Unit 2 Section 1: Cooperative Learning in CLIL Background Narrative

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In this unit the trainees will learn what cooperative learning is and how to put the principles of Cooperative Learning into practice.

In the past decades, the transition from traditional to modern teaching has also meant a shift to cooperative learning, an approach whose objective is to structure instruction into social and academic learning opportunities.

An innovative learning environment acknowledges students as protagonists, promotes their active participation, and cultivates awareness of their actions.

Using Cooperative Learning in CLIL may have the following advantages:

• Group work increases opportunities for practising the target language;
• Face-To-Face Communication in A Small Group Is A Natural Communicative Situation;
• It Is the First Step Towards Individualization In Education;
• It Promotes a Positive Affective Atmosphere;
• It is a source for student motivation.

In this unit trainees learn how to put the principles of Cooperative Learning into practice.

Concrete examples allow trainees to explore the following principles:

• Heterogeneous Grouping;
• Collaborative Skills;
• Group Autonomy and Positive Interdependence;
• Individual Accountability;
• Equal Participation;
• Maximum peer interaction or simultaneous interaction.

In the past decades, the transition from traditional to modern teaching has also meant a shift to cooperative learning, an approach whose objective is to structure instruction into social and academic learning opportunities.

An innovative learning environment acknowledges students as protagonists, promotes their active participation, and cultivates awareness of their actions.

1. Heterogeneous grouping
   In forming heterogeneous groups, we can use an Excel spreadsheet for team formation with columns containing the names of the students and their level of academic achievement (both language and content) so that the teacher can form the groups according to the following main rules: equal number of boys and girls, a high achiever, two medium achievers, and a low achiever.
2. Collaborative skills
   Collaborative skills must be acquired. The most effective method is to incorporate collaborative skills into everyday teaching. Language structures are language functions that have collaborative skills embedded. An example of an activity in a clear lesson at young ages is Timed Pair Share, in which, after the teacher asks a question, the students take turns sharing their best answer for one minute with a partner who just listens. In this way, students practise taking turns with cooperative and attentive listening, and at the same time, they demonstrate respect while they patiently wait.
3. Group autonomy and positive interdependence
   By structuring learning tasks so that students are not merely passive consumers of knowledge but become engaged producers of their own projects, teachers can foster autonomy in a cooperative classroom.
   To do that, teachers have to provide students with the opportunity to make choices and to allow them to set their learning goals.
   Positive interdependence represents a sense of working together for a common goal so that the success of completing a task cannot be achieved without the contribution of all members. The best activity that includes positive interdependence is Jigsaw, in which each student is accountable for reporting various pieces of information to their team members.
4. Individual accountability
   The best and easiest way to ensure individual accountability is to hand in individual worksheets and ask students to solve problems individually. The completed worksheets can be read by the teacher or by peers. In mind-mapping exercises, asking students to use different coloured crayons allows the teacher to see each student's contribution.
5. Equal Participation
   While working on a task, the team's effort must be equally divided among the team's members. There are different approaches to making all team members participate equally. They can take turns answering, or they can role play. A fun activity is a round table in which the teacher asks a question, and each student takes turns sharing their answers with the other group members. In a Time Paired Share activity, each member of a pair or group speaks for the same amount of time. Another activity is the random wheel, which can also be used for turn taking.
6. Simultaneous interaction
   When a high percentage of students are actively engaged in completing a task, we speak of simultaneous interaction. When we use cooperative learning, we significantly boost the degree to which students are involved in learning. A way to perform this is to pair the students, then ask them a question, and instead of requesting an individual answer, ask students to turn to their pair partner to answer. In this way, half of the students are engaged in completing the task.