Cooperative Learning or CL is one strategy that has been adapted for intercultural groups of adults here in Denmark. CL is based on the premise that all of us are better than one of us and that in turn is based on research showing the effectiveness of group learning from the 1930s. CL is based on forming small groups of 4-5 learners that each have a specific role to play in finding answers to an essential or unGoogleable question.
The roles rotate with each new project question, as does the group membership. This is to avoid stereotyping people so that the one with neat handwriting does not always end up producing the team’s final presentation posters for example. Swapping roles stretches both the individual and the others’ perception of what that individual can do. These roles are not about dividing the content 4-5 ways but are about giving group members the responsibility for different aspects of the group learning process. Each role is essential to the success of the group which means that the group cannot succeed unless all the roles are fulfilled.
- The guide‘s responsibility is to ensure that everyone in the group understands the question, that everyone contributes to the task, to call the teacher as needed and to ensure that all group members get the help they need.
- The resource person needs to ensure that the group has the information they need and uses it appropriately. In the digital age this would also include assessing the trustworthiness of any online resource used.
- The trust builder‘s role is to ensure that everyone in the group is heard, that conflicts are resolved and to ensure that a positive tone is maintained.
- The materials person ensures that the group have all the physical resources they need to complete the job. This may include access to digital devices where appropriate.
- The reporter is responsible for ensuring that the group’s work is ready for presentation to the larger group, agrees with the group what will be presented and how and keeps an eye on the time to make sure that results are ready on schedule.
The teacher’s role is to ensure that the project is moving forward in every group through a facilitation process. This mean unblocking logjams, be they intellectual or interpersonal conflicts. Most important is to step away once the logjam is gone to allow the group to resume its work.
There are also a set of guidelines which every learner must follow to allow the completion of the work which is the main goal. These include that the project must be completed. You are not done until all are done; that you must play your allocated role; that you have a right to ask for help and a duty to help when asked.
The CL approach has been used successfully by the Intercultural Centres in Copenhagen and Aarhus (now closed) with migrant adults since 1972. CL includes elements of Alan November’s work and the importance of group work advocated by Sugata Mitra and his Self-Organised Learning Environment (SOLE) model.
One of the main effects of Cooperative Learning is to raise the status of everybody in the room and especially to raise the status of individuals who may perceive themselves as low status because of their home culture. And when talking specifically about migrant adults in western cultures, then the approach is also a good fit from an intercultural point of view since 80% of the world’s population have a bias towards identification with the group as against an individualistic view of the world. (Hammond)
Sources:
SOL Samarbejde Om Læring by Inge Thorning and Gitte Sinding 2001, CDK Forlag
Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond, 2015, Corwin
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