Lesson 18 Cooperative and Experiential Learning

 Adapted from Bulusan, et al. (2019)

 Cooperative Learning

                        Cooperative learning allows many opportunities to develop learners’ interpersonal skills. It would give them experiences on how they can properly interact with the others and at the same time listen and learn from their groupmates. Cooperative learning is also a type of constructivist teaching because it allows the creation and innovation of knowledge through group interaction and active participation of each member.

            The following are the features of cooperative learning:

  1.      Students are actively engaged, thus, developing in each member a collaborative spirit.
  2.      Each member is challenged to give his or her best because it can create a healthy and competitive spirit.
  3.      It allows learners creativity and innovation because they interact with people their age, peers, or classmates.
  4.      It develops positivity like open-mindedness, humility, and give-and-take attitude, as well as listening skills.
  5.      It reduces pressure from work and creates a positive classroom atmosphere.

When cooperative learning is used as an instructional strategy, proper guidance should be established. Clear instructions should be given before grouping. Expectations and outputs should be made clear so that learners will not be wasting their time during their groupings. Cooperative learning usually follows the three stages below:

  1.      Grouping the learners. Sometimes, learners can also be given a chance to choose their groupmates depending on the nature of the task given. Teachers should be creative. Groupings should be varied now and then so that learners get to experience working with their classmates with different talents and characteristics.
  2.      Assigning tasks. Tasking is a vital component of cooperative learning. Everybody should clearly understand what is expected from them and what kind of output are they supposed to do accomplish. Clear and concrete instructions should be given by the teacher, like the time element involved to finish the task, materials to use, the role of the members and the likes. This way time is also well spent.
  3.      Monitoring task collaboration. Teachers need to also actively monitor how task are done. Each member should perform his or her assigned role. Learners should be free to interact and to comment on each other’s work.

 

Experiential Learning

            Actual hands-on activities are still the most effective means of learning. Experiences that are direct and purposeful are still the learner’s best opportunity to master a concept or a skill. Based on Edgar Dale’s cone of experiences, direct and purposeful experiences are rich experiences that the senses bring from which ideas, concepts and generalizations are constructed. Realities can be brought to the classroom through the planned activities of the teacher. In planning the delivery of the lesson or topic, the way experiences are processed and used in the classroom make it easier for the learner to internalized what has been taught. They can see and feel that what is being learned is a part of their real-life situations. Experiences through the planned activities of the teacher is a way of achieving a goal or objective in learning. Learning by doing then is an essential element in discovering and constructing new knowledge and concepts.

            Contrived experiences are substitute for real things, objects, or situations. Examples of these are models, mock-ups, specimen, simulations and even games. These are brought and performed in the classroom because not all real things can be brought to the classroom. Substitutes like these can also bring near-to-real life experiences. In addition, experiential learning can also take the form of dramatized experiences like plays, pageants, tableau, pantomime, puppets, and role-playing among others.

            Learners enjoy when they take active roles in experiential learning activities. Teachers challenge them to come up with their creative style of presentation. With all their access to varied information combined with their experiences, creation and construction of new concepts are seen visibly from them.

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