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Teacher Education

Notes the sessions. During such sessions you should, however, guide the interaction and provide
feedback to the chairperson. This would enable the students to conduct the interactive
session by themselves.
24.3.2 Group Activities Involving Teamwork
As stated earlier, group controlled instruction is of two types, one involving interactive sessions
which you have just gone through and the other based on group activities involving team worlk.
In this section you will study those activities which involve team mode and the process of their
organisation. Activities involved team mode can be organised regularly for various subjects like
maths, science, social studies and languages. Considering the nature and the procedure of
organking these activities, there are three methods of learning involving team work, viz.,
cooperative learning, group project and group investigations. Let us discuss each of these methods
in detail.
(i) Cooperative Learning Methods: In order to develop in students the skill of cooperation,
belongingness and team spirit and to reduce individual competition amongst them, you should
adopt the cooperative learing methods. Cooperative learning is not individual learning but
group or peer learning. In cooperative learning, students work together to achieve a common
goal. There is greater participation and involvement of the students in cooperative learning. The
feeling of belongingness produces positive attitudes and team spirit in the students. Cooperative
learning is specifically useful for learning various skills and knowledge. You should, therefae, be
familiar with the process of organking cooperative learning in your class or school. You may
follow the steps suggested below:
(i) Organising cooperative learning: For organising cooperative learning, you should ensure
that students work in groups and each group member works in a cooperative manner to
achieve the common goal. The specific activities you have to -anise are as follows:
(a) Formation of groups : You should divide the class into small grbups. While forming
groups, you should keep in mind the hetrogeneity among students in respect of sex,
intelligence, religion, etc. Each group should consist of a cross-section of the class: boys,
girls; above average, average and below average students in terms of intelligence. You
should try to form groups by including students from different communities.
(b) Reparation of cooperative learning sheetp: You should prepare these sheets far all the
topics to be taught through cooperative learning. These learning sheets consist of objectives,
activities to be done by the group members in accordance with the content of the topic
and evaluation items based on the objectives.
(c) Orientation to the students: As students are used to working individually, they have to
be oriented properly to work together. You should inform them about how cooperative
learning will be arganised. Every learning point should be discussed collectively. A student
who does not understand could be explained well by another student. They should work
as a team to achieve the set goals. They should be informed that they will not be evaluated
individually; rather the entire group performance will be assessed. The group as a whole
should ensure that every individual members of the group learns every concept Average
performance of the group will be the index of group learning or progress.
(d) Conducting the cooperative learning session: You should allot time for cooperative learning
sessions and distribute cooperative leaming sheets to the groups. All groups should carry
out learning activities according to guidelines given in the sheets. These leaming sheets
should provide flexibility to the students. The students may mow the activities according
to the requirement of the group members. They may discuss the problem, ask questions,
explain concepts and solve problems according to their convenience. At this stage you
should observe how cooperatively the groups are working. You should give feedback fo
each group about whether they are proceeding in the right direction and gaining from the
session. Finally, the group should report about what they have done and how they have
performed. The pedcmnance reported should be the average performance of the group.
(ii) Advantages of cooperative learnins: In cooperative learning an informal situation is created
based on mutual dependence, feeling of being-accepted, liked and supported by fellow

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