Month: May 2021

Based on the office of research (1992), cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy for each student of different levels of ability in small teams, using various learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn and creating an atmosphere of achievement” (The office of research, 1992). 

Here, I list all characteristics of a successful cooperative learning:  

1. Students work together in small groups containing three to five members 

2. Students are positively interdependent

3. Students need to accomplish their own common tasks or structured learning activities

4. Students are individually accountable for their work or learning  

5. Group processing for their final goals 

6. Positive social skills in promotive interaction 

The prepared topic of our group is to explain the basic R language and simple programming of RStudio for young students. I think cooperative learning is in line with the teaching goals in our group, which is the most important part when we prepare to teach. For example, the first goal of our group is to make young students understand why they should learn the R language and the wide range of uses of RStudio in the future. In cooperative learning, my team members and I need to prepare a lot of materials to introduce the actual use and the development of the R language to make each group member clearly understand that RStudio is the main programming tool in many research and analysis tasks. Like us as teachers, students should also have the process of cooperative learning in their own group studies. 

If you want to learn more about the common strategy of cooperative learning roles in the classroom, I strongly recommend you to listen to the 60 second Youtube video linked below. This is a very good resource, which is more practical than what I have said here. 

I have also embedded a summary video below, which more simply defines the cooperative teaching structure. The video also shows some strategies on how to create groups and classroom examples, such as think-pair-share and jigsaw. 

Reference

Edutopia. (2018, November 2). 60 Second-Strategy: Cooperative learning Roles [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR6rTKPkjgQ 

Teachings in Education. (2017, October 5). Cooperative Learning Model: Strategies & Examples [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/cnkKHL_dyGE

The Office of Research. (1992). Education Research Consumer Guide. The Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) of the U.S. Department of Education. https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/cooplear.html 

From the article “Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism…”, “To be successful, meaningful, and lasting, learning must include all three of these crucial factors: activity (practice), concept (knowledge), and culture (context).” (Brown et al., 1989) I do not fully agree with all these factors because I think self-determination of study is the primary factor.  

I consider that the content of the article “How Should Instruction be Structured?” makes me feel puzzled. Therefore, I checked the introduction of behavioral theory on google search and combined the examples of cognitive strategies provided in the article to think about the relationship between theoretical cues and cognitive levels from my personal high school experience in China.  

I have been the least good at memorizing articles or knowledge points until now. I occasionally give up the task of memorizing knowledge points during my university study because I prefer to analyze the answers to the questions. Only solving problems is not a complete knowledge structure but the previous “experience” should be used to innovate the knowledge memory in my brain to achieve a cumulative construction process for specific problems.  

My best learning experience is that my parents have the ability to send me out of China to study at the University of Victoria in Canada. This international learning method changed my previous learning environment. I entirely agree with the discussion of the instructional designers in the article. Professional economic knowledge should be utilized in reality. Personally, I can apply the knowledge of business related to multiple cultures, basic economic principles, and management behaviors to my life experience through part-time jobs. 

In the context of the teacher’s discussion of climate change issues in high school, the teacher’s teaching methods will be divided into three forms of doctrine. First, behaviorists will focus on the importance of performance consequences, such as the melting of glaciers due to climate change, frequent natural disasters, and many unpredictable threats to human life in the future. Second, cognitivism will focus on guiding students to process and interact with the instructional design system. For example, we should pay attention to the protection of the environment in our daily lives. Using environmentally friendly and low-carbon shopping bags, advising parents to use public transportations rather than frequently driving cars. Third, constructivists are communicators who can equate learning with creating meaning from experience, such as paying attention to the causes of climate warming and combining the teacher’s own experience to make students think about innovative possible solutions.   

I consider myself a constructivist. Based on my past three years of study at UVIC, I have constructed my own knowledge base in the fields of economics and business. For example, I concluded that finance and sales are full of a rigorous approach during my second-year business courses, such as Com220, Com250, and Com240. Besides, I realized that cultural differences and risk management awareness must be combined to maintain a continuous learning mentality. 

Reference

Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.

Ertmer, P., & Newby, T. (2008). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly. 6, 50-72.