Date sent: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 07:54:00 -0600 (CST)
From: LindaP (Texas)
Subject: Cooperative learning- opinion

Dear loop members [on bcc]:

I read the following in the Usenet- most of ya know that is where I slum
I enjoy the verbiage exchange- especially with such 'intelligent' creatures
as John Konopak- usually referred to as John Konstipated. This is an
exchange between 3 folks- but it is Donna's message I felt to be very
strong- I've conversed with her many times, and although I haven't quite
swung her around on the reading research, she is most eager to listen and to
learn and supports parents who are trying. TCarr is a parent, who has great
sense- if his email were connected I would get him on our loop- Colleen-
well Colleen is a product of the outcomes and a good example of what we are
trying to avoid.
LP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On 9 Feb 1997 14:42:34 GMT, dmettler@ttmath.ttu.edu (Donna Mettler)
wrote: in the alt.education.disabled. newsgroup:

>>
>>
>> Colleen..
>> And it is "Your Opinion" that teams that are made up of
>> a diversity of abilities are "pretend" and it is your "opinion that
>> voluntary groups in extra curricular activities are the only group that
>> are learning real teamwork. Try the IMO.
>>
>
>> Based on my experiences with my children, and my nieces
>> that classroom based "team" activities are artificial in nature.
>> Children are "put together" with the alleged purpose of completing a
>> assignment. Too much emphasis is placed on the "correct" roles
>> being assigned with limited choices for the students.
>> IMO this type classroom assignment is typical throughout
>> many classrooms, and does little to teach children anything
>> about "teamwork" in the real world. In fact it sets them up for
>> failure later.
>> Talk to children in these class teams. They do not talk about
>> what they learned or what fun they had. They do seem to complain
>> that too many of their peers did not do their fair share

>Cooperative Learning groups (which I assume is what you're referring to)
>are not, primarily, a way to teach teamwork-teamwork, as I understand it,
>requires building support systems and reliance on others. Cooperative
>Learning randomizes this-there are literally books of suggested ways of
>dividing children for cooperative learning, and they are all some form
>of randomization. In a real "team" situation, everyone has a role that
>they are strong in. Cooperative Learning, OTOH, is specifically designed
>to allow a less able person to have the illusion of working on the same
>level as others. Therefore, in cooperative learning groups there are
>many roles, which are teacher-assigned. Teachers are taught NOT to
>repetitively assign the same role to the same child, unless that role
>is the only one a given child can work in. This makes the roles
>inherently unequal, and it takes kids about 15 seconds to realize that
>Ms M. Always makes Jamie the encourager because he can't actually do much,
>so let's do it without him. Since the other roles are random, children
>don't get to show off their individual strengths-they are circumscribed
>by the limits of the role, whether or not it suits that child.

>The primary "benefit" of cooperative learning is that it forces children
>to interact with others, who they might previously have avoided. I don't
>think it teaches much in the way of real-world skills. A child who attends
>an LD resource class for part of the day and is in the AV club after
>school is much more likely to learn real teamwork and make true friendships
>than an included child who does cooperative learning with those same kids.
>For social benefits, the best place for inclusion is the afterschool,
>"extra" and "co" curricular activities-the ones that take in children
>from multiple classrooms and, often, multiple schools, anyway. Expecting
>children to learn interdependence and teamwork in the classroom, with
>all the restrictions needed in that setting, in a situation that places
>all children at the same level and doesn't let them really shine in
>their strong areas, the way a self-selected activity does, is probably
>asking too much-it's not impossible, but there are better ways to do it.
>I don't expect my kids to go to phys-ed and play floor hockey to learn
>their math skills-even though you use numbers in Hockey. I don't think
>it's reasonable to expect children to learn teamwork in math-an activity
>which is individual, and where, in the end, only your own skill matters.
>D2M
>--
>Donna DeVore Mettler
>dmettler@ttmath.ttu.edu
>http://www.math.ttu.edu/~dmettler/
>Musician, Preschool Teacher, and Education Grad Student
>All Children deserve a SPECIAL education!