Why Use Cooperative Learning?

Academic Achievement

Will cooperative learning help students learn geology? Students who work in cooperative groups do better on tests, especially with regard to reasoning and critical thinking skills than those that do not (Johnson and Johnson, 1989 ).

• According to a review of 168 studies of individual achievement in college classes, cooperative learning is half again as effective as either competitive learning or individual learning (Johnson et al., 1998 ). According to many studies, it does result in higher grades and better scores on tests of volume and accuracy of information learned, long-term retention of that information, problem-solving and higher reasoning abilities.
• After teaching organic chemistry for ten years using noninteractive lectures, Paulson (1999) switched to active learning and cooperative learning techniques. He found that the average number of students passing the three-quarter organic chemistry sequence doubled (from 38% to 75%). Click here for chart with data
  
• In Slavin, 1991 's review of 67 studies, 61% of the cooperative-learning classes achieved significantly higher test scores than the traditional classes. He notes that the difference between the more and less effective cooperative-learning classes was that the effective ones stressed group goals and individual accountability.
• Students learning science cooperatively are more likely to use scientific thinking to follow problems than those who work alone, or those working from a step-by-step lab book (Lord, 2001 ).

In particular, cooperative learning has been observed to enhance achievement in female and African American students (Herreid, 1998 ), members of groups that are underrepresented in science.

• Students in mixed groups (different races, genders, learning styles) tend to have a deeper understanding of the material and remember more than those in homogeneous groups (Wenzel, 2000 ).

Williamson and Rowe, 2002 observed that students in cooperative-learning sections were more willing to ask the instructor questions (in class or through office visits) than those in traditionally taught sections.

Motivation

One reason for improved academic achievement is that students who are learning cooperatively are more active participants in learning (Lord, 2001 ). They care about the class and the material and they are more personally involved with them.

Compared to students learning on their own, students who are engaged in cooperative learning:

• Like the subject and college better (Johnson et al., 1998 , Lord, 2001 )
• Are more likely to make friends in class: they like and trust other students more than students who are learning individually (Johnson et al., 1998 )
• Ethnically mixed cooperative-learning groups are more likely to result in inter-ethnic friendships than traditional learning techniques (Slavin, 1991 ; Wenzel, 2000 , Johnson et al., 1983 )
• Have more self-esteem (Johnson et al., 1998 , Slavin, 1991 ): a very important consideration with female and minority geoscience students

Even if student satisfaction were not an end in itself, it should be noted that happy students are less likely to miss class or drop out.

• According to a study of two chemistry classes (Williamson and Rowe, 2002 ), one of which was a standard lecture class and the other of which centered around problem-solving by student groups:
  • There was no significant differences in achievement between the two classes for students that finished the course.
  • But 33% of the students in the lecture class dropped out of the course compared to only 17% of those in the cooperative-learning class.

Project Scope

Instructors routinely have students work in groups in lab not just to conserve materials but because the students can then do bigger projects or do small ones faster.

Life Skills

Teamwork is essential in modern science and in modern workplaces.

• Most projects need different kinds of experts, or at least a division of labor.
• All jobs require the ability to communicate, cooperate, assess, and delegate.
• Even outside of work, loners have to be able to get along with and communicate with other people, even those different from them.
• Johnson et al., 1998 stress that the most successful individuals in business, research, and school are the least competitive.