About Cooperative Learning Projects. Miguel Carazo

The Musical Chairs

This was the first group, and he talked about some good ideas like for example:

The teacher has to know their students, their roots, so he can know better how are they going to work and how can he prepare the lessons for them to work harder. The teacher is a bit like a guide and he must stimulate the students.

When working in teams, these must be formed by different students, so that they can all learn from each other.

The activity they proposed was great, because we had to divide in groups and search for information of different countries, so that we did the same activity but choosing different type of information.

Amigos del Football

We’ve learned when not to say advantages and disadvantages. We´ve learned that there are different types of teams. Base teams, expert teams and spontaneous. Celebration in groups is important, we must know how to do it, and be respectful.

There are different cooperative learning methods.

Unknowns

We all have doubts, and we must see the teacher as a guide who can help us. Our work may be improved by watching the others’ work.

Our team plans have two objectives. Establish long and short goals. And also have regular reflections, we must analyse the team situation and then make decisions.

Other good idea is to have a review of the team performance. Here it is showed how the team has worked, problems, good points, and finally we make a conclusion.

Dumbledore Teachers’ Army

The presentation is quite original so as they use the Daily Prophet to present their work. Then they showed their ideas in the different pages of the newspaper.

About these new ideas there are some as having an appropriate use of interpersonal skills by helping each other to make a better work. Individual accountability, everyone is important, if I don't do my work, the others are not going to do their work.

Good idea giving a bonus to people who have a higher mark than the 80% of the class.

Promoting learning techniques:

Problem sets: homework is done in groups so that children can see that if someone doesn't work at home, they see how they can be isolated from their group. By knowing how they work the teacher can see who works or not, and he can structure new groups and try to solve these problems of participation.

Labs and projects: the teacher has an individual test about the subject.

Peer lead team: a problem is given to a team and a “guide” is going to help the students to solve it but without giving the answer.

Peer editing, each pair check the work from other group, and finally each group correct their own work taking into account the opinion of the other group.

Modern Students

As a new idea is trust, confidence, we must trust our mates, because is important that if we want someone to do something we must trust him and think that he will do it. Importance of visual contact, cooperative learning is not preparing everything separately. We must talk, debate, and give a feedback after the work is done.

Here there are some tips for teachers, we must form teams of 3-4 people, which have to be heterogeneous, we must promote positive interdependence by making them assume different roles; providing individual accountability, someone is responsible for ensuring that everyone understands everything; help students to develop teamwork skills with team rules; the teacher must supervise the group so that he can help them to solve the internal problems; we as teachers have to explain them why and what are they doing this; finally we must give them a feedback!

Team Perk

Something important we learned with this team is to differentiate a normal tournament, from a Team cooperative tournament. In a TGT all the students win, so what we get is a winner class, and not a winner group or a winner student. The activity they proposed was to create between all of us a list of class rules, where we discovered that although we wanted to ban the use of mobile phones, it was good, because they can be used in a good way, and also we needn’t have to ban the students to talk, so we needed to modify some of the rules in order to make them better understandable and make them easier to follow.

Wanderlust

This is the team I liked more, they had a perfect and original presentation by recording theirselves on videos. Also they took advantage of Miguel's drawing abilities, which was great.
This was very dynamic and the motivated us to pay attention, and this was perfect. Finally the activity was like a summary of all the activities because we had to write about the things we have learned through all the work.

About cooperative learning projects. Amaya Retuerta Mingo

My name is Amaya Retuerta Mingo. During the last weeks all of the gropus of our class have presented their projects about cooperative learning and now I'm going to speak about all of them.

MUSICAL CHAIRS

This was the first group to present the cooperative learning project. They explained correctly and fluently the theory and all the ideas were right. Their presentation was good and I liked a lot their idea of doing a poster instead of doing a PowerPoint presentation or something similar. It was also clear, and all the ideas that were on it.

They explained the cooperative learning on a clear way like if it was for people who didn't know anything about theme.

To finish their project they do an interesting and enjoyable activity, which consisted on some boxes with different information about different countries. We have to decorate the boxes and look for more information and later we had to explain it to the rest of the class.

AMIGOS DEL FOOTBALL

They used a PowerPoint presentation to present their project, defining what is the cooperative learning and how it can be used.

They also talked about the advantages and difficulties (instead of disadvantages) of the cooperative work and how important is to reward all the pupils and motivate them to improve.

