Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice
Every year I involve cooperative learning in my classroom because it works. Every year I have students that I have never had asking if they get to do what last year’s class did. My use of cooperative learning comes from a learning contract which allows students to form groups or work individually and present their allotted number of assignments together or alone. Every assignment has its own personal rubric for each individual student to insure they are doing just as much work as their peers working alone, but I have noticed in every class that I have ever taught using this project that students would rather learn together and learn from each other than not. The assignments are varied, but their enthusiasm to work together is not. I know that we were supposed to use a virtual example of classrooms using social learning theory strategies, but I have seen firsthand, through my assignments popularity, that students do indeed enjoy learning socially whether in a group, through technology, or an expert they choose.
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I think that it is great that students are given the option if they want to work together or alone. I encourage the idea to work together, but some students would rather rely on only themselves rather than a group of students. I like the fact that they get to choose.
ReplyDeleteI had a Social Studies teacher who created a similar contract with his students and we, as students, were very motivated to work together. Cooperative group work was and still is alive and well in our schools! Have you found a way to incorporate technology which allows students to collaborate still?
ReplyDeleteI like the way that you arrange your contracts. I think that must give your students a high level of ownership in your classroom. I bet that students do enjoy having the choice to choose to participate or not in the classroom with a partner. I have some students who will ask to work alone, and I always debate should I make them work with others or respect their wishes and give them the opportunity to do it alone. I think that is often the case with some of my more perfectionistic students because they don't want another student to influence their grade.
ReplyDeleteI have had a chance to incorporate technology into this project mainly through the use of our class website. On it, students have a chance to blog to each other, which worked very well one semester during Christmas break when students had the option to work on their project. They really used the opportunity to collaborate with each other because so many of them had a hard time meeting up anywhere. It was great to see.
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