Cooperative learning is a classroom instruction presentation model that involves students working together to meet their learning goals in learning teams or groups. In the 1940s, education reformers like John Dewey began to analyze the benefits of students working together in the classroom. At that time, cooperative learning was considered cutting edge compared to the preferred format of individual student learning. In the one room schoolhouse of the 1800s and early 1900s, students of all ages worked on their own learning goals.

True cooperative learning involves more than just having students sit together in groups. When done well, cooperative learning involves planning with clear directions, student work roles, and outcomes and measures for learning goals. Teachers who use this method see the value in cooperation, teamwork, and collaboration as a major part of their classrooms. Students who learn how to collaborate through cooperative learning can become adults who work together more effectively in the work place.

In the classroom, a cooperative learning lesson involves students working in small groups to accomplish a learning task. The task is assigned by the teacher with clear directions. Students then work on the task together with defined roles (i.e. reporter, spokesperson, researcher, recorder). Teachers who are effective at evaluating the group together as one understand that each person in the group has a “shared” responsibility.

When the cooperative learning group completes the learning task, the teacher evaluates the results. That evaluation needs to include some type of format to determine if the student(s) accomplished their learning goals (i.e. rubric). If each student sitting in the group isn’t held responsible for helping complete their portion of the learning task, then it isn’t truly “cooperative learning”.

What are the Benefits of Cooperative Learning?

There are many benefits for classroom instruction when cooperative learning strategies are done correctly. There are several briefly discussed here including: promotion of social interaction, buildup of student self-confidence, improvement in collaborative skills of students, as well as the improvement in student decision-making skills. Cooperative learning-run classrooms can also assist teachers in working with students who have wider skill gaps.

Teachers with students who work in cooperative learning groups typically allow for more social interaction and can enhance students’ collaborative skills. Cooperative learning groups force students to interact socially and practice collaboration. Teacher lessons that include positive, active student collaboration are planned out with clear directions and expectations for students.

Many students are timid or shy and in a whole-group setting can often be leery of sharing their thoughts, questions, or answers. Students who participate in cooperative learning lessons have opportunities to build their self-confidence (again if planned efficiently and effectively by the teacher). Because of this, teachers have to work really hard to make sure that all students working in cooperative groups have a part in the task. They have to reassure them and hold them accountable. Does every student in the group have a role or responsibility? Is the teacher roaming the classroom during the lesson, asking key questions to check for student understanding and to make sure that they are hearing and seeing all students participate?

Cooperative learning lessons that are planned out efficiently can allow for growth in student decision-making. Students who work in groups and collaborate (talk, plan etc.) are more likely to build on their decision-making skills. Many modern workplaces call for employees who are capable of making decisions while working with “teams” vs. working in isolation. Group lessons that allow for students to collaborate and talk about the task can prompt students to share thoughts and thus build on decision-making skills. A quad, or student group of four, can allow for four different students, with four different thoughts, to build on decision-making skills while improving their socialization. Young people need the socialization, and cooperative learning lessons greatly enhance this.

Teachers who use cooperative learning groups also have some flexibility to pull small groups and work with individual students or small ability groups during the lesson time. This can arguably be a great advantage for a teacher with a classroom of 30 students. There may be a need to work more closely with the 4 or 5 students who have the highest learning gaps. Allowing students to independently work in small groups gives teachers the opportunity to work with those individuals on targeted gaps. Use of cooperative groups can allow for differentiation of instruction, depending on how the teacher decides to establish them.

Cooperative Learning Strategies to Use in the Classroom

There are so many best practice strategies to consider when using the cooperative learning approach in the classroom. Several strategies for teachers to use that involve cooperative or group learning include pair-share, small groups (quads), and mixed skill groupings.

One common strategy that teachers use is called pair-share. This can be easily adapted into most classrooms by asking students to collaborate with an “elbow” partner or person close by. Students can discuss a question or topic, and then share with the whole class. Teachers often refer to this strategy as “think-pair-share”.

