Anchored Strategies: Course Analysis

While the individual teaching styles of the team were very different, it became apparent that commonality existed in terms of supporting the growth of our students. After team collaboration, we adopted the following vision statement: “We will provide a classroom climate that fosters thoughtful and respectful consideration of alternative viewpoints and ideas, personal ownership of learning, and individual construction of personally meaningful knowledge.”

American poet Mattie Stepanek once stated, "Unity is strength...when there are teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved." This idea is exactly what I believe collaborative learning is about. Collaborative learning allows the students to establish unity and great productivity with any project. I love it because it allows me to carry all the stresses but gain an outside perspective on anything. Being a student at Liberty has definitely allowed me to work in this style and become open to ideas as well as standing up for my own thoughts.

In the article by Harriet Spiros, he states that “Teachers who worry about fun-instead of worrying about how to make the students learn more-are setting up their students for the unpleasant experience of being fired”. Regarding that statement, Cooperative learning is a method that emphasizes team work and a strong sense of community- two very important things when it comes to the workplace. There needs to be a balance between strict education and teaching strategies that ultimately prepare students for their future in the

Cooperative Learning is a method of teaching and learning in which students work together to explore a significant question or create a meaningful project. In Cooperative Learning, students work together in small groups on a structured activity in order to accomplish shared learning goals. (Abass)

I have come to appreciate the dynamic of passionate students working together to accomplish common goals. Unfortunately, many modern students often come to loathe cooperative learning. Some students are apathetic about group projects altogether, and others are discouraged by their classmates’ lack of effort. As a SELF fellow, I will have the opportunity to collaborate and form valuable connections with like-minded and ambitious students.

Secondly, the intervention goal is to improve students’ comfortability and motivation to work together to co-create knowledge. To promote group work and collaboration, cooperative learning will be used so students can work together to make sense of new information and solve problems. The first step is to ensure that the students understand and believe that the classroom is a safe and a nonjudgmental environment which will be accomplished by having students at the beginning of the schoolyear introduce themselves, provide their interests, and state what they would like to learn from the class. The teacher will establish pre-assigned, diverse, semester-length, groups for students to complete group work. Once students are acquainted with each other, they will engage in team-building exercises pertinent to a particular American history topic being learned to help develop rapport (e.g., each group member teaches each other something new about the topic). Overall, these steps will create a cooperative learning environment that will initiate motivation and comfortability.

Cooperative learning will be a method I use in my classroom. I believe that in a cooperative learning group a student can learn socialization skills and how to work with others. This goes along with the pragmatic/progressive philosophy that children learn by doing. The progressivism teaching style also includes the incorporation of problem-solving and critical thinking techniques. I want my students to learn to think for themselves and be able to function in society. At the same time, I will be a fellow learner myself and

Research has shown that students who participate in cooperative learning strategies outperform those students who are subjected to a more lecture based class (Mohammadjani, F., & Tonkaboni, F. (2015). Notwithstanding, I think that in this particular case direct instruction is the better way to go. With students at such different levels it is easier and more efficient for the teacher to have the students do independent work, and then to give lectures on the same topic to the whole class at one time. One thing that Mrs. Woodward did that I thought was value-added was to plan a lecture topic on something that the majority of students missed on their practice

I believe in a cooperative learning pedagogy where teachers guide students’ education and stimulate them to think critically, analyze complex situations, and problem solve. Learning is a lifelong partnership between both teacher and student. There has to be mutual respect and a common goal to facilitate learning. Therefore, students must agree to take responsibility for their learning in order to engage and teachers must be willing to engage. My role as a teacher is to assist students through evidence-based practice, scholarly inquiry, and research.

Many teachers are aware of the research that shows student-centered instructional strategies, such as cooperative and inquiry-based learning,

In physical education there is a wide variety of students. There are the student athletes, student’s who have a moderate level of physical activity, student’s who may be self-conscious, student’s who are overweight, student’s that just don’t care about physical education or school at all. Educators have to find a way to for these students to interact and feel like physical education class is a class where everyone can succeed. The Cooperative Learning Model was designed to do just that. This model was originally referred to as the Student Team Learning Model (STL) and created by Robert Slavin (Instructional Models for Physical Education (as cited in R. Slavin 1983)). It is focused on three main concepts: team rewards, individual

There are several ways that student-centered learning can be described, and they all lead back to the same basic idea, the student. First, student-centered learning can be defined as a discipline that involves the interaction of a team of students that experience creative learning to be used in the real world (Thornburg, 1995). Thornburg (1995) also mention that students are essential to the classroom, just like a team member is essential to a game. He says that teachers are part of the definition of student-centered learning, but they are not the main attraction. The students are the focus, and the teacher is the one who can assist among small groups of students. Eaton

On cooperative learning help in viewing the teammates as responsible, 41.7% strongly agree, 33.3% agree as 25% were neutral. This also indicates that cooperative learning is of great importance in creating the sense of responsibility among the students in the schools. This makes a student come out of the institutions with a sense of responsibility on their later areas of life.

My vision of collaborative learning is a learning strategy that affords the students enormous opportunities and advantages not available through traditional learning processes. I believe that students in a collaborative team tend to attain

During the weekend I spent learning about the theories and structures of cooperative learning, I was captivated by five components of cooperative learning. I intend to use these five in my own classroom. They begin with the introduction games Pleased to Meet You and Knotting Acquaintance followed by the creation of base groups and finally STAD and TGT. These are five basic, yet exciting ways to use cooperative groups in the classroom.