An Effective Teaching Practice

There are some best practices that are considered most effective.  One such practice, that I have used in the teaching of social studies and religious education is called Cooperative Learning.

Cooperative learning, (Johnson and Johnson, 1994) uses five critical attributes or characteristics.  They are;

1) Positive interdependence

2) Individual accountability

3) Group processing

4) Social skills and

5) Face-to-face interaction.

I would put these students into groups of four and give each one distinct role example:

1st person - recorder

2nd person - reporter

3rd person - materials person

4th person - social skills monitor, but if there is a 

5th person – timekeeper.

These positions are often rotated each week or alternate weeks so everyone gets an experience of each role.  That way, everyone is equal and contributes evenly to the growth, development and achievement of his/her group. 

I have found that the grades or test scores, for the students at the end of the time, are higher both as a group and individually. Additionally students get a chance to discuss their ideas with each other using think-pair-share, group jig-saw and expert jig-saw promoting an atmosphere of thinking and mental development.  Most of all listening to other students' ideas helps them to recognize that collective constructive discussion helps to promote reasoning and accumulation of ideas.  This will help students put thoughts on paper instead of just swatting content from textbooks and teachers notes.

My students, after leaving my classes in the semester or year, would come back and tell me how much they appreciate this type of teaching style and that they wish that other teachers would employ that method of approach because it brings more fun to learning in the classroom.