathematics class with young English as Second Language (ESL) learners, I give students worksheets and other activities to work on wherein I give immediate feedbacks and provide support (scaffolding) to those who are showing difficulty in doing the activity. Before presenting the activity (worksheet), I communicate with my students the expected output and encourage them to do the activity by their own and ask for my assistance if ever they will encounter any problem in doing so. I always assure them that such activities are given in order to help them understand the lesson better so they have nothing to worry if they get high or low marks. When students submit their works, I observe for possible errors and give them time to go over their work for correction in which they are happy about especially when they are able to correct their own mistakes.

The second type of assessment is a very common one and is not difficult to understand. Summative assessments are given after finishing a certain chapter and/or a course/subject. The purpose of which is, primarily, to provide information on how much the students have learned and/or how well the subject matter was taught.

Traditional vs. Authentic Assessment

Traditionally, assessment which is typically done in a form of test or quiz provides negative notion among the students. More often than usual, traditional assessment methods merely expects the students to recall knowledge through multiple choice tests, enumeration, identification, and others. Such method of assessment usually causes anxiety among the students which hinders them from giving accurate response as to what they have really learned – thus, hampering valid formative assessment and feedback.

On the other hand, authentic assessment or alternative assessment usually entails tasks in which the students will be involved and an accompanying rubric which will be used in evaluating their performance on the specified tasks. Wiggins (1993) as cited by Mueller (2008) defined authentic assessment as engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or professionals in the field.

In other words, authentic assessment is the provision of direct application of knowledge learned through practical tasks designed to evaluate the students’ ability to apply learning (transfer of learning). According to Mueller (2008), authentic assessments, on the other hand, offer more direct evidence of application and construction of knowledge compared to traditional assessment. Going back to my Mathematics class with young ESL learners as concrete example, along with mastery in the fundamental mathematical operations the students are also expected to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills while studying Mathematics. When I taught “Money and Budget” among the learners, I assessed their ability to solve problems related to money and their ability to integrate the four language skills by asking them to look for a practical problem which involves money. I asked my students to write them down in paragraph form, interpret and express them in mathematical symbols, and then present their problems and solution in class. I developed a rubric to evaluate their works (oral and written) and communicated it with them beforehand. That way, I was able to provide authentic assessment among my students for their presentations have reflected how much they have learned and my feedback (which was based on the rubric) was clear with them beforehand, thus, learning what needs to be improved next time.

References:

Harvey, L. (2004–8). Analytic Quality Glossary, Quality Research International. Retrieved, February 7, 2009 from http://www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/

Mueller, J. (2008). What is Authentic Assessment?, Authentic Assessment Toolbox. Retrieved, February 7, 2009 from http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm#definitions

Province of British Columbia (2007). Classroom Assessment, British Columbia: The Best Place in Earth. Retrieved, February 7, 2009 from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/classroom_assessment/

Tan, H. (2008). 7 Ways to Assess Effectively FOR Learning, Teaching English Literacy: A TEFL Blog by Hedda Tan. Retrieved, February 1, 2009 from http://www.heddatan.com/7-ways-to-assess-effectively-for-learning.html

Meaningful Learning from a Personal Experience

David Ausubel, in his theory on meaningful learning says that learners can only learn when they find the lesson to be learned meaningful to them. It’s not only true for elementary and secondary school students but it is equally justifiable to all learners. As for me, being in the field of Mathematics teaching, I find it more important and meaningful to learn Mathematics and teaching related topics than any other agenda. Teaching has been a part of my life and I do it everyday that is why materials related to teaching are so meaningful to me.

When I was in college, I hate this subject called Probability and Statistics. I don’t know whether it was because of my astigmatism which always attacked me those days or it was because of my negative attitude toward those copious data. Honestly, I feel dizzy dealing with those data which I deemed absolutely irrelevant. I could still remember how I stopped answering a certain statistical problem at the middle of the exam. However, I found out that Probability and Statistics is not really irrelevant at all. I did handle plenty of data when I had my undergraduate thesis and used statistical computations a lot when I was in an actual teaching situation doing the marks of my students. Later on, I started to learn statistics by my own for I knew I could not really escape from it. It seems like I am thrown into a lion’s den.

The experiences I had was just so useful in a lesson on Data and Probability I had recently with my fourth graders. The thoughts have helped me to think of strategies how to engage my students in data gathering and analysis. I knew that in their young minds, they would not be able to understand if I would tell them how important the subject matter is in the field of physical sciences, meteorology and business. They are ten-year old kids and lots of them are still up for cartoons, games, TV shows, online battles and all those childish things. So here is the engaging scenario: “I am a cartoon fanatic who wants to know if they also like the cartoon characters that I like. I want to gather data of their favorite cartoon character/s and from it we have to identify which cartoon character is the most popular and least popular among us.”

The students became so excited to tell me who is their most favorite cartoon character. Everybody is raising their hands! The atmosphere became so active and everybody is engaged in the classroom discussion until we reach to the point that we have to analyze the data we have gathered. After the students have learned the ways to gather and organize data, they conducted a survey of their own. They were the one who chose the topic. The following period, they presented the data they have gathered and shared their analysis. They did exactly what I want them to do although there were some problems in the use of language.

It should be a realization of every teacher that teaching is not merely sharing to the students what we have got. As teachers, we should be cognizant of our students’ nature and needs. We have to be aware of their interests. Our students would learn more if they know that their teacher is for them and not against them. What the world needs right now are teachers who have genuine interest to their students. Living in this world is very remarkable and it is even more remarkable when we teach.