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While many students are enthused
about the opportunity to learn with and from their peers, it
is not uncommon to encounter students who are reluctant to
participate in any sort of group activities. This reluctance
could be due to a preference for working independently or
due to prior bad experiences with poorly designed group
projects. Providing students with a positive experience with
and explicit information about active/cooperative learning
(A/CL) right away helps to overcome reluctance and start the
class with clear expectations.
We set the tone for our
classes in the first few minutes on the first day. So,
rather than simply telling students that cooperation makes
learning more enjoyable or more efficient, it’s better to
demonstrate it. Begin your class by putting students into
pairs or teams and having them participate in a simple,
well-structured cooperative activity. The activity could
introduce your course, cooperative learning, or your
content. You might also point out how this type of learning
will build the skills they will need for success in
industry, business, or academia.
Then, give your students
information in your syllabus about what teamwork will mean
to them in terms of attendance, participation in class, team
meeting time outside of class, and especially, grading. Let
students know about your policies on group and individual
grades. Also, help them to understand that, when you do
choose to use group grades, the assignments will be
carefully structured: you will help them acquire the skills
they need to work together successfully, and you will have
ways of monitoring for individual accountability. Finally,
acknowledge that some people would prefer to work alone and
point out the activities and assignments they’ll be working
on independently.
While all of our faculty and
experts agreed on giving students clear information on
course policies regarding A/CL, their approaches for
introducing it to students varied. Look below to see some of
the considerations that influenced their approaches.
Experts
 Darwyn
Linder
Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology
Arizona State University
Karl
Smith
Professor of Civil Engineering
Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota
 Richard
Felder
Hoechst Celanese Professor Emeritus, Department
of Chemical Engineering
North Carolina State University
Faculty
Ron
Roedel
Professor of Electrical Engineering
Arizona State University
Susan
Urban
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Arizona State University
P.K.
Imbrie
Assistant Professor of Engineering, Department
of Freshman Engineering
Purdue University
Cesar
Malave
Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering
Texas A&M University
Jim
Morgan
Associate Professor of Civil Engineering
Texas A&M University
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