THE FORMATIVE DIMENSIONS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Abstract

Cooperative learning is a pedagogical approach that involves
pupils and students working together to achieve common goals
or accomplish group tasks. The efficacy of cooperative learning
as a pedagogical practice is widely acknowledged, with evidence
indicating its capacity to facilitate socialisation and learning
among students at all levels, from kindergarten to university, and
across diverse subject areas. The approach emphasises the
importance of pupils and students working together as a
unifiedteam in a collaborative and supportive environment. This
enables them to provide constructive feedback, enhance their
existing knowledge, engage in active and creative thinking, and
negotiate solutions collectively. When teachers structure
activities in small groups, pupils/ students are more interactive,
using more equitable communication so that ideas are shared
between group members and they develop more ideas to explain
the problem at hand. The fact that pupils and students interact
and work together not only enables them to learn from each
other, but also allows them to accept more autonomy over the
tasks they have to accomplish and the decisions they have to
make. Research also shows that students have a lot to learn when
they have opportunities to interact with each other, listen to what
others have to say, share ideas and information, ask questions,
critique others' ideas, and use the information to reason and
solve problems together.