Tag Archives: cooperative learning

Every Team is Better and Worse Off Because You’re On It

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Atul Gawande, one of my favorite authors, is about to gain a wider audience through this new book that will do very well.

His New Yorker essay, Cowboys and Pit Crews, got me thinking about how we live our lives on a never ending series of teams whether grade school classrooms, athletic teams, art and music based teams, community groups, home owners associations, church councils, families, school faculties, work teams, book clubs, special interest groups, political campaigns, boards of directors, etc.

You would never guess that if your only frame of reference was elementary, secondary, and higher education classrooms in the United States. Students almost always work on things individually and faculty almost always assess students individually. Sure, sometimes students work in small groups, but they’re not taught to be thoughtful observers of small group dynamics. It’s rare that they’re ever asked why some small groups work well and others don’t. Too often, teachers wrongly assume students already know how to be good teammates. As a result, students tend to be clueless about group dynamics.

And since teamwork doesn’t factor into student evaluations, they’re even less self aware of their team-based strengths and weaknesses. They’re hardly ever asked the most basic group process related questions such as, “What do you do well as a team member? What’s most challenging for you when working closely with others? Where could you improve?”

Every person, you included, has specific skills, knowledge, and personal attributes that benefit and hamper all of the teams they are on at any one time. Which of your skills, knowledge, and personal attributes do your team’s often use to positive advantage? And how does your presence on teams sometimes limit their effectiveness? What could you do better as a teammate?

Aren’t sure how to answer those questions? Welcome to the “Almost Everybody” Club. It’s not your fault. Individualism is so pervasive in American life, schools think about students as cowboys  and cowgirls despite the fact they’ll live their lives on pit crew after pit crew.

 

Small Group Cooperative Learning

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Too many teachers throw students into small groups and expect meaningful learning to ensue.

They don’t discuss or teach small group interpersonal skills. They may not think through how best to group students of different interests and abilities. They may not clearly communicate or model their expectations. And they may not check to see that the students truly understand what to do before telling them to begin working.

So instead of getting right to work, students end up talking about what they think they’re supposed to do. And because the expectations and steps aren’t posted anywhere, the teach frantically runs from group to group answering clarifying questions. One or two of the students do the bulk of the group work while the others passively coast.

Then the teach doesn’t make time to challenge students to reflect on and identify what they did and didn’t do well within their small groups. Too many teachers wrongly assume that small group cooperative learning skills are intuitive; consequently, they don’t have to teach them. As a result, most groups are dysfunctional, the sum rarely if ever equals more than the individual parts, and students develop negative associations with small group cooperative learning.

They end up carrying around invisible backpacks filled with negative group experiences. “Not group work again.” Often in high schools, it’s easy to detect a pervading sense of small group doom and gloom which teachers often mistakenly chalk up to “laziness” or “immaturity”.

Teachers aren’t alone. Coaches sometimes refer to team chemistry, but rarely if ever teach how to be a good teammate. Again, they assume the requisite interpersonal skills—listening, encouraging, and problem solving for example are built-in, even though there’s ample evidence they’re not. Orchestra conductors, youth pastors, drama teachers, employers, and parents often fail to teach young people how to prepare for and contribute more positively to their inside and outside of school small groups.

To the detriment of meaningful learning, we focus on work products at the expense of work processes.