Re: cooperative learning (in mathematics)
John Lowe (jlowe@AWOD.COM)
Wed, 24 Jul 1996 07:35:42 -0400
At 04:44 PM 7/23/96 -0500, you wrote:
>On July 23, LBUREK@AOL.COM said:
>
>> 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
>
>
This is about the best nutshell treatise on authentic assessment I've ever
read. Thank you, Gideon. May we quote you?
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