Teachers who plan cooperative lessons often use small groups or quads (groups of 4). Students are assigned roles within the group so that they can divide and conquer the learning task at hand. For example, the reporter is responsible for sharing out the new learnings of the task. Often quads are divided into mixed skill groups. This can help students who struggle to have higher-level students mixed with lower-level students so that peer learning and coaching is incorporated. All of the mentioned techniques require planning and coordination on the part of the teacher.

When used in combination with individual learning assignments, cooperative learning can enhance classroom instruction and make learning more social and fun for students.

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1. Focused Listing Cooperative Learning Strategy

If you’re looking for a new brainstorming strategy then you’re going to love this one. The focused listing strategy is designed for students to generate words to define or describe something. For example, you would give the students a main topic, then ask them to create a list of words or phrases that describe that topic. From there, you can put students into small groups to discuss their lists or you can first put them into groups to generate the lists. Once the lists are completed, you can use the list to help facilitate a small group or whole group discussion. If you are using the focused listing as a gateway to your lesson, then you can choose one list that all students agree upon and use that.

2. One-Minute Papers

This strategy can be used to gather feedback from your students after a lesson is taught. First, write the following questions on the front board and have students answer them by themselves.

• What was the most important thing you learned from the lesson?
• What is still unclear about the lesson? What questions do you still have?
• What is one thing about the topic that you want to know more about?

Next, put students together into groups to facilitate a discussion. Have students do a Round Robin (take turns talking) and discuss each of their answers to the questions listed on the board. Once students have all answered the questions, then have them figure out which answers they have in common. They can then take this information and come up with the most popular answer to each question, which they then can discuss with the class as a whole.

3. Uncommon Commonalities

If you are looking for a strategy that will help your students become more cohesive, then this is a great one to try. Group students into teams of four and have them come up with a team name. Give each team member a piece of paper and have them fold it the long way in fours and label each section, 1, 2, 3, and 4 at the top. Next, write a question on the front board, such as “How many siblings do you have?” The teams’ goal is to discuss the question with their group and figure out what they all have in common. If all four team members have one brother, then they will write that in column four; if three of them have one brother then they will write that in column three and so on. The activity continues with each new question that is put on the board.

4. Forced Debate

This strategy requires students to use their communication skills to work within a group. Here’s how it works: the teacher writes a proposition on the front board, such as “Should there be a vending machine in the school cafeteria?” Then the students who agree move to one side of the classroom and the students who disagree move to other side. Once students are on one side of the classroom, that is now their group. The teacher then forces them to debate the opposing side that they have chosen. This strategy really utilizes students’ critical thinking skills and forces them to really think about the question as a whole in order to argue for the opposing side rather than what they really feel about the question.

5. Cooperative Graffiti

Another great brainstorming technique to try is cooperative graffiti. This strategy requires students to think about a topic and write down as many ideas as possible using different-colored pens. To start, divide students into small groups and give each group a large, butcher block piece of paper and a variety of colorful pens. Write down a broad topic on the front board, and on your command “Go!”, instruct students to write down as many ideas as they can that correlate with the topic you wrote on the board. Once the time is up (about 5-10 minutes), then have students try and organize their colorful ideas into categories.

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What is Cooperative Learning?

Cooperative learning is an instructional strategy where small groups of students work together to reach a common goal. Sometimes students are individually responsible for a specific part within the group and other times they are held accountable as an entire group. True cooperative learning groups value teamwork, collaboration, and communication. Research shows that cooperative learning helps to build positive relationships among students and helps to produce higher self-esteem as well as the development of both learning and social skills.

Cooperative Classroom Games to Try with Your Students

The objective in cooperative learning games is for all members of the team to succeed. Students work together (no one gets left out) to discuss strategies in order to solve the given challenge. Here is a complied list of cooperative games for every grade level.

