Chapter 3 – COOPERATIVE ROLES
3.5. Cooperative role as a tool of instruction
We have seen that through the tasks given to its owner we can shape the role similarly to the way a character is shaped in the theatres as the play progresses. As the “director” of cooperative learning we can also use these roles as a tool of instruction. What is more, their use makes simultaneous instruction possible.
I apply simultaneous instruction for example when I tell the Task Masters to choose ten pictures of their liking from the books on their table. At the same time the Notaries should record as much information about the animal their group is named after as they can imagine (attributes, data, behaviour, etc.). The Encouragers should design a coat-of-arms about that particular animal which can also symbolize their group, while the Time Keepers should recall the running horses, the brave dogs etc. and think it over in what ways their group is similar to these running horses and brave dogs.
We can see that here we addressed four different kinds of activities and fields of competence at the same time in a way that we established the principle of interdependence through individualized tasks for the whole group. Each group works out a different theme (horses, dogs, cats, mice) and within the group they develop different competencies through the different tasks (using the book, assessing knowledge, iconic-symbolic-anatomic representation and heraldic knowledge, symbolic writing and comprehension, emotional intelligence). All these through four simple sentences of instruction.
We can therefore state that there are as many cooperative roles as there are competencies and fields of competencies to be developed. I can assign individualized tasks by giving clear instructions consisting of one or two points to as many kids as the number of kids who have a personalized role. Therefore we should use our creative energy to define the roles and to instruct the kids through these roles as precisely as we can.
The above examples clearly show that roles have utmost importance in both implementing cooperative principles and guaranteeing individual development and individualisation. Besides being able to instruct the groups simultaneously we can guarantee the implementation of certain principles with their help in a way that they provide framework for personalized tasks. If we consider the place of the roles in cooperative learning from the perspective of the principles, we can state the following:
The application of the roles advances equal participation and access in small groups, as everyone has a personalised role.
With their help we can shape and form the simultaneous interactions because along the roles each and every participant can be instructed and moved at the same time.
The international literature also considers the complementary roles as one of the important tools of constructive interdependence. In our example, the whole of the domestic animals learnt becomes clear to everyone through the organised cooperation of various roles within the group – each and every group elaborate different sides of the same topic in a different way and to get to know the whole picture you need the work of every small group.
Roles help to make the limits of personal responsibility and accountability clear and put them into coherent form. In our example Johnny is making an album from the digitalized version of the pictures he chose – another step towards books - and thanks to Eve we get to know some grey cats and we shall hear only good things about the dogs from Rob.
The roles, however, reveal the tasks the individuals undertook together with their responsibilities and functions within the groups, not only for the players but also for the other group members and for the big group, too contributing to the establishment of cooperative publicity created step by step.
We have already shown the feature of cooperative roles in advancing competency-based development.
It is evident that a well-devised role also solves the problems related to the instruction and mobilization of those taking part in learning and, similarly to the structures implemented through cooperative learning, guide them towards the spirit of the fundamental principles. On the basis of the above we state that without cooperative and equal roles we cannot really talk about efficient cooperative learning.
The dramaturgy of roles
We can make the most of cooperative roles in cooperative learning by using tools for skills development and personalised tasks in a cooperative framework.
Devising the roles is a sort of dramaturgical task. We need to see the future activities of the small group and of its members and also that of the big group step by step. We need to transform this envisaged dramaturgy onto understandable levels.
The first level20 is naming the role.
This can be a telling name such as Encourager who encourages the group members to participate;
or Note Keeper who directs the note taking activity of the group, etc.
The next level is the character of the role. This is nothing else but a general task description, the description of the dramaturgical function it has in the cooperation.
The Encouragers ensure equal participation within the small and the big groups, too: they encourage everyone to equally participate in the work and also pay attention to the equal participation of the small groups. The Notaries take care of note taking so that everyone takes notes. Both when they need to take notes individually and when they have to take notes or make a presentation together. The character of the Task Master can be described by the sentence:
“Everybody, search.” Her role is to make it clear what the task to be accomplished is (everybody should find the task), and what solutions are possible (everybody should find solutions).
The score or play script of the role contains those concrete communication tools that the players can use successfully.
In the case of the Encourager, for example:
Question to everyone: “What do you think about this? Everyone should say her opinion one after another”.
Recalling: “Every opinion is very important, let’s listen to him, too.” or!”
Addressing: “What is your opinion about that?”
The Encouragers may use.
Door openers, too: “Could You say a bit more about this? It’s important what you want to say, go on!”etc.
The concrete cooperative structures and methods can be called the repertoire of the role.