Their activity consisted on a diana, in which all the members of each group had to write information about us, like our favourite color, film and kind of music and our hobbies. The purpose of it was to know everybody of the group. Later one person of each group had to tell the rest of the class the information what he/she had learnt about his/her partners.

TEAM PERK

The project of this group was very creative for me. They did a very good presentation, explaining clearly the concepts and fluently.

I liked their idea of taking some pictures of a real class of an school, to show some characteristics of the cooperative learning. The information they gave about this theme was interesting. I also liked that their personal commitments weren't as similar as the other gropus. Some of them wanted to improve their creativity and I think that it is an important feature of a teacher.

Their activity was really funny. All the members of the groups had to say rules of the work in group at the same time we were passing a tennis ball. The people who had the ball in his/her hands when the time was over were the people wo had to write on the blackboard what the members of their groups had said. Later all together decided if the rules were good to work in a group, in class or both. The activity was funny and interesting at the same time that we reviewed the rules we have learnt during our life. We also learnt new things.

UNKNOWNS

This is one of the group that I liked most. Their presentation was really interesting and clear and it was also different than the other's ones. It was an interesting Prezi.

They have introduced interesting ideas like the rules for a good work, like help the others, write the goals... They have used quotes from other authors, like one that I liked a lot which sais: "None of us is as good as all of us togeher", Ray Kroc. The meaning of this sentence is real because all of us can work good individually but if we work with a group, the work will be much more good. Another idea that it was important for me was the group reflection, in which we have to say what has gone good and bad, what things we have to change and improve, etc. Their personal commitments were interesting, because most of them were that they have to listen to the others and their ideas and it's good for them to recognize and change it.

The activity they did was funny. We have to pass a ball to other classmate and at the same time we had to say something about us, our hobbies, likes and dislikes... It was good to know the others.

DUMBLEDORE TEACHERS ARMY

The presentation of this project was good and different. They did a PowerPoint presentation, which was based on the newspaper of the film "Harry Potter" and it was so nice. It also had some gifs that caught my attention immediately.

The concepts they explained were interesting and useful but the problem was that sometimes they didn't explained clearly. However, I liked the new concepts they explained, such as the conditions that satisfy some criteria like face-to-face interaction for at least part of the work, appropriate use of interpersonal skills, positive interdependence and individual accountability.

Their acctivity gave us the opportunity to know better other classmates. We had to answer some questions about us and later some of us had to explained it to the rest of the class.

MODERN STUDENTS

They explained very well the concept of cooperative learning. They also introduced new concepts like trust-building, leadership, decision-making, communication and conflict management. For me, the most important are communication, decision-making and conflict management. Communication is an essential thing inside a group, to put in common ideas, opinions, proposals, etc. With it, we go into the making- decision. But we need to know how to manage a conflict inside a group. We must respect everbody in a group and we can reach a conclusion with democracy and respect.

I like the example they gave of a team diary basing the idea on the serie they are refearing to, "Modern Family". It was a funny way to explain that concept. I liked a lot.

The activity they did was really enjoyable. We learnt that we can cooperate in groups even if we can't speak, we have to find different ways to reach our goals. In this case, we had to communicate with the rest without speaking to find the people wo had the same stickers than us.

WANDERLUST

The project of this group was really different and funny. It was the group I liked most. They presented with some videos that they recorded. They had to work hard to do all these things.

The concepts and ideas that they explained were good and they explained it clearly and fluently.

The purpose of their activity was the thing that caught my attention more. They organized us in groups and we had to write individually what we had learnt about cooperative learning and what we liked most. Later, we had to put in common the ideas in our group and write down the general ideas. What they were trying to show us is that we can be really good working individually, but we are better working in a cooperative way. 

COOPERATIVE LEARNING COMMENTS - Elvira Astola

Musical Chairs

(Beatriz, Irene Megías, María Jiménez, David Ávila and Ayperi Sal)

They were the first and they did it very well. They started the presentation making reference to a guide so they made a poster to explain us everything.

The poster was so useful because as they were the first group to present the project, it helped us to understand the main ideas of the cooperative learning. They only wrote the most important things so it was so clear and easy. They also saw us four sections with the different techniques and their main ideas so it was easier for us.