Grades K-2

Picture Talk

This cooperative learning game can be played with students of all ages but is highly recommended for young students because it’s a lot like show-and-tell. This game can also be played in the classroom where all students sit in a circle or virtually. The objective of the game is to creatively collaborate on a story using a photograph. Students will need to focus and listen intensely in order to be able to participate. To begin, the teacher will show a photograph (this can be of anything, an animal, object, person, etc.) then begin telling a story that incorporates the photograph. The next student in the circle or virtually will continue the story using their photograph. Each student gets about one minute to share their story, then the game continues until every student has had a turn.

Stand Up and Spell

Tell students they are going to spell the word “School” as a class. One student stands up and says the first letter. Then a different student stands up and says the next letter, and so on until they spell the word. Any student can stand up at any time, but if two students stand up at the same time, then they lose. This game can be played in-person at a desk or virtually. You can also use any word.

Grades 3-5

Cooperative Counting

You can play this game with students of all ages but it’s especially ideal for older elementary students because this game takes patience, focus, and concentration. It also can be played virtually with the camera off/on as well as in person. The objective of the game is to count to 20 (or higher) as a group. Someone must start by saying the number one, then someone else will say number two and so on in no assigned order. However, if two people speak at the same time then the game must start over at the beginning. Depending on the size of your class you can require that everyone must get a turn so you may want to change the end number. You can also challenge students to see how high they can count. After the game, ask students to reflect by sharing what they could have done better as a group.

Vocabulary Circle

This is an easy game that can be played virtually or in-person. Begin by the first player saying a word, then the next player must say a word using the last letter of the word the first player just said. For example, the first word is “apple” then the next word is “egg” and so on. The goal is to get through the entire class without messing up so it’s important that students listen very carefully. If you want to make it more challenging, you can give students a topic to focus on, such as “types of food” or “animals”.

Grades 6-8

It’s a Mystery

Who doesn’t love to solve a good mystery? This cooperative game is perfect for middle schoolers because this age group loves to work together with their friends. What’s great about this game is that it can be played both in the classroom or virtually. If you are playing virtually, students can go into break out rooms with their groups to discuss clues to help them solve the mystery. If you are playing in the classroom, students can work together and move from one area to the next to uncover new clues. To begin you must first think of a mystery for students to solve, then come up with clues. A fun idea is to have students find a hidden object within a picture to unlock a new clue. Another idea is to have students solve a rebus puzzle. Each group works together communicating as they problem-solve their way to solving the mystery.

Mental Telepathy

This game challenges students to work together, either in-person or virtually, to figure out what answer you are thinking. To begin pose a question and tell students there are two possible answers and they must use telepathy to read the teacher’s mind and guess the correct answer.

Grades 9-12

5 Word Story

You are going to tell a class story and in order to participate each student must listen carefully. The object of the game is to build upon the story, but the catch is that you can only say five words. Before you begin, make sure that all students know the speaking order. If you are in the classroom, you can position students appropriately; if you are virtual, tell students the order in which they will speak. Start the story and hold up your hand and raise one finger for each word. Next, que the student who is next to continue the story. While this game can be played at any age/grade level, this specific game for high school students should be played by having students retell a story or article they are currently learning. For example, if you just had students read an article from the newspaper, they can retell that article together as a class using the “5 Word Story” game.

Teacher: Today’s article talked about how

Student one: The CDC is recommending that

Students two: people continue to wear their

Students three: masks because it is very

Connect This

This is a great team-building activity for high school students and can be played virtually or in-person. To begin, provide each team with four different images and ask students to come up with a short story that connects all the objects together. For example, the images can be a person, an object, a location, etc. Give students about 15-20 minutes to discuss and come up with a story, then present their story to the class.

Well-designed cooperative learning games provide opportunities for experiential learning. They also teach valuable lessons of cooperation, collaboration, and communication.

*Updated March 2021

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