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Cooperative learning is a teaching method where students can interact with each other in teams to accomplish a given set of goals and objectives. Teaching is not done in the form of a teacher talking to students in a collective group. Good cooperative learning strategies incorporate the development and nurturing of socially acceptable interactive skills. The idea behind the implementation of cooperative learning strategies in modern teaching methods is that the overall performance of a group improves drastically because the total knowledge of all the members in the group is pooled together to work towards one common goal.

Apart from the improvement in the verbal and nonverbal communication skills, other skill sets like goal achievement, goal planning, mental concentration, problem solving, self-identification, cognitive development, and emotional intelligence are enhanced with the continuous use of proper cooperative learning strategies. Unfortunately, there is a lack of proper implementation of such learning strategies in a large number of schools. The teachers do not want to go through the hassle of getting their students to join group activities when they can have the students facing the instructor and listening to what he says. Engaged learning needs to focus on the aforementioned skills in teaching lessons and methods so that cooperative learning systems can be implemented in a successful manner.

Cooperative learning strategies begin with getting the students to interact with each other as members of teams instead of as just individuals in one classroom. Once they get past the nonverbal divide, they can communicate with each other by listening to each other’s ideas, views, and thoughts for the achievement of one particular goal. Many people are under the impression that cooperative learning is restricted to improving social skills. That is not so; it is a well thought-out learning process and strategy that is utilized for the improvement of the student’s academic performance.

Cooperative learning strategies will need a little bit of research on the part of the instructor who needs to think up lesson plans that will develop the skill sets that are missing in the students. Repetitive activities are helpful in the improvement of such skills. Remember that learning objectives and specific goals are to be reinstated with cooperative learning only when the instructor sees that the student is showing the particular required skill. If the desired result is not achieved, you need to do a reassessment of the performance problems and try something else. Otherwise, there is going to be a repetition of Einstein’s idea of insanity—repeating something again and again hoping against hope that the result will be different this time!

Some of the strategies that can be used in cooperative learning programs can include the making up of groups with pupils of different academic levels and abilities. The idea is that all the students need to cooperate with each other to achieve the given goal. Group accountability as well as individual accountability in the matters of problem solving and helping their group members is taught through cooperative learning exercises like jigsaws and group investigations. All the students will need to participate in the final result, thus ensuring full cooperation among the group members.

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