The last (but not least) thing that they did was the activity. It was one of my favourites. First they made groups and then they gave us a box and some papers with pictures and information from different countries; the objective was working in groups and knowing a little bit more about that country. As I said before it was one of my favourites because it was fun and creative.

Amigos del Football

(Sandra Fernández, Alejandro Díaz, Melike Cetin and Çisem Yüksel)

This group gave so much importance to the definition of the method cooperative learning and how can we use it. This was so useful for me because they were the second group to present the project and I got so much more information about the main concepts.

Other thing that I think it is important to remark is that this group also named as significant the importance of celebrating the good and the bad things that the pupils do referring to the issue of homework, exams and all the efforts they make because it is so important to motivate them.

At the end they did their activity that was focused on getting all the members in the group to know each other. It was a diana and I found it interesting because the design was different.

The unknowns

(Marina Cáceres, Alfonso Llanos, Virginia Madrid y Marta Moyano)

They made a prezi. It was quite good. I used to hate this programme but I have to say that they made it very well and very clear too. One thing I appreciate when I see others presentations is the clarity of the explanation and they got the point.

The things which caught my attention was first of all the way they explained the figure of the teacher, not as someone who corrects but as someone who helps. And the second thing was the fact that they would like to rotate positions referring to the roles; I loved this idea.

Finally, they explained us their activity: they made a ball of paper and told the class to make a circle, then, we had to throw the ball to other classmate at the same time that we say things we like or we dislike. The objective was to get to know the rest of the class.

Team Perk

(Silvia Jiménez, Sara Granizo, Javier San José, Irina Meca)

This group added some interesting things like for example a page with a table of self-assessment which I think it is a good idea because it is important to recognize the things you are good at and the ones that you need to improve.

In my opinion they had a very good organization, they all talked more or less the same and their English was fine. The last fact is not as important as the rest but I think it is a good idea to tell them about it.

For their activity, they brought some tennis balls and made some groups. The main objective was to make a review of all the important things essential for the proper functioning of the group. Finally, one of the members of the groups had to write them all in the blackboard so we could compare with the other groups.

Modern Students

(Borja de la Cal, María Encinas, Patricia, Elia Rueda y Sabanneh)

Referring to concepts, this groups was (in my opinion) the most complete. They did mention to things that other groups don’t.

I find very interesting the tips they made for the teachers to help them with the difficulties of the cooperative learning like, for example, making team rules, talking about group problems and promoting positive interdependence by assigning different roles to each member of the group.

Other thing that I liked a lot about their presentation was the skills they made which we had to prepare for the next class and then they asked us for it. It was a good way of learning.

Finally, as all the groups, they did the activity. I think it was my favourite one; we (all the class) had to make a big circle and close our eyes and they started putting stickers with different colours and shapes in our fronts; then we opened the eyes and started looking for the people who had the same sticker as us. The main objective was to search for yourself but also help the others to find their group. It was quite funny.

Dumbledore Teacher's Army

(Gonzalo Gallego, María Pérez, Gema Gutierrez and Adalisa Licu)

This group started the presentation explaining the concept of cooperative learning as all the groups but they also add some extra information like for example that the evaluation is not only a thing from the teacher to a pupil, it is also something that the pupil have to do to him/herself to know the things she or he have more problems with so he/she can spend more time on it and improve.

The only bad thing I would remark about their project was that it looked as if they did all the things separated and then they put it in common.

To finish the presentation they did the activity; in pairs we made questions to our partners and finally we had to describe them. It was good because the most of the time we did activities to get to know our classmates but we always changed the couples so the person we were talking with was different.

Wanderslust

(Sara Mora, Miguel González y Belén Jiménez)

In order to the theoretical part of the project, this one was my favourite group. They made a presentation in a different way in comparison with the rest of the groups.

They made some videos to explain us all the concepts so we can see it in a different and more amusing way and it was so clear and entertaining. They insisted very much in the definition of the different groups and the different techniques.

The effort of the videos plus the fact that one of its components leaves, in my opinion, deserves an extra recognition.

As everyone, the last thing they did was the activity but, as they were the last group to present the project, they decided to do something different and useful at the same time.

They divided the class in three groups and then they told us to put in a paper all the things that we (individually) have learned during the presentations. Then, we put in common the ideas and wrote the ones that our classmates said.

In conclusion, it was very useful to review all concepts.

By: Elvira Astola 

About Cooperative Learning, Zuleika´s comments

Musical chairs

Taking into account that it was the first group to expose, the presentation and the activity was one of them that I liked.

