MS IDT 535 - The Social Family of Models

Welcome to the Social Family wiki! The sidebar on the right side of the page has information for you about how to do this exercise. The sidebar on the left side of the page is for navigating around the wiki. I hope you have a good time while you're here. DON'T WORRY! You can't hurt anything!

The Exercise

This exercise is intended to:

• Introduce you to Cooperative Learning by summarizing the Family of Models it belongs to, the Social Family.
• Take you on a brief and simple cooperative learning experience.
• Enable you to experience using a wiki, which is a powerful tool for collaboration and cooperative learning.
• Give you something to do that doesn't involve reading. :-)

Instructions

1. Read the Synopsis below. (~10 minutes)
2. Upload the image file I sent you (the Side Bar has a link for help on this, or just click on the "Files" button at the top of the page and follow the prompts). (~10 minutes)
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the Home Page, after the References, and you'll see a grid. Click on "Edit" to edit this page and paste your image into the place on the grid where you think it belongs. If you think another image that's already there needs to be moved, go ahead and move it! (~20 minutes)
4. When you're done, edit this page again and leave a brief comment reflecting on the exercise. (~15 minutes)

Synopsis on Social Family Teaching Models

Social Family teaching models share these premises (Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun, pp. 203-204):

• a central role of education is to prepare citizens to generate integrative democratic behavior
• cooperative enterprise inherently enhances our quality of life
• cooperative behavior is stimulating both socially and intellectually
• the school is viewed as a productive little society rather than a collection of individuals
• people are inherently cooperative, and cooperation is an important dimension of their competence

Social theorists critique traditional schooling because (Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun, pp. 203-204):

• the majority of learning tasks are structured by teachers for individuals
• most interaction between teachers and students is recitative
• patterns of evaluation pit student against student
• these individualistic patterns are counterproductive for individuals and society

According to Johnson and Johnson (1998):

• Cooperation is a generic human endeavor that effects many different instructional outcomes simultaneously. Over the past 100 years researchers have focused on such diverse outcomes as achievement, higher-level reasoning, retention, achievement motivation, intrinsic motivation, transfer of learning, interpersonal attraction, social support, friendships, prejudice, valuing differences, self-esteem, social competencies, psychological health, moral reasoning, and many others.
• The research on social interdependence has an external validity and a generalizability rarely found in the social sciences.
• Clear and specific operationalizations of cooperative learning have been made based on understanding social interdependence theory and the variables that mediate and enhance cooperationís effectiveness. The more educators understand the five basic elements and the two enhancing variables, the greater their ability to (a) structure formal and informal cooperative learning and cooperative base groups, (b) diagnosis problems students have in working together, (c) adapt cooperative learning to different student populations and subject areas, and (d) use cooperative learning for years with high fidelity and appropriate flexibility.
• Cooperative learning can be used with some confidence at every grade level, in every subject area, and with any task.

References

• Joyce, B., Weil, M. & Calhoun, E. (2004). Models of Teaching. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
• Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R., & Smith, K. A. (2000). Constructive controversy: the educative power of intellectual conflict, Change, 32 (1), pp. 28-38.
• Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. (1998). Cooperative learning and social interdependence theory. In Tindale, R., Heath, L., Edwards, J., Posavac, E., Bryant, F., Suzrez-Balcazar, Y., Henderson-King, E., & Myers, J. (eds.), Theory and research on small groups (pp. 9-36). New York: Plenum. Social Psychological Applications To Social Issues, Volume 4.

The Exercise

Use the piece of the image I sent you in email to build the image below.

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Reflections on the exercise

Please write just a sentence or two about this exercise and what you learned.

This exercise reinforced the importance of cooperative learning. Each person has a piece of the puzzle, that on its own doesn't mean anything. But by pooling our pieces we can create a unified and coherent image. This translates to the real world where each member of a team has an important piece of information and by working together and tying the fragmented pieces togehter, the group can create a coherent and cohesive result.

~ Eric

Cooperative learning emphasizes the important of each person's role in learning. Without someone's contribution, the learning experience is left incomplete. This activity emphasized the importance of cooperation as well as individual effort. The instructions to change whatever does not look right is important in that everyone is free to voice their opinions and does not have to "conform" to the group.

~Yoon

I really like what Yoon said about cooperative learning emphasising group as well as individual work. I have not thought of it that way before, but just like the puzzle, it will not work without each individual doing their part as well as the group working together.

- Mike

Cooperative learning works best when all members participate equally in the process. This is usually accomplished by the way the instructor/facilitator structures the problem. This project does a good job of that by assigning each student a single puzzle piece to incorporate into the whole.

-Bill

This was a great exercise in teamwork. It is very true that each team member is an integral part of the picture. If one part is off and not aligned with the rest of the team, then the picture is askew. I loved this assignment. The whole process is very engaging, informative and absolutely constructivist. Thanks for an excellent experience.

- Jay