Lesson 13: Cooperative Learning with the Computer

The creativity of the teacher will have to respond to the situation, and so cooperative learning will likely be the answer to the implementation of IT supported learning in our schools. But the situation may not be that bad since there are motivational and social benefits to cooperative learning and these can compensate for lack of hardware that educators face.

Defining cooperative learning

Cooperative or collaborative learning is learning by small groups of students who work together in a common learning task. It is often also called group learning but to be truly cooperative learning, 5 elements are needed:


1. A common goal

2. Interdependence

3. Interaction

4. Individual accountability

5. Social skills

Therefore not every group work is cooperative learning since students working on their work sheets physically sat around a table may be working together without these features of cooperative learning.
From several studies made on cooperative learning, it is manifested that cooperative learning in its true sense is advantageous since it:
(a) Encourage active learning, while motivating students
(b) Increases academic performance
(c) Promotes literacy and language skills
(d) Improves teacher effectiveness


Cooperative learning and the computer

Researchers have made studies on the learning interaction between the student and the computer. The studies have great value since it has been a long standing fear that the computer may foster student learning in isolation that hinders the development of the student’s social skills.

Components of cooperative learning


Educators are still wary about the computer’s role in cooperative learning. Thus they pose the position that the use of computers do not automatically result in cooperative learning. There therefore assign the teacher several tasks in order to ensure collaborative learning. These are:
· Assigning students to mixed-ability teams
· Establishing positive interdependence
· Teaching cooperative social skills
· Insuring individual accountability, and
· Helping groups process information