> I was just wondering what everyone's views were on cooperative learning
> (not group work).
> 1. Do you find it beneficial to all the students?
Not _all_ the students, but a large majority of them.
> 2. How do you grade the activities/lessons?
Two components of each activity: one part is a group project with one
grade going to all students; the other part is an individual elaboration
or a quiz that must be done alone [thus providing motivation for
less-skilled students to make sure they are not ignored in the group session]
> 3. Do you have any ideas of how to implent it in an Algebra I class?
Try "authentic" assessments, such as comparing car rental rates when one
car has low initial fee but high daily fee and the other has higher
initial fee but lower daily rates - ask 'common sense' explanations AND
ask for a translation into a 'formal' chart or graph.... Look for
textbooks and resources on alternative assessment, performance
assessment, authentic assessment, etc.
> 4. Have you received any complaints from parents?
Sorry, I'm a college remedial instructor, so parents aren't often an
issue. Some students complain, but most are won over in the end because
they can use "more" of their intelligence to approach problems instead of
being restricted to using the abstraction/symbolic manipulation part only.
> 5. Do you find that not as much material is covered when cooperative learning
> is used throughout the year?
Yes, this can be a problem. Try to strip the course down to the 'lean
and mean' parts and make sure that the students are learning the
flexibility and innovation that comes with alterantive assessment, so
that they can apply those strenghts in traditional situations where they
haven't been trained because of your smaller curriculum. In other words,
make sure they can figure out how to multiply trinomials on their own
when you have only introduced them to multiplying binomials...
> I'd really appreciate everyone's input in this area. I'm not fully
> convinced that it is a good tool for learning mathematics.
I'm not sure it is a good tool for _all_ students. For example, a
student who excels in traditional symbolic manipulation who is heading
towards a science career might be better served by a traditional course
because they will _need_ the "drill and skill" ability to "power" through
technically and symbolically difficult problems. On the other hand, a
person training for a career that deals with business, statistics, social
science, etc. is probably better served by this alternative kind of
classroom experience, because they must learn to interpret and understand
quantitative material, which is _different_ than learning to manipulate
quanititative material.
Gideon L. Weinstein
gweinste@indiana.edu
http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~gweinste