Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Presented by
Judy Gerrard, Dianne Collette, Susan Elowson
Oregon Department of Human Services
Learning Objectives
(Felder, 1994)
Corners
One advantage of this strategy is that it can be used to reinforce course content, to clarify
participant values, and to develop an understanding of differences in values and opinions.
The four corners strategy is used to ensure that all participants participate in group activities.
It helps to develop listening, verbal communication, critical thinking, and decision-making
skills in the classroom context.
You can also use this to form teamsheterogeneous teams by selecting one individual from
each corner to make a 4-member team, or homogeneous teams by selecting individuals in
one corner to make a team.
http://www.successlink.org/colearn/struct.asp
Pairs. Think-pair-share.
Participants are given a prompt (a question, problem, visual, etc.) and first asked to think
about the prompt individually and jot down ideas. Participants then form pairs, talk about
their responses, and formulate a joint response. Some pairs are then called on to
summarize their discussion for the class.
Pairs. Think-pair-square.
Same as above, but two pairs of participants join together to share and compare the results,
rather than moving to a whole group discussion.
Pairs. Pair-and-compare.
During a 2-3 minute break in lecture, participants form pairs to compare their notes,
remaking the notes by adding information or correcting as needed.
Participant responses can be shared within learning teams, with larger groups, or with
the entire class during a follow-up discussion (Share).
The caliber of discussion is enhanced by this technique since, too often, the extroverts
with the quickest hand reflexes are called on when an instructor poses a question to the
entire class. In addition, all participants have an opportunity to learn by reflection and by
verbalization.
Think-Pair-Share, like most other cooperative learning structures, capitalizes on the
principle of simultaneity (Kagan, 1992, p. 4:5-7). Many participants (50% in Think-Pair-
Share) are actively vocalizing ideas at a given moment, whereas in a more traditional
classroom, only the lecturer is active or the one participant at a time who is responding to
his or her questions.
1. Participants in the group respond in turn to a question or problem by stating their ideas
aloud as they write them on the paper.
It is important that the ideas be vocalized for several reasons: (a) silence in a
setting like this is boring, rather than golden; (b) other team members need to be
reflecting on the proffered thoughts; (c) variety results because teammates learn
immediately that someone has come up with an idea they know now not to
repeat; and (d) hearing the responses said aloud means that participants do not
have to waste valuable brainstorming time by reading the previous ideas on the
page.
2. Team members are encouraged not to skip turns, but if their thoughts are at a standstill,
they are allowed to say, "Pass" rather than to turn the brainstorm into a brain drizzle.
Thus, there is almost universal participation in Roundtable.
Roundtable is most effective when used in a carefully sequenced series of activities. The
brainstorming can reinforce ideas from the readings or can be used to set the stage for
upcoming discussions. Participants, for example, could identify the characteristics of an
effective leader or the attributes of terrorism before these topics are formally introduced.
Comparing a participant-generated list with those of the "experts," creates interest. Many
creative uses can be made of the ideas generated, depending on their nature.
In Roundtable, the multiple answers encourage creativity and deeper thinking. This activity
builds positive interdependence among team members because of the shared writing
surface, but more importantly, it builds team cohesion and reinforces the power of teamwork
because participants see in action the value of multiple viewpoints and ideas.
Semantic mapping (a.k.a., mind-mapping, idea mapping, word webbing, etc.) is a term,
which describes a variety of strategies designed to show how key words or concepts are
related to one another through graphic representations.
Steps:
1. Write the title of the subject in the center of the page, and draw a circle around it.
2. For the major subject subheadings, draw lines out from this circle. Label these lines
with the subheadings.
3. If you have another level of information belonging to the subheadings above, draw
these and link them to the subheading lines.
4. Finally, for individual facts or ideas, draw lines out from the appropriate heading line
and label them.
Jeffrey D. Maggard
http://www.miyazaki-mic.ac.jp/faculty/jmaggard/semantic.html
Numbered Heads Together encourages successful group functioning because all members
need to know their groups answer(s) and because when participants help their team mates,
they help themselves and the whole group.
Laura Candler
Cooperative Learning Network
http://home.att.net/~clnetwork/structures.htm
Steps:
1. Define the group project on which the class will be working.
2. Randomly break the class into groups of 4-5 participants each, depending on the size
of the class, and assign a number (1 to 4-5) to participants in each group.
3. Assign each participant/number a topic in which he/she will become an expert.
o The topics could be related facets of a general content theme.
o For example, in a computer class the general theme might be hardware and
the topics might be central processing unit (participant #1), memory
(participant #2), input devices (participant #3), and output devices (participant
#4).
4. Rearrange the participants into expert groups based on their assigned numbers and
topics.
o Provide the experts with the materials and resources necessary to learn about
their topics.
o The experts should be given the opportunity to obtain knowledge through
reading, research and discussion.
5. Reassemble the original groups.
o Experts then teach what they have learned to the rest of the group.
o Take turns until all experts have presented their new material.
6. Groups present results to the entire class, or they may participate in some
assessment activity.
7. At the end of the session, give a quiz on the material so that participants quickly
come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really count.
Learn more from the expert who originally devised this structure:
Elliot Aronson at http://www.jigsaw.org/overview.htm
Malcolm Knowles, often referred to as the "father of adult education," found that adult
learning occurs best when it follows certain principles. If trainers follow these
guidelines, they will greatly enhance the learning experience for participants
(Knowles, 1990). Arnold et al. (1991), among other adult educators, state that:.
People retain:
20 percent of what they hear
30 percent of what they see
50 percent of what they see and hear
70 percent of what they see, hear, and say (e.g. discuss, explain to others)
90 percent of what they see, hear, say, and do
Your Notes:
Use this space to identify at least one of the structures used today that you can
add to your training tool kit.
Arnold, R., Burke, B., James, C., Martin, D., & Thomas, B. (1991). Educating for a change.
Toronto: Doris Marshall Institute for Education and Action Between the Line.
Aronson, E., Blaney, N., Stephan, C., Sikes, J. & Snapp, M. (1978). The Jigsaw Classroom.
Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Johnson, R.T. & Johnson, D.W. (1991). Learning Together and Alone: Cooperative,
Competitive, and Individualistic Learning (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Johnson, R.T., Johnson, D.W. & Holubec, E.J., Eds. (1987). Structuring Cooperative
Learning: Lesson Plans for Teachers. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.
Johnson, R.T., Johnson, D.W. & Holubec, E.J. (1993). Circles of Learning: Cooperation in
the Classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company
Johnson, R.T., Johnson, D.W. & Smith, K.A. (1991). Active Learning: Cooperation in the
College Classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.
Kagan, S. (1996). Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Cooperative Learning.
Knowles, M. (1990). The adult learner: A neglected species (4th ed.). Houston, TX: Gulf
Publishing Company.
http://www.successlink.org/colearn/struct.asp
Jeffrey D. Maggard
http://www.miyazaki-mic.ac.jp/faculty/jmaggard/semantic.html
Laura Candler
Cooperative Learning Network
http://home.att.net/~clnetwork/structures.htm