His presentation was very enjoyable; they supported with a power point that explaining step by step what had to explain exactly to understand what cooperative learning is.

Perhaps some failures helped to better understand cooperative learning as what said Yolanda over the teacher, that we should not say that he is only a guide, but also has many other functions as do the class, find the materials you need and give you counts whether objectives have been met, I think the goals both individual and group have been met in the group : the organization of the group was good, all members of the group knew of that spoke was the theme, the presentation in English was very entertaining and fluent and they knew very well answer the questions.

In relation to the activity, it was a clear example of cooperative learning. The idea of creating new groups was interesting and fun, the activity was about geography of each country. In addition, must be taken into account that the members of the group were present at all times to guide us if we had any questions, and materials support facilitated the understanding of the activity was prepared.

¡Good presentation!

Amigos del football

Of this group, I have to highlight the fluidity to present in public, it was very organized and ones were supplemented to others in the presentation. Also it must be said that presentation, for me, was very full of information. It wasn't as visible as other groups, and this made his explanation was not clear.

In this presentation, we learned that cooperative learning has no disadvantages, but complications that arise in the group, highlighting the importance that has to know work well in this type of method. After the intervention of the teacher, they and we had clear this concept that helps us to better understand.

The activity was very funny: 

The people of the base team could have known that they had in common and new things could discover colleagues, doing it in a different way.

Team Perk

This team has made a good presentation and everyone knew what the topic was about. The thinks I liked more were the evaluation sheet that they put in the presentation and the photographs in a real class to explain the different types of distribution in a cooperative learning class.

They spoke about the rules that its one of the most important content in this work and also because there activity was related to this part of the presentation.

This activity was with a tennis balls. We have to through to the different members of the group and each of them have to say a rule to put in the class. Then, pass the 2 minutes, we have to use the memory to remember all the rules that our friends said and put everything in common.

It was an easy understood presentation and every member of the group have spook in a fluency way.

Unknowns

It was a different presentation from all the previous ones since, apart from use prezi and make more dynamic presentation, added new terms as regular reflection and short term gols that earlier groups didn’t said before.

The prezi on the other hand, was very well made; they only wrote about the important points, without adding unnecessary information and refers to the authors of those who spoke.

The new definitions mentioned before help us work better as team since we know that we must set goals and meet them with our working group, for a session or for the entire course. And for this, we must reflect on what is right or wrong and so, make decisions together.

Dumblendore teachers army

The presentation was one of the most original, doing mention to their group name. Although, perhaps by making it beautiful, was, for me, a little difficult to understand.

The contents were clear and although the professor asked many questions that they knew how to explain them. Perhaps what should be improved is the flowing to explain the information and order in his head the ideas they want to explain.

They added new interesting terms like "promoting positive interdependence" summarizing that students should be equal and "providing individual accountability" where individual work will be taken into account not only the work in group, each member has to perform individual tests to demonstrate that it can do only things.

The presentation itself, lasted a long time, and it seems to me that they might have invested more in the activity which was very entertaining. The fact of separating us for questions with another partner helps learn us more each other, promoting listening and memory by having to explain what your mate told you.

Modern students

The presentation of this group was differently from the others, attempted to explain in a poster. The ideas were very clear and the members of the group helped themselves among them. Perhaps missed some more attentive when presenting their work but rest, everything went very well. This group added new information about trust in the other members of your team, the leadership that each member must have and as it should be rotating, and those definitions are very important for understanding how should we work to make it work.

They also had the great idea of giving tips to teachers to take a group and this was one of the most important points of this group.

The most I liked, with respect to other groups, was the activity. This activity was a clear example of how it should work in group, making us understand that you between the help of everyone, we can reach our goal and is not always bad to rely on others.

Wanderlust

The best presentation, for me, worthy of a 10. The way to explain the cooperative learning was very original, relying on videos with drawings and representations of the same members of group. In addition, it shows the effort and dedication of the work, trying to find the best way to explain what working group and the different techniques that exist for this purpose.

At the beginning of the explanation, we also divided into sporadic groups that we did the activity of the end.

Perhaps the activity may have been more dynamic but I think that it also greatly influenced the little time we had. This activity was as a closure to all others, where we put the conclusion of what had most liked and thought more important in this type of learning both individually and group.