{"id":54294,"date":"2020-10-07T12:57:33","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T19:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=54294"},"modified":"2020-10-07T12:57:33","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T19:57:33","slug":"with-puzzle-classes-promote-cooperation-between-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/with-puzzle-classes-promote-cooperation-between-students\/","title":{"rendered":"With \u201cpuzzle classes\u201d, promote cooperation between students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Group work or \u201ccooperative learning\u201d is often used in education, whether in school, college, high school or university.\u00a0In 2018, a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on educational practices revealed that nearly one in two French teachers, out of 1400 people questioned, relied on work in small groups. within their class.<\/p>\n

While they generally consider cooperation as useful, in particular for promoting empathy, critical thinking or even the motivation of students, teachers and teachers do\u00a0not always experience<\/a>\u00a0the setting up of these experiences\u00a0positively<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Social psychology has long identified the difficulties associated with working in a group, such as the phenomena of\u00a0social laziness<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0group thinking<\/a>\u00a0, or even\u00a0conformism<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

In groups where cooperation is not structured effectively, some students may take advantage of the situation and not contribute to collective work: this is the phenomenon of social laziness.\u00a0Group thinking, on the other hand, emerges when group members need to reach consensus, when time and resource constraints are important.\u00a0In this case, individuals tend to conform to the majority, and the quality of the group product may be impacted.<\/p>\n

Set common goals<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Thus, unstructured group work can lead to a decrease in individual efforts.\u00a0Research in education indicates that there are different ways of structuring cooperative learning in order to optimize its effectiveness and to remedy the difficulties mentioned above.\u00a0Brothers David and Robert Johnson (2009) identified\u00a0several elements<\/a>\u00a0that determine the effectiveness of cooperation.<\/p>\n

First of all, we must establish a common goal and a situation where each member of the group is encouraged to get involved if they want to increase both individual and collective success.\u00a0This \u201cpositive interdependence\u201d generates opportunities for students to engage in group management and helping behaviors which, in turn, enhance learning.<\/p>\n

In an educational context, the common goal may consist of a presentation, a written report or of evaluations, collective or individual.\u00a0In order to reduce the effects of social laziness, researchers recommend\u00a0empowering participants<\/a>\u00a0by forcing them to account for their work.\u00a0The group as well as the members who constitute it must then be evaluated on their ability to meet the educational objectives set by the teacher.<\/p>\n

In this article, we have chosen to focus on one of these cooperative learning methods:\u00a0\u201cthe puzzle class\u201d<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0The latter was created by Aronson and his colleagues in the 1970s, in order to promote the integration of ethnic minorities following the desegregation of American schools.\u00a0Since its inception, over a hundred empirical articles have been published on the \u201cpuzzle class\u201d, which enjoys\u00a0significant\u00a0popularity<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0many teachers<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Learn to explain<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The \u201cpuzzle class\u201d is structured to follow three main steps, described below.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndividual\u201d phase:<\/strong>\u00a0Initially, each member of the groups (made up of 4 to 6 students) works individually on part of the material to be learned beforehand divided by the teacher (here 3 content represented by a different color).\u00a0In our example, it could be a synthesis of information on additional themes characterizing the period such as: the great discoveries (Blue), the absolute monarchy in France (Yellow) or the French Revolution (Green).<\/p>\n

\u201cExpert\u201d phase:<\/strong>\u00a0Secondly, each of the students leaves their group to meet, as part of a new working group, the students who have the same body of information as them.\u00a0They thus form a group of experts to exchange and synthesize this information.\u00a0For example, group 1 will be made up of students who have worked on the sub-section \u201cthe great discoveries\u201d.<\/p>\n

This step of the process is particularly important because it gives less experienced students the opportunity to build on their more experienced peers in order to gain the best control over the body of information assigned to them.\u00a0\u201cExpert\u201d groups give all students the opportunity to get a clear idea of \u200b\u200bhow to present the material to their peers, regardless of previous inequalities in skills or preparation<\/p>\n

\u201cPuzzle\u201d phase:<\/strong>\u00a0Finally, the pupils return to their original groups and will present the material on which they have become \u201cexperts\u201d to their classmates.\u00a0Thus, each group has access to the entire content of the course by pooling the knowledge of the different members, like a puzzle.
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