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Session 3. Cooperative Learning in Real Classrooms
Objective. Design a short cooperative task for a crowded classroom with roles, individual accountability and a one-minute group review, and run a jigsaw.
Many teachers have tried group work and put it away after one noisy lesson. The problem is usually the design, not the idea. When one pupil can finish the task alone, the others quite sensibly let them. When everyone holds something the group needs and everyone must answer alone at the end, even a class of 36 with fixed desks can work in fours. This session shows how to design the task so that the group needs every pupil.
Key ideas
Groups are not the same as cooperation
- Putting pupils in groups does not make them cooperate. Often one pupil works and the others watch, copy or chat.
- The Education Endowment Foundation finds that collaborative learning can help, but the benefits depend on well-designed tasks and active support for all learners.
- Cooperation is designed. The task and the rules, not good luck, make everyone take part.
Five features of a cooperative task
- Positive interdependence: the group needs everyone, for example each member holds a different piece. Individual accountability: each pupil shows alone what they learned.
- Face-to-face interaction: pupils explain and question each other. Social skills: listening, taking turns, disagreeing politely. These come from Johnson and Johnson's work on cooperative learning.
- Group processing: a minute at the end to ask 'what helped us, what will we change?' Check every task against these five before you use it.
Making it work with 30 to 40 pupils
- Use groups of three or four, often built from neighbours so no desks need moving: two pupils in front turn round to the two behind.
- Give each person a role: reader, recorder, timekeeper, spokesperson. Rotate them each task. Write the roles and the minutes on the board.
- Agree a quiet signal (a raised hand, a clap pattern, a card) for 'stop and look at me'. Practise it once before the first group task.
Jigsaw and other simple structures
- Jigsaw: each pupil in a home group of four takes a different part of the topic. Experts with the same part meet, learn it together, then return to teach their home group.
- Each person is needed, because only they know their part. After teaching, a short individual check shows who learned from whom.
- Other quick structures: think-pair-share, three-step interview, and 'say something' in pairs while reading. Start with pairs before groups of four.
The jigsaw in four steps
Choosing groups and sizes
Groups of three or four work best for most tasks. In pairs, a pupil who does not want to talk is quickly exposed, which can be uncomfortable; in groups of six or more, some pupils disappear. The Education Endowment Foundation suggests groups of roughly three to five pupils.
For quick tasks, use neighbours so nothing needs to move. For a jigsaw or a longer task, plan groups yourself and mix strong and weaker pupils, keeping close friends who only chat apart. Keep the same groups for a few lessons so routines become automatic, then change them so that pupils meet different classmates.
What the teacher does during group work
Group work is not a time to sit down and mark. Walk the room with a purpose: listen for the thinking in each group and note who is talking and who is silent. Ask a group a question rather than giving the answer: 'How did you decide that?' or 'Can the recorder explain it, please?'.
Step in as little as possible. If a group is stuck, give a hint that moves them one step, then leave. If two groups have the same difficulty, stop the class for one minute and explain once. Keep a list of what you heard so that the whole-class discussion can use it.
Examples from the classroom
Fractions with strips in Grade 5
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 5 in Tashkent with 35 pupils and fixed desks. He pairs the front two rows with the back two rows, making groups of four. Each group has one recorder, one reader, one timekeeper and one speaker. They compare 3/4 and 5/8 with paper strips. At the end each pupil writes alone which is larger and why. Only two groups needed his help.
Insight. Roles and a final individual answer keep everyone involved even in a crowded room.
Jigsaw on Silk Road cities
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 7 history in Samarkand. The unit covers four cities: Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand. She makes home groups of four, with one pupil per city. Experts meet to prepare two minutes on trade, buildings and one famous person. Back home, each teaches. The short quiz asks about all four cities, so each pupil must learn from the others, not only from their own part.
Insight. When each pupil holds a piece, every pupil is needed and everyone learns more than their own part.
When group work failed
Scene. Dilnoza asked her Grade 6 class in Fergana to make a poster about the Fergana Valley in groups of eight. One pupil per group drew; the others talked. The next day's test showed only the drawers knew the facts. She redesigned: groups of four, a poster with four labelled boxes (climate, water, crops, towns) and each pupil writing a different box and explaining it to the group.
Insight. The task had to need every pupil; splitting the poster into boxes assigned to individuals fixed it.
Common pitfalls
- Making groups too big, so that some pupils never have a job.
- Giving a task that one pupil can complete alone while the others copy.
- Skipping the individual check, so nobody knows who learned.
- Leaving the group alone with unclear time limits and then being surprised by the noise.
Jigsaw: Why Did the Aral Sea Shrink?
- Form home groups of four (A, B, C, D). Each person receives the expert text with their letter from the Activity Kit and a role card. 5 minutes: read your text alone and underline three key facts.
- 10 minutes, expert groups: all the As meet, all the Bs, and so on. Agree what the three key facts are and how you will explain them in two minutes. Practise on each other.
- 12 minutes, home groups: each expert teaches their part in 2 minutes while the others take notes. Then the group completes the cause-and-effect chain on the group sheet, using all four parts.
- 8 minutes: alone and without notes, answer the four individual check questions. Swap papers with a neighbour group and mark using the board key. 5 minutes: group processing. Finish the sentences 'We worked well when...' and 'Next time we will...'.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which of the five features did you see working? Which was weakest in this jigsaw?
- What did the individual check tell you that the group sheet did not?
- Think of a unit you teach soon. Which part could become four expert texts?
Reflect
- In your last group task, who did the thinking in each group? How would you know?
- Which task in your next unit could be split so that each pupil holds a different piece?
- What routine will you teach first so that groups of four can start in under a minute?
Try it tomorrow
- Use one pair task, such as 'say something' while reading two paragraphs, before you try groups of four.
- Write four role names on the board for your next group task and give each pupil one, rotating them next time.
- End one group task with a three-question individual check and look at which questions the pupils missed.
Further reading and links
Make every pupil necessary and accountable: a task that needs everyone, roles, an individual check and one minute to review.