PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES

Performance Outcomes

Performance outcoms

Introduction

Performance outcome in cooperative learning delivers better and faster results. However for this the class members are organized into small groups after receiving instruction from the teacher. They then work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it. Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members gain from each other's efforts, recognizing that all group members share common fate, and feeling proud and jointly celebrating when a group member is recognized for achievement.

The roots of cooperative learning may be traced to John Dewey (1933) who emphasized education as a vehicle for teaching citizens to live cooperatively in a social democracy. A second major figure in the history of cooperative learning is social psychologist Kurt Lewin, who in the 1930's and 1940's emphasized the importance of group dynamics in understanding the behaviour of leaders and members of democratic groups. (Cohen, et. al. 2008).

Slavin (2007) states that there are several reasons why cooperative learning works as well as it does. The idea that students learn more by doing something active than by simply watching and listening has long been known to both cognitive psychologists and effective teachers. Recent research done by Creswell, J., (2005). specifically links regular cooperative experience in the classroom with gains in the following areas: student achievement, critical and creative thinking, group interaction and social skills, self-esteem and mutual respect and positive attitudes toward subject and school.

Background

Cooperative learning can be effective in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes. It can be used to practice comprehension strategies, improve decoding skills, learn new vocabulary or complete a project. In deciding to use cooperative learning, Orlich et al., (1990) suggest that teachers should decide if by doing so, both social and academic outcomes will be achieved.

Research indicates that cooperative learning methods have been effective in increasing achievements, including higher level outcomes, such as problem-solving in a variety of content areas. The results appear on both teacher made and standardized tests and they have been found at all grade levels. (Cohen, et al. 2008). These researchers also indicate that cooperative learning can promote friendships and positive attitudes towards students differing in achievement, ethnicity and gender in addition to fostering the acceptance of mainstreaming students with exceptionality.

The student learning goals may be structured to promote cooperative, competitive, or individualistic efforts. In contrast to cooperative situations, competitive situations are ones in which students work against each other to achieve a goal that only one or a few can attain. In competition there is a negative interdependence among goal achievements; students perceive that they can obtain their goals if and only if the other students in the class fail to obtain their goals. Norm-referenced evaluation of achievement occurs. The result is that students either work hard to do better than their classmates, or they take it easy because they do not believe they have a chance to win.

According to the already mentioned writers, in individualistic learning situations, students work alone to ...