Student Roles and Cooperative Learning

During your career as an educator, you have probably heard buzz surrounding the value of cooperative learning. Maybe you have even implemented cooperative learning experiences into your curriculum. Sometimes cooperative learning seems to carry the stigma “It’s just glorified group work.” Cooperative learning is so much more than putting students in groups and asking them to complete a task.

Cooperative learning groups encourage students to capitalize on their individual strengths and to develop their areas of challenge by promoting interpersonal skills and addressing conflict. Cooperative learning exercises have well-defined objectives, increase student understanding, and encourage accountability.

One mistake those implementing cooperative learning often make is failing to assign clear roles to each member of the group. Doing so encourages student accountability and promotes positive interdependence.

“Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
—Vince Lombardi, football coach

The tips below are based on ideas offered in the PLS course Achieving Student Outcomes Through Cooperative Learning®

Read on for tips to assign cooperative learning roles.

When you assign student roles in a cooperative learning exercise, one individual student in each group is responsible for a task (such as reporting, reading, timekeeping, validating, etc.).

It is important to teach your students about the type of behavior you expect when they are assigned a role. They need to understand what it will look and sound like when they are each doing their assigned job. You cannot expect students to know what to do unless you review your expectations with them. You don’t necessarily have to tell them how to behave. You can elicit ideas from the class about how a person in this role might act. You can let the ideas come from the students.

By having one or more independent roles, the group members are required to work more closely with one another in order to accomplish their common goal.

Possible roles include:

• Checker: Checks team members for understanding and agreement
• Datakeeper: Keeps track of information generated by group
• Helper: Gives help in reading, spelling, problem solving, or using materials
• Keyboard Operator: Enters information on computer for group
• Materials Handler: Takes charge of materials and holds them until needed
• Messenger: Collects and returns materials
• Noise Monitor: Reminds group to keep noise level down
• Permission Giver: Gives permission for the recorder to write or the questioner to ask
• Questioner: Asks questions of instructor or other groups
• Reader: Reads the material
• Reporter: Gives oral reports to the total group
• Summarizer: Sums up what the group did or the conclusions the group came to
• Timekeeper: Watches the time
• Validator: Paraphrases what is said for clarity
• Word Analyst: Spells and gives definitions of words
• Writer/Recorder: Writes down ideas and records the task

Math Example

Students are asked to estimate answers to math problems. Students work at the chalkboard together. For each problem, they rotate roles of Writer, Helper, and Checker.

Marketing Example

Students are asked to suggest improvements for a marketing scheme. Roles of Reader, Recorder, Noise Monitor, and Reporter are assigned for each group.

Data Analysis Example

Members are to analyze information and decide on appropriate answers. Each group works together as a computer team. Roles of Reader, Keyboard Operator, and Permission Giver are assigned.

Reading/Journalism Example

Using one newspaper, groups are asked to read a newspaper article and list important facts. After each paragraph, they are instructed to rotate roles of Reader, Summarizer, and Helper.

Did you know?

Cooperative learning activities are beneficial across all grade levels and subject areas (Dettmer, Thurston, & Dyck, 2009; Hurme & Jarvela, 2005; Nkebem & Okon, 2006; Sawyer, 2008).

Students in structured cooperative groups exhibit more cooperative and helping behaviors and more complex problem-solving skills than do their peers in unstructured groups (Gillies, 2008).

Willis (2009) concluded cooperative learning activities are most likely to succeed when the tasks assigned to students truly require them to work together to meet the objective.

The quality of cooperative learning is related to a blend of social support goals, awareness of teacher monitoring behavior, teaching students how to cooperate, and the presence of academic and emotional peer support (Hijzen et al., 2006; Kutnick, Ota, & Berdondini, 2008).

Taking It Further

To learn more about cooperative learning, visit: http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm and http://www.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/~elc/learning1.html

References

Dettmer, P., Thurston, L. P., & Dyck, N. J. (2009). Collaboration, consultation, and teamwork for students with special needs (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Pearson.

Gillies, R. M., & Boyle, M. (2008). Teachers’ discourse during cooperative learning and their perceptions of this pedagogical practice. Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Journal of Research and Studies, 24, 1333–1348.

Hijzen, D., Boekaerts, M., & Vedder, P. (2006). The relationship between the quality of cooperative learning, students’ goal preferences, and perceptions of contextual factors in the classroom. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 47(1), 9–21.

Hurme, T., & Jarvela, S. (2005). Students’ activity in computer-supported collaborative problem solving in mathematics. International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, 10(1), 49–73.

Kutnick, P., Ota, C., & Berdondini, L. (2008). Improving the effects of group working in classrooms with young school-aged children: Facilitating attainment, interaction and classroom activity. Learning and Instruction, 18(1), 83–95.

Nkebem, E. N., & Okon, H. I. (2006). Effect of cooperative, competitive, and individual use of self-instruction method (SIM) on learners’ achievement in library skills. Library Philosophy and Practice, 9(1). Retrieved January 20, 2007, from libr.unl.edu:2000/LPP/nkebem–okon.htm

Sawyer, R. K. (2008). Learning music from collaboration. International Journal of Educational Research, 47(1), 50–59.

Willis, J. A. (2009). Inspiring middle school minds: Gifted, creative, & challenging. Scottsdale, AZ: Great Potential Press.