Such is the Rally Robin which can be used efficiently by the Encourager, when, under his direction, everyone voices her opinion, collection and solution, etc. one after another. Similarly useful is the Window, when the members of the small group work together in a way that everyone’s information is put into the window that they draw together. What is more, they can also indicate similar opinions, collected data and solutions, etc.
The concrete cooperative principles connected to the given role provide the basis of character development. We may regard this the level of dramaturgy.
For the Encourager – as we have seen above – equal participation may be the basic principle. For the Time Keeper, responsible for the efficient use of available time, it is simultaneous interaction.
For the Note Keeper, responsible for taking notes, it is constructive interdependence (e.g. the use of legible writing). For the Task Master – as a result of keeping the task which relates to everyone – it is the principle of personal responsibility and accountability which becomes the guiding line.
Cooperative roles maybe created by the groups themselves, too. This is useful because we may enhance the cooperative autonomy of the small groups in this way.
In an experienced cooperative group I would start the process of creating such roles by making kids, experienced in cooperative work, collect various attributions:
“Everyone name two of his attributions that could be useful from the perspective of cooperation. Find also two other attributions that are important to be able to comprehend what you read. Name a few attributions that you think needs improving so that you can understand the texts better.”
If the members of the group know one another, they can make interviews in pairs. One of them lists the features that characterizes his partner and record those that the other one agrees with.
They then change roles and the one who has been described lists the features of her partner. In the case of individual work the Rally Robin could be used when the attributions would be written down onto a common page according to the questions.
Following the paired interview the characteristic features are introduced to the other group members in the form of paired introduction and this is how the competence map of the group is drafted.
After that the groups are given the eight tasks that should otherwise be accomplished together in the course of their learning. On the basis of their strengths and the skills to be improved the small groups have to select which task may enhance their improvement: “Decide which skills of yours needs improvement. Decide which task can be connected to a skill to be developed so it could assist the improvement of your classmate. Everyone should have two different tasks. Give a telling name to those responsible for the tasks assigned.”
Afterwards it is worth discussing how the useful cooperative features they collected may help to improve the targeted skills and the practice of the chosen role.
On the basis of the above it is evident that the dramaturgy of the cooperative roles may provide the cooperative groups with a structural tool organised at various levels. Through the roles a real inclusion, the real incorporation of those participating in the learning activities, can be achieved as these roles are mainly meant to assist the efficiency, effectiveness and equity of cooperation (e.g.
the Encourager takes care of not letting anyone lag behind or dominate, the Note Keeper makes sure that everyone really and not only seemingly takes notes, while the Task Master helps the group keep on carrying out the task... etc.).
Practicing the cooperative roles the participants, with the help of the cooperative principles, structures and methods, will sooner or later be able to organise their cooperative learning in an autonomous way. The fact that the participants practice and analyse cooperative roles – and we/they do not only directly analyse their spontaneous learning behaviour – makes reflective competence development possible in an efficient, effective and equitable way in the framework of cooperative learning.
Chapter 4
TEACHERS’ ROLE IN ENAHCNING COOPERATIVE LEARNING
4.1. Shaping teacher’s attitude
A cooperative teacher does not decide what an adequate reaction or attitude is, instead, he launches supportive and cooperative learning on the basis of accepting any attitude that is real.
The possibility of applying Rogers’ model
The attitude of the teacher has a crucial impact on the quality of the practice that is based on cooperative principles. The formation of teacher’ attitude is assisted by the discoveries of social sciences and their functional, effective and efficient models. Within the framework of cooperative learning the conditions of the learner-, and learning-centred teacher’s attitude, which is based on the client-centred psychotherapy of Rogers’ model, can clearly prevail. So everything that Rogers, his disciples and the researchers, developers and experts following them have revealed in relation to the roles and concrete practices of teachers can be successfully applied in the teaching-learning process built upon cooperative structures. The greatest challenge for a teacher is to consciously acquire the revealed patterns of behaviour and to practice them in a conscious way.
Among the essential conditions for learning Rogers emphasizes the use of real problems that students can experience. When, in the course of cooperative learning, we start with the unique interests, problems and questions of the individual we are then building upon the self-realisation and self-actualisation tendencies of the individual, which they tackle problems with. Through their psychotherapy research Rogers and his fellow researchers showed that this dimension of self-realisation is available for each person, regardless how heavy and thick layer of “psychological silt”
has been deposited on it.
Regarding Rogers it is important to emphasize that a cooperative teacher is able to show unconditional acceptance towards students who experience and express real problems, which means that he accepts the doubts, emotions and expectations of students in relation to the learning process, the teacher and themselves, whatever those might be. That is, she provides a chance not to know something, to determine topics alone, to solve problems, to ask questions and to have emotions against learning. This means that she accepts the actual emotional and intellectual state of the students and organises the process of development on the basis of those.
If I am a math teacher and if there is someone who hates math, I have to accept this feeling of him.
Not just “bury the whole thing” but instead, help the person define his antipathy against math as precisely as possible. If someone is allowed to say that she hates math and we help her express this feeling then, generally, it soon turns out that it is not math that she hates but the failures connected to math that she has difficulty to tolerate.
If I recognize that the protesting student needs success and real learning then I should look for or come up with a game that let him into the secrets of mathematics and make it possible for him to discover – on the basis of the self-confidence he gained in the games –mathematical concepts together with us.
It is an important condition of essential learning that the teacher should be credible when accepting emotions. This means that the teacher, instead of obeying some kind of compulsion or supposed teacher’s role, is able to accomplish this in a congruent way – to use the words of Rogers. Since such a teacher experiences himself as being himself, he is not only able to accept the internal world and emotions of his students but also to feel it with empathy and to express this towards those participating in learning in a way that they also feel this empathy sincere.
Cooperative learning may also involve the communicative tools for accepting and expressing feelings, expectations, demands and needs thanks to, among others, the work of Thomas Gordon, being Roger’s disciple himself. A future cooperative teacher may get to know the tools for expressing attention and interest and showing understanding - humming and passive listening, door-opener questions, active listening, self-expression, Dewey’s model of no-loose conflict resolution, tolerance towards value differences – mainly from his works as they appear in domestic literature. It is also here from where such a teacher may learn how to use these skills and involve them into her methodology. When children study in autonomous and cooperative groups and are allowed to learn following their own problems and helping one another then we are implementing the recognition of Rogers and Gordon that learners are competent in solving their own problems21. Using the tools of Gordon mentioned above, however, we can also preserve this autonomy in the course of cooperative learning.
When a teacher, trying to implement cooperative learning, sees that a small group is not able to solve a problem and, in the end, approaches the group and outlines the solution, she violates this particular autonomy. The message of her behaviour is that in reality they are unable to achieve the task without her, the “teacher”.
In practice we follow the principle that the members of small groups should first turn to their fellows and to the other members of the group with their questions. If we insist on this, we can implement Roger’s principle of acceptance in cooperative learning.
In the beginning small groups feel a bit strange and unusual that their teacher does not answer their questions but rather, make them turn to the other groups. Or, the teacher listens to their problems carefully without suggesting any solutions or providing any resources for their solution.
Searching for solutions feverishly and solving problems together within such real cooperation shape the learning large group into some sort of natural and fertile student community.
The needs and wants of the learning individuals form the basis of cooperative learning. So teachers not only have to simply accept the emotions of their students, but also need to establish an environment in the course of cooperative learning where such feelings, expectations and needs can increasingly be freely expressed, making essential learning possible for all of us.
The sources of learning provided in a cooperative environment are opportunities and not requirements that we enforce upon our students.
In my group, mentioned earlier - whose members do not read books and written texts –, for example, there was not only one compulsory reading, but at least 160 literary works that were suitable for their age group. I felt that it was important that everybody finds at least one book that she would willingly want to read, and that I have also read, so that we could discuss it for certain.
Providing freedom this way resulted in a situation that everybody truly read at least one novel, what is more, they asked me to suggest books from the list for them. Kids also suggested books to one another and had long conversations with me and with each other about what they had read. There were even kids who brought books from home and, although the school had a library, established a little library in his dorm room for his friends. Children started to “function” as a real community of book-lovers.
The teacher should be an expert of her field to an extent that in the case of even the most trivial interest or disinterest, she should be able to establish a learning environment where such student attitudes may be thematized as problems that someone can freely experience and where kids receive resources and suggestions with which they can solve and process the emerging problems.
4.2. New teacher’s roles: monitoring, intervention, correction
In general, every teacher recognizes that planning is of key importance regarding the establishment of cooperative learning structures. We hope that, on the basis of the previous chapters, compiling the first groups, personalising and harmonizing the aims of cooperation and competence development, devising the roles, providing the adequate resources and considering the concrete structures to be implemented appear, for the reader, too, as the important tasks of the teacher.
When implementing cooperative learning structures, what the teacher does, is mainly monitoring, that is, he leaves the learning autonomy of the groups intact and does not directly intervene into learning, doing it only indirectly, through the preparation-organisation of
When implementing cooperative learning structures, what the teacher does, is mainly monitoring, that is, he leaves the learning autonomy of the groups intact and does not directly intervene into learning, doing it only indirectly, through the preparation-